How the Husky Cornerback Coach Was Named 'Juice'

Julius Brown previously played and coach at Boise State.

In getting the University of Washington football program moving forward again, they had to give it some juice.

As in Julius "Juice" Brown, who was hired as the new cornerbacks coach.

He's the guy who always wears his cap backward in Husky Stadium. He's the Kalen DeBoer assistant responsible for maintaining some semblance of a past decade of defensive-back greatness, or DBU. He's the only one of the UW coaches with a nickname that isn't a derivative of his name, an original per se.

Brown says he only answers to Juice, though might we suggest that he consider customizing his moniker to match his surroundings.

Grape Juice, anyone?

On second thought, a simple Juice works just fine in Montlake.

"My high school coach gave it to me," said Brown, who played cornerback for the Lincoln High Trojans in Stockton, California. "He must have thought I was pretty good with the ball in my hands. That just stuck."

From Lincoln, Brown went to Boise State where he became a three-year starter and an All-Mountain West selection as a senior in 2003.

He began his long-winding collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2006 for then-Broncos offensive coordinator Chris Petersen.

From there, Brown made stops at Troy and Arkansas State before returning to Boise State as part of Bryan Harsin's staff after they coached together at the Jonesboro, Arkansas, school. 

Brown was the Broncos secondary coach for two years before Harsin, brought to Boise to replace Petersen after he left for Washington, inexplicably let him go following the 2015 season. 

As Juice found out, that stain easily came out.

He was out of work for all of 37 days when Utah State summoned him to join its coaching staff.. 

DeBoer caught up with him at Texas Tech and coaxed him to join the Fresno State staff in 2020 and then brought him north to the UW, a place the corner coach has fully embraced.

"We have a standard and we're not going to deviate from it," Brown said. "That's why you come to Washington — is you want to be the best in the country."

In other words, he'll tell you to come to Seattle and give your career a boost with Juice.

 

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