Oregon's new running backs coach is 29, confident and 'will be the youngest head coach in college football someday'

Carlos Locklyn is out. In is Ra'Shaad Samples, a 29-year-old who learned he could do this a long, long time ago.

Ra’Shaad Samples wondered if he still wanted to be in football. 

Sitting in the coach’s box during a game in 2017, Houston’s graduate assistant wasn’t exactly enthralled with his standing. Injuries and concussions had derailed his playing career, and while he grew up as the son of a Dallas-area high school coaching legend, Samples thought his future might be in business. It’s not like he had much sway with the team — or at least that’s what Samples thought until then-Houston OC Brian Johnson asked for some input before one series.

“I remember him looking over at me and asking, ‘What do you think we should go here?” Samples recalled in a 2019 podcast. “And I’m looking at him, like, ‘It’s a live game and you’re actually asking what play to run? Like, this ain’t practice bro. You really want me to answer this?’”

Samples suggested a play. The Cougars moved the football and a few plays later found the end zone.

“I remember him reaching over and dapping me up,” Samples said. “That just inspired so much confidence in me that I really needed at the time being a young coach. I was still questioning if I really wanted to do this. Was this really me? I was still trying to get an accounting degree and I didn’t know if it was what I wanted to do. That moment gave me a whole bunch of confidence.”

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To be clear, Samples is still awfully young. He’s 29, has coached in the NFL, Big 12, Pac-12 and will now be taking his talents to the Big Ten as a member of the Oregon Ducks. Samples will replace departing running backs coach Carlos Locklyn, who jumped in the transfer portal last week and hightailed his way out to Columbus. Samples comes to Eugene directly from Tempe, where he’s spent the last year working as the wide receivers coach for someone who knows a whole lot about young potential.

“When you think of Coach Samples, this is a guy who’s been an assistant head coach in college football from the time he was 26,” said ASU’s Kenny Dillingham, who at 33 is the youngest head coach in the Power 5. “He’s been a position coach — the youngest position coach in the NFL. This guy will be the youngest head coach in college football someday. It will happen. There is no doubt in my mind he’s going to be.

“He’s a young dude, but he has a presence. He has leadership. He’s not a young dude where everyday kids walk over him. He’s a guy who has kids in the meeting rooms with him early; he’s a guy who is hard on guys; he’s a guy who has a standard. You know, everybody thinks young, and they think, ‘Oh, well, that means there’s no standard, there’s no discipline. You’re just one of the new era people.’ His dad is one of the best coaches in high school football and is old-school.’”

Reginald Samples is 69, has won more than 300 football games and two years ago finally won a Texas 6A state championship at Duncanville for the first time in his 34-year coaching career. He’s a tough coach who held nobody to a higher standard than his son when he coached Ra’Shaad for four seasons at Skyline Dallas.

For example: If Ra’Shaad’s friends ever noticed he wasn’t texting them back, it’s likely because he dropped a pass in practice and had his phone taken away.

“It was terrible, I’m not going to lie. The man I am now says it was worth it, but in those moments it was terrible,” Samples said. “He did not flip the switch when we got home. I was still hearing about practice. I was getting the extended version.” 

Samples gets it now. He also appreciates that when he left for school his dad let his new coaches do the coaching. And while his playing career didn’t end up how he wanted it to, his playing route from Oklahoma State to Houston eventually led him to Darrell Wyatt, who saw a player who had an uncanny ability to get through to his teammates despite being limited on the field.

“When we found out that Ra'Shaad was not going to be able to continue his career at Houston, the thing that was absolutely obvious to me, again was the way the players trusted him," the then-Houston WR coach told 247Sports. "If there was ever a message that I needed to get to the players, I would always get that message to the players or to my position through Ra'Shaad. And just about 100 percent of the time, his delivery was exactly what I was looking for and I ended up getting the results I was looking for."

Locklyn’s departure might have been a jarring one for an Oregon program that saw the coach bring in talented running backs such as Bucky Irving, Noah Whittington and Jordan James, but Samples’ reputation as a stellar recruiter will fit right in on a talent-acquisition-happy Oregon staff. Last week, Oregon coach Dan Lanning said he saw the vacancy as an opportunity for his team to get better.

"I mean, it's football. It's the reality," Lanning said. "Carlos did an unbelievable job for us. My goal is when we bring people here, we help advance them to the opportunities that make sense for them. I know how great Oregon is ... Key for us is who do we replace him with? And this is a great opportunity. Transitions give you an opportunity to get better."

Lanning found a running backs coach — and assistant head coach — in Samples. And while Samples found confidence in his job back in 2017, it was in 2018 that he really began to think he could be that guy. Then with the Texas staff, the Longhorns were facing an important third down against Oklahoma when one of Texas’ receivers told him he couldn’t shake a DB playing trail coverage.

“I remember talking him through it,” Samples said. “…And in my head I pictured him doing it. I’m seeing it as I’m telling him how it’s going to happen. Then we broke the huddle and he ran it exactly as I described it.

“I remember thinking, ‘I can do this. I can help these boys.’”

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor

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