Tag: J.D. Coffey

Longhorns cornerbacks coach Jay Valai is proving his worth

The Longhorns new cornerbacks coach Jay Valai is proving his worth on the recruiting trail. He has been huge in getting three players.

Before Jay Valai was hitting the recruiting trail for the Texas Longhorns and before he was training professional athletes, he was playing for Chris Ash in Wisconsin. Ash was his defensive backs coach in the final year of his collegiate career in 2010.

As a player, Valai was a four-year letter winner for the Wisconsin Badgers. During his career he accounted for 153 total tackles, four forced fumbles and two interceptions in the 48 games he played for Wisconsin. Valai was twice named second-team All-Big Ten for his efforts. Following his stint training athletes in his performance center, he would join the Georgia Bulldogs as their defensive quality control coach. That team made it to the College Football Playoffs Championship game.

He would leave to the NFL working for the Kansas City Chiefs as an assistant defensive backs coach and quality control. He would join Ash at Rutgers before coming to Texas as the cornerbacks coach. He has been instrumental for the Longhorns without them playing a game. It is hard to not love the energy and passion from Valai.

Valai has been credited with the recruitments of recent commits Jamier Johnson, J.D. Coffey and Ishmael Ibraheem. All three are four-star prospects for the 2021 class. For the 2022 class, he is hot on the trail for another California product Domani Jackson. The three commits that Valai has been getting to come to the Longhorns did so without a single visit.

Due to the NCAA’s dead period, coaches and players are prohibited from face to face visits. Given that all of their contact is done through video messaging, phone calls or texts messages Valai is proving his worth already. Even before coaching a single game, it appears as if Ash was right to bring in one of his former players to help mold this defense into his vision.