Commentary: Ex-UW, WSU assistant JaMarcus Shephard in for fight at Oregon State

JaMarcus Shephard is accustomed to leading the little guy.

The former Washington and Washington State assistant was once an All-American wide receiver at Division III DePauw (Indiana) University. The 6-foot, 200-pounder from Fort Wayne, Indiana, captained the football and track and field teams, before graduating with a degree in sports medicine in 2005.

After rising through the coaching ranks, Shephard – then the co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at nearby Purdue – returned to address the DePauw Tigers before their rivalry game against Wabash in 2019.

“We went into the locker room, and he just went off,” former DePauw coach Bill Lynch told The Times in 2022. “It doesn’t take a lot in a game like that, but (the players) were tired of me saying the same old stuff. They knew he was a legacy and a guy that was a great player, coaching at Purdue, all that stuff.

“It was funny, I just went to the back of the room and smiled. Right there I could see, ‘Man, he’s going to be a great head coach someday.’ ”

Oregon State is betting that’s today.

On Tuesday Shephard was introduced as the Beavers’ 33rd football coach after spending two seasons as Kalen DeBoer’s assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Alabama. He followed DeBoer from UW, where Shephard developed a trio of standout receivers (Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan and Ja’Lynn Polk) and injected energy into a Pac-12 champion and national title participant. The 42-year-old also served as WSU’s wide receivers coach in 2016.

So Shephard is accustomed to both the Pac-12 Conference and the Beavers.

At least, the way they were.

“What always intrigued me about this place? It was scary,” Shephard said Tuesday, donning a checkered black and orange tie. “I remember coming in here in 2016 with WSU, and we were getting our tails kicked, and the fans were rocking. I had never been here before. I said, ‘That’s a great environment.’ I didn’t know this existed.

“Then all of a sudden we’re on a path to a national championship (at UW in 2023), and we have to go to Oregon State. We knew back at the beginning of the season, that was going to be a problem. We knew right away. We circled that one. We were going to have to build our schedule so we’re tough and still physically capable of withstanding the toughness that was going to be on display here at Oregon State when we came into Reser Stadium.”

In the seasons since, a previously tough team has fallen on tough times. Coach Jonathan Smith bolted for Michigan State in 2023 and took starting quarterback Aidan Chiles with him. When the Pac-12 was pillaged by its Power Five peers, OSU and WSU were marooned on an abandoned island. Smith’s successor, Trent Bray, was fired after an 0-7 start in his second season. The Beavers finished 2-10 in 2025 and dissolved their NIL partnership with marketing agency Blueprint Sports after the terms of their deal came into question.

The situation in Corvallis, Oregon, could still be considered scary, but for different reasons.

In fact, Shephard may have inherited one of college football’s most murky futures.

When asked Tuesday what he hopes his team took away from his introductory address, Shephard said: “I hope they received (the message) that it’s about to be hard. It’s going to be very, very hard. I want to create adversity for them. I think the best things in your life have come from those adverse moments and learning how to deal with adversity.”

I don’t think Shephard will have to create any additional adversity.

After all, Oregon State, had just six verbal commits set to sign Wednesday when the early signing period began, a class ranked 133rd nationally by 247Sports. That’s behind the likes of Eastern Washington, Harvard, Kennesaw State, Delaware and Louisiana-Monroe.

And though OSU has the resources to consistently contend in a new-look, patchwork Pac-12, there’s no guarantee the College Football Playoff will continue to include a Group of Five champion.

Playoff access is an issue. The name, image and likeness rule is an issue. Transfer portal poaching is an issue.

The issues appear to be multiplying by the minute.

So in the current era of college football, is Oregon State the little guy? Do the Beavers have to be?

Shephard – the most eternally encouraging coach I’ve encountered – doesn’t see it that way.

“With the toughness of this entire state, the toughness of this entire community here at Oregon State, but also the resilience as we’ve gone through these iterations of conference changes and this new Pac-12, I felt like Oregon State just came out on top,” he said. “I felt like it was in a perfect place to continue forward in this new Pac-12.”

Shephard, ever the optimist, may be the perfect fit.

The Beavers are in for a fight.

They found a fighter.

“I’m going to outwork ‘em every single day,” Shephard said Tuesday. “I’m going to put the time in, OK? (Glenn Sugiyama, who led the search firm at DHR Global) called me and asked me, ‘Shephard, are you going to work hard?’ It almost made me mad. I wanted to fight him through the phone.

“You’ve got a fighter on your hands. I fought for everything I have, and I’ll continue to fight for the young men in this program. I’ll continue to fight for Oregon State University.”