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CHICAGO — Nebraska nearly lost another defensive assistant in the offseason: linebackers coach Trent Bray.

Bray was offered the defensive coordinator job at San Jose State, which hired Brent Brennan, Mike Riley’s former wide receivers coach at Oregon State, as the head man. Brennan successfully wooed NU’s former director of player personnel, Ryan Gunderson, to SJSU to coach quarterbacks.

Brennan wanted Bray, too. Bray decided to stick with Nebraska, Riley said, after a conversation with his boss.

“Trent’s a football nut, so the idea of coordinating is very appealing to him,” Riley said. “But my biggest thought to him was to stay here and learn from Coach (Bob) Diaco. It would be really good for him to learn more defense.”

Bray played at Oregon State as a linebacker for Mark Banker. He coached at Arizona State, Oregon State and Nebraska, teaching some version of the same defense each time.

Diaco runs multiple defenses, including the 3-4 scheme.