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Oregon football's Ra'Shaad Samples details decision to return to Eugene for 2025 season
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- Oregon football's Ra'Shaad Samples details decision to return to Eugene for 2025 season
One thing that Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning has had to deal with throughout his time in Eugene is having his top assistants hired out from under him. Whether it's Kenny Dillingham, Matt Powledge, or Adrian Klemm, every spring since Lanning took over at Oregon, there has been a hiring cycle for at least one new position coach.
It's a good problem when other teams want to pay your assistants to move up the ranks and climb the ladder, but it's still a problem that has to be dealt with. For Lanning, the most significant departure this spring was wide receivers coach Junior Adams, who left to take over as the WR coach for the Dallas Cowboys . It's a significant loss, as Adams was regarded as one of the best WR coaches at the college level.
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There was a time when it seemed that wouldn't be Lanning's only offseason loss.
Around the same time Adams left for Dallas, the Ducks ' young running backs coach, Ra'Shaad Samples, was being courted by "America's Team" to take over in the same position with the Cowboys. Samples—a Dallas native—interviewed for the job, went through the process, and made a decision.
The 30-year-old coaching star chose to return to Eugene for another year.
"It's always awesome to be wanted and to be looked at in high regard," Samples said when asked about the process on Tuesday. "Dallas is my hometown, right? So that's why it was a consideration. So it was awesome, man, going through the process, interviewing, getting to talk ball with those guys. But at the end of the day, my heart was at Oregon."
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Samples hasn't been in Oregon long. He took over for Carlos Locklyn in the spring of 2024 after a quick stint with the Arizona State Sun Devils , which was precluded by a year as the youngest position coach in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams . It didn't take long for Ra'Shaad to make himself at home in Eugene, though, and develop the bonds that would keep him here despite NFL teams trying to pull him away.
"I love being here, I love coaching my guys," Samples continued. "I feel like this is the right place for my career right now. Obviously, I have some goals and aspirations. I want to be a head coach sometime in the future and I think you know, the ability to learn from Dan, how Dan has taken me under his wing, and just getting more and more comfortable with him, learning what he wants, learning how he thinks, learning how he sees things."
Some years ago, when he took over at Oregon, Lanning was named the youngest head coach in college football at age 35. A year later, his good friend and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham assumed that role, being named the head coach of the Sun Devils at age 32.
It would be a surprise to very few people if Samples eventually took on that title and became the new youngest head coach in the nation. Before he gets there, though, he knows that he needs to grow and learn. He's chosen