With his press conference, Shephard wins over the alums. All he has to do now is win games

First impressions of new Oregon State coach JaMarcus Shephard from football alums were overwhelmingly positive (courtesy Karl Maasdam/Oregon State)

I have spoken with a dozen or so former Oregon State players since the Tuesday press conference introducing JaMarcus Shephard as the Beavers’ new head football coach. To a man, there is enthusiasm for the choice. The adjectives describing him are numerous, but nearly everyone uses “energetic.”

“I am extremely excited for him,” says Brandin Cooks, the veteran receiver now with the Buffalo Bills and a member of the search committee that reviewed coaching candidates with athletic director Scott Barnes. “He is going to be amazing. His spirit and energy are contagious. He is just what Oregon State needs transitioning to the new Pac-12.”

“I am not saying our (previous) coaches weren’t energetic, but you can tell he has a blue-collar mindset, but also brings great energy,” says James Rodgers, the great receiver/return specialist for the Beavers who played the same positions as did Shephard during his career at Division III DePauw. “Seems like he will make sure the guys are working hard.”

James Rodgers says Shephard “has a blue-collar mindset, but also brings great energy” (courtesy OSU sports communications)

“I am really excited,” says Ken Simonton, Oregon State’s career rushing leader. “His passion comes through, as well as his integrity. He is not talking a bunch of fluff. He is going to be coaching with a purpose. That comes through. His energy, his desire to mentor young men, that resonated with me. We can only hope his demeanor is that way 24/7, because we need that right now.”

Shephard, 42, has coached at the college level for 15 years, including stints at Washington, Washington State and Purdue. He was assistant head coach, passing game coordinator and receivers coach for the Huskies team that reached the 2023 CFP Championship Game.

“He is familiar with this side of town, so to speak, having coached at Washington and Washington State,” Rodgers says. “That is only going to help him.”

For the past two seasons, Shephard has coached receivers and served as assistant head coach and co-offensive coordinator at Alabama.

“He has some high-level football on his resume,” says Cooks, who makes his offseason home in Lake Oswego. “He is not only going to be a great coach, but a leader of men. We definitely need that in this day and age with everything going on.”

“I have had a chance to speak with JaMarcus and I have been very impressed,” says Steven Jackson, a three-time Pro Bowl selection during his stellar 12-year career as an NFL running back. “Looking at his resume, he has been around some good programs. As a running back, you hope he doesn’t lean too much into his receivers,” Jackson adds with a laugh. “But I am impressed with what I heard from the search committee and Scott Barnes. He brings determination and some of that ‘oomph’ we have been missing recently.”

Steven Jackson says he senses that Shephard “brings some of that ‘oomph’ that we have been missing” (courtesy Steven Jackson)

During his Tuesday talk with the media and assorted athletic department personnel, Shephard made special effort to throw out the welcome mat to former players.

“All the alumni, get your butts back here,” he said with a smile. “I want you on the sidelines, engaging with our players, sitting in on meetings, sitting in my office talking about your experience here and how we can mirror that, or how we can enhance that experience, for our current student-athletes.”

That sentiment was embraced by many of the ex-Beavers.

“A lot of the alums are excited to hear about his invitation for us to return,” Simonton says.

“Every former player is going to love the part about wanting alumni to be involved,” says Tim Euhus, an ex-Beaver tight end who went on to play four NFL seasons. “That is going to be very welcome.”

“I loved it,” says Dan Rothwell, who played defensive end on the 2001 Fiesta Bowl championship team and started as a senior in 2003. “I am not trying to pooh-pooh what other coaches have done, but Jonathan (Smith) was the first guy who came in and was trying to build some of that back. Mike Riley, love the guy, but he didn’t do a lot of alumni outreach. Gary Andersen was the complete opposite. He didn’t want anybody to be there. Jonathan was never publicly like Mr. Shephard appears to be, so that is like music to my ears.”

Getting former players more involved in the program “is something I have been working on over the years through my involvement with the OSU Foundation and Scott and the athletic program,” says Jackson, who lives in Las Vegas and runs his own foundation. “I have been beating that drum for awhile. It is important that we bring back our special culture to campus and around the program. Unfortunately, guys haven’t felt the need to come back in recent years. We need a big reset going into the new Pac-12.”

The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.

