JaMarcus Shephard Reportedly Hired As Oregon St. HC, What to Know About Beavers' Hire

After spending 15 years as an assistant coach at the college level, Alabama co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard is getting his first chance to be a head coach.

Per ESPN's Pete Thamel, Shephard has agreed to a five-year deal that will make him the next head coach at Oregon State.

Shephard is in his second season at Alabama working with head coach Kalen DeBoer. In addition to his responsibilities as co-offensive coordinator, he also has the titles of assistant head coach and wide receivers coach.

The 42-year-old Shephard has been a top lieutenant with DeBoer dating back to the 2022 season at Washington. He spent two seasons with the Huskies as associate head coach, passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.

During that two-year period, Washington went 25-3 and averaged 37.7 points per game. Four skill-position players from the 2023 team were selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, including first-rounders Michael Penix Jr. and Rome Odunze.

Shephard has been coaching at the college level since 2011 at Western Kentucky. He spent five years with the program, then had stints at Washington State in 2016 and Purdue from 2017 to '21.

Oregon State will hope that Shephard can turn around a football program that is in the midst of its worst season since 2018. The Beavers are 2-9 entering Saturday's season finale against Washington State.

Trent Bray, who signed a five-year contract when he was originally hired by Oregon State in November 2023, was fired on Oct. 12 after an 0-7 start to the season. He went 5-14 overall in two seasons.

Interim head coach Robb Akey has led the Beavers to a 2-2 record in his four games.