It may be a rarity to lose an assistant coach in April and in the middle of spring practice, no less, but that is a predicament that ASU finds itself in today. Arizona State’s wide receiver coach Ra'Shaad Samples has accepted a running backs coach role at Oregon as well as an assistant head coach with the Ducks.

ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham, who became the youngest power conference head coach last year at age 33, ironically just a couple of years younger than Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, said this past season that he predicted that Samples, 29, would be the youngest head coach in college football in the near future.

Dillingham was also extremely gracious on Sunday afternoon, wishing Samples well in his future endeavors.

“When you think of Coach Samples,” Dillingham said in a previous interview, “this is a guy who’s been an assistant head coach in college football from the time he was 26. 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 ready for it. He could go run a program today. I don’t know if somebody is going to hire somebody that young – they think I’m young – but if somebody did, they could hire him today, and he’d go run a football program.”

“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.”

Samples was also the youngest running backs coach in the NFL, as he assumed that role with the Los Angeles Rams a year before arriving in Tempe. He arrived in Los Angeles after three years at SMU, where he started as an offensive graduate assistant in 2019 and, a year later, was promoted to running backs coach and recruiting coordinator, and in 2021 added the assistant head coach title. During his tenure with the Mustangs, he worked with former Rams running back Xavier Jones, who led the FBS in rushing touchdowns (23) and was a Doak Walker semifinalist and all-conference selection in 2020.

Samples was a four-star wide receiver and a Rivals250 prospect in the 2013 class, who was offered by ASU, among others, but did sign with Oklahoma State before ending his career at the University of Houston. Samples, who medically retired while at Houston, became a student assistant with his alma mater and, in 2018, was a graduate assistant job working with wide receivers at the University of Texas. This is where he met his now-fellow ASU assistant coach Bryan Carrington.”

Samples, who did coach in ASU's spring session yesterday, leaves a strong stable of wideouts in Tempe, headed by senior and All-Pac 12 Honorable Mention selection Elijaha Badger, as well as fellow seniors Xavier Guillory, Melquan Stovall, and Jake Smith, along with junior Troy Omeire and sophomore Jordyn Tyson.

Samples added one wide receiver in the 2024 class, Zechariah Sample, who is set to arrive at ASU in the summer. Samples was involved in the recruitment process of several Texas players on the ASU roster, such as Samples, and was the primary recruiter of another Texas player, redshirt freshman wide recover Kaleb Black. His formidable recruiting connections to the Lone Star State may be hard to replace as the Sun Devils begin their first season in the Big 12 conference in the fall of this year.‌

Oregon lost its running backs coach, Carlos Locklyn, who last week left the team to assume the same role at Ohio State. Dillingham coached at Oregon for a year during the 2022 season and left there in November of that year for his alma mater to be the head coach there.

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