“I don’t want to say that is No. 1 on the priority list, but having guys back and seeing how much energy that brings to the former players, it is important,” says Rodgers, now between coaching jobs and dividing his time between homes in Portland and Houston. “It also energizes the players here now. You can say Brandin Cooks or Jacquizz (Rodgers) or Steven Jackson or TJ Houshmandzadeh are Oregon State alums, but if you don’t have those guys around, does that make an impact for the guys we have on campus? Being able to get them back to visit with players and share some stories would be an asset to the program.”

There are 16 players from around the Fiesta Bowl era on a text chain, including Simonton, Houshmandzadeh and Richard Seigler. They heard Shephard’s comments about bringing alumni back, “and we weren’t sure how serious the coach was gonna be about that,” says Seigler, an All-Pac-10 linebacker at OSU who played two NFL seasons. “Coaches usually say they want the guys to come back. Sometimes they don’t act on what they say. But it sounds like (Shephard) is good to his word. He is bringing in Inoke Breckterfield, a premier D-line coach in college football.”

Breckterfield, 48, was Pac-10 Defensive Lineman of the Year for the Beavers in 1998. After playing five seasons in the CFL, he coached for three years as a volunteer/grad assistant at his alma mater under Riley. Breckterfield has since coached at eight schools, including UCLA, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Washington — on the same staff as Shephard in 2023 — and at Baylor the past two seasons.

“Inoke has coached in some good programs through his career,” says Steve Preece, the quarterback of OSU’s “Giant-Killers” who played nine NFL seasons as a defensive back. “He has commanded a great deal of respect both as a player and as an assistant.”

The oldest of Jackson’s four children, Skyler, is a running back who redshirted during his first season of college ball this past season at OSU.

“He loves it up there,” his father says. “Every kid wants to play right away, but I shared with him that (a redshirt season) isn’t a bad thing for one reason — he can develop and become a really good player after understanding the X’s and O’s a little better. (Senior Anthony) Hankerson deserved to have a year that he could put a campaign together to give him a shot at the next level. I told Sky, ‘Sit back, watch the older guy do his thing, see how he prepares himself from day to day and add that to your repertoire.’ Toward the end of the year, he started to see the bigger picture.”

The senior Jackson acknowledged that “football at this level is big business, but he is going to stay at Oregon State. That’s our plan. We haven’t deviated. He has enjoyed being on campus, he is doing well in school, he has made some friends. As of right now, we are preparing for spring ball.”

Greg Krpalek, an Oregon State All-Pac-8 center in 1974, points out that Shephard’s outreach is not limited to former players

“He has reached out to the boosters and all of Beaver Nation,” says Krpalek, a financial advisor in Albany.

“He wants to get everybody back on board. A lot of people will support him in that. He has quite a challenge ahead of him, but with the right staff, he could turn this thing around.”

Krpalek likes that Shephard comes from modest beginnings as a youth growing up in Fort Wayne, Ind.

“Since he was a little one, he has worked for everything he has gotten,” Krpalek says. “He had a rough time growing up, but he made the most of it. It seems like he has a tremendous work ethic. I have always believed if you work hard, you create your own luck.”

The other captain on OSU’s ’74 team, defensive end Jerry Hackenbruck, says he had some misgivings at first about Shephard’s hiring.

“Oregon State has had some misfires in the past in hiring an assistant from a big program,” says Hackenbruck, who coached high school football in the state for 30 years. “My first thought was, ‘I hope this isn’t another Craig Fertig or Joe Avezzano.’

“I don’t think Shephard is going to be sticking around for a long time if he does well. He has the good background, and a higher-paying job will come along. That doesn’t bother me. They need somebody to right the ship right now. He has to bring some talent in there. They are weak at some positions and it showed up as the season went along.”

Rothwell comes to the same conclusion.

“I wasn’t sure at first,” he says. “Oregon State has had this mindset like, ‘We can’t take a big swing. We have to play the safe bet, to hire a guy who will stay around forever.’ That’s not my mindset. If we get a guy who will be here for two to four years and upgrades the program and does a whole bunch of good stuff, you give him a handshake and a hug and away he goes.

“It seems like that’s what we got. Maybe not. Maybe he stays here for 20 years. From what I have seen so far,    the first few days of recruiting, from what he is trying to do, the energy and the mindset? I am loving it.”

