Brian Smith begins his second season on the Cougar coaching staff as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach, and was promoted to Associate Head Coach following the 2020 season.
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In his first season in Pullman, the run-n-shoot offense saw five Cougars earn All-Pac-12 Conference honors while producing the Pac-12’s top red zone offense and third-best passing attack. Smith guided the offense that saw All-Pac-12 receivers Renard Bell and Travell Harris finish among the league leaders in catches and in the top three for receiving yards-per-game while running back Deon McIntosh was seventh in the league in rushing yards-per-game.
Smith worked the previous four seasons in the same role for head coach Nick Rolovich at Hawai’i, helping UH to back-to-back winning seasons including a 10-5 mark and Hawaii Bowl win over BYU in 2019. Smith, a former Hawaii offensive lineman (1998-2001), also had a prior four-year stint at Hawaii from 2008-11. Smith owns 15 years of coaching experience and has coached 20 NFL players and six All-Americans.
Smith guided a Hawai’i offense that improved in total offense and passing offense in each of his four seasons, produced the country’s ninth-rated passing offense in 2018, the fifth-best passing attack in 2019 and averaged over 30 points-per-game in each of the past two seasons. The Thousand Oaks, Calif. native saw the Hawai’i offense earn 12 All-Mountain West selections in his four seasons highlighted by 2018 Biletnikoff Award Semifinalist and Polynesian Football Hall of Fame College Player of the Year Finalist wideout John Ursua who was later selected in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks.
With Smith at the helm of the run-and-shoot the past four seasons, Hawai’i saw a pair of 1,000-yard rushers and five receivers post 1,000-yard seasons including three in 2019, just the sixth team in NCAA FBS history to have a trio of 1,000-yard receivers in the same season.
Last season, Smith mentored two-time All-Mountain West Conference quarterback Cole McDonald who finished 2019 third in the country in passing yards (4,135), seventh in passing yards-per-game (295.4), eighth nationally in touchdown passes (33) and was second on the team with seven rushing touchdowns.
In 2018, Smith saw the Hawai’i offense finish ninth in the country in passing offense, McDonald passed for the sixth-most touchdowns (36) and eighth-most yards (3,875) nationally while wide receiver John Ursua led the country with 16 touchdown catches and was fifth in receiving yards (1,343).
In his first two seasons as offensive coordinator, Smith helped UH produce a dynamic rushing attack as well, averaging 163.8 rushing yards-per-game in 2016 and 168.2 rushing yards-per-game in 2017, Hawai’i’s highest averages since 1995. Smith also mentored running back Diocemy Saint Juste who recorded the first back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons on the ground in program history capped by a school-record 1,510 yard-campaign in 2017, breaking 18 school records along the way.
In the 2016, UH featured a 1,000-yard rusher (Diocemy Saint Juste, 1,006) and 1,000-yard receiver (Marcus Kemp, 1,100) in the same season (2016) for just the second time in program history.
Prior to Hawaii, Smith spent three seasons (2013-15) as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif., where the team averaged 33.8 points and 480.6 yards of total offense per game in 2015 and featured Conference Player of the Year running back Kwame Do, who ran for a single-season record 1,571 yards (174.6 avg.) and 13 touchdowns.
Prior to Occidental, Smith was the offensive line coach at California Lutheran in 2012, his second stint at the school where he began his collegiate coaching career. Smith helped the Kingsmen to a league championship and second-best scoring offense in NCAA Division III. First full-time coaching job was at Cal Lutheran in 2005, coaching the running backs and receivers.
In his first stint at Hawaii, Smith coached the offensive line in 2008 and running backs from 2009-11 where he saw running back Alex Green break a 60-year-old single-game rushing record by scampering for 327 yards against New Mexico State in 2010 and finished the season with 1,199 yards, then the second-highest total in school history.
Smith started his coaching career as a student assistant at Hawaii under former head coach June Jones in 2004 and later became a graduate assistant at Oregon State in 2006 and coached the offensive line at Portland State in 2007.
Smith played on the offensive line at Hawaii (1998-2001) where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 2005 and received his master’s degree from Cal Lutheran in 2013.
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