Darcel McBath promoted to assistant coach role

Starting this month, college football teams were allowed to hire a tenth assistant coach and it looks like Washington State has wasted little time. Just one day after announcing the hiring of Tracy Claeys as the team’s new defensive coordinator, the school announced they’d elevated Darcel McBath to an assistant position from his role as a defensive quality control assistant.

In a news release today, the school said McBath’s specific duties have yet to be defined but he will work with the secondary.

“Darcel is a great coach who played a big role in our defensive success last season,” said head coach Mike Leach in the news release. “He has several years of NFL experience to draw from and will be a strong recruiter. Darcel is very technical in his teaching, and relates well to our players.”

McBath played for Leach at Texas Tech and then spent four years playing in the NFL. He spent a year working for the North Texas Mean Green before coming to Pullman in 2017 and working with former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and the secondary.

WSU still has one more defensive coaching hire to make following the departure of outside linebackers coach Roy Manning for UCLA.