Jaydon Grant, who played in the Oregon State program for seven seasons from 2016-22 (benefitting from Covid and medical redshirt seasons), remembers Shephard as receivers coach at Purdue when the Boilermakers beat the Beavers 30-21 in the 2021 season opener. Grant points out that Shephard coached several high draft picks at Purdue and Washington. At Purdue, he had Rondale Moore (second round in ’21) and David Bell (third round in ’22). Shephard had three UW receivers chosen high in the ’24 draft — Rome Odunze (first), Ja’Lynn Polk (second) Jalen McMillan (third).

Jaydon Grant points to Shephard’s success coaching wide receivers at both Purdue and Washington (courtesy OSU sports communications)

“I have heard nothing but great things about (Shephard),” says Grant, who started every game in the secondary and played the most snaps on defense for the CFL Calgary Stampeders this past season. “During his (introductory press conference), he seemed like a great dude.

“He seems personable, a guy who truly cares about the guys he coaches and their development. You can see the impact he made on signing day, keeping some recruits who had decommitted. I hope to get down to Corvallis and get to know him.”

Shephard is the first black head coach in the history of the Oregon State football program.

“I have nothing but positive feelings about that,” says Rothwell, who is white, lives in Corvallis and teaches in the Albany School District. “If you are in L.A. or Las Vegas and trying to recruit kids to a town with not much minority presence, that can’t hurt.”

Hiring a black coach “is a very novel concept,” says Simonton, who is black, lives in Pittsburg, Calif., works as a senior investigator with the federal government and has his hand in several businesses as well as coaching youth track and field. “I thought, OK, ‘They hired a brother.’ But after hearing him speak, well, none of us gave a damn that he is black. It was like, ‘I like that dude.’ I like everything he is talking about. I like him raising young men and doing it with integrity. The message was more impactful than just seeing a black man getting hired to coach our football team. As alums, we are all focused on the excitement and integrity of that man and what we can do to support making his goal a reality.”

“Bringing in a minority coach is a pretty big step for Oregon State,” says Seigler, who is black, lives in Vancouver and operates an out-patient counseling program in the Portland area and in Pendleton. “I think it is great. I am optimistic that he will bring the kind of energy we need.

“But I am biased. I don’t think Oregon State is a difficult place to recruit good talent. U of O (Eugene) is in a bigger town, but it’s also a little wackier. Corvallis a great place for any young man to play football and get an education. I am excited to get down there, get into some golf tournaments and hang out with the new coaches.”

Cooks hopes to be one of those coaches someday.

“The next thing for me once I am done playing is getting into coaching,” he says. “No better place to start than my alma mater.

“I really think (Shephard) will be a great recruiter. Everything he talks about is genuine; how he approaches you is real. When kids and their families sense that, they will know Oregon State is the place for them to go.”

Preece studied the nuances of Shephard’s talk Tuesday and offers some observations:

“I like his philosophy on how to build a team with a high percentage of players living within five hours of the university. Mentioning the reserves he has coached before his stars — or at least in the same breath — was really cool. When you watch (video of) him on the sidelines during a game, he is the first coach greeting a player coming off the field after a big play. I love his spirit. I love the way he feels about his family and the people who mean the most to him. That is what Oregon State has always been built on — people who want to be with each other. That is a little different than just paying players. I listened to him talk and thought, ‘Wow, I am impressed with this guy. He is the kind of coach who could help us right now.’ ”

All of this optimism sounds good before Shephard has coached even one game for Oregon State.

“He has to win,” Krpalek says. “That’s just the way it is.”

Euhus recalls his redshirt freshman year at Oregon State in 2000, “our Fiesta Bowl year,” he says.

“Every week, they gave us a T-shirt with a different saying on it,” says Euhus, a financial planner in Corvallis. “(Wife) Michelle made a quilt out of them for me. One of them that we joked about sounds Ken Simonton-ish. It said, ‘Don’t talk about it; be about it.’

“That’s what I heard in the things JaMarcus said on Tuesday, and I loved hearing it. What came to my mind was, ‘OK, now we have to be about it.’ I don’t see why he can’t. He is a very motivating individual for the guys he coaches. He has coached a lot of good players. He can definitely teach ball, and that to me is top priority. I hope he gets the resources he needs to be successful, gets the things he asks for.

“He certainly talks a good game. I am excited to see where it goes.”

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