TCU Stocks Up on Former UW Players and Coaches, Hires Tre Watson

He joins Juice Brown on the Horned Frogs coaching staff to coach DBs.
Former UW defensive back Tre Watson has moved from California to TCU as a secondary coach.
Former UW defensive back Tre Watson has moved from California to TCU as a secondary coach. / Watson

Tre Watson, former University of Washington defensive back during the Sarkisian era, joined the TCU staff as safeties and nickelbacks coach on Monday, adding to the increasing Husky influence on this Texas team.

He comes to the Horned Frogs after they recently promoted Julius "Juice" Brown, former UW cornerbacks coach on the DeBoer staff, from defensive analyst to a full-time job supervising the corners, who now include ex-Husky starter Elijah Jackson ready to spend a sixth and final college football season in Fort Worth.

All of this has happened since Cooper McDonald, former UW edge rusher, used up his final year of eligibility this past season at TCU, with a stop at San Diego State in between.

Watson joins Sonny Dykes' team in the same manner the head coach came to TCU -- from California. Dykes, however, was fired in 2016 by the Bears and hired by TCU on the rebound, while Watson spent four years with Justin Wilcox's staff, building a reputation that brought him to Texas.

From Kennedy Catholic High School in the greater Seattle area, Watson played a season each at West Hllls Community College (California) and at Central Washington before coming to the UW as a walk-on. After redshirting, he earned a scholarship and played different secondary roles for the Huskies in 2012-2013.

He teamed on defense with standout players such as fellow corner Marcus Peters, defensive tackle Danny Shelton, edge rusher Hau'oli Kikaha and lineback Shaq Thompson, all NFL bound.

Watson started six games over two seasons in Montlake, with his biggest Husky moment coming when he took an 84-yard interception return for a touchdown in a 59-7 victory over Colorado during his senior year.

He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Oregon in 2018-19, received his first full-time coaching job at UNLV in 2020 and joined Cal the following season.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington


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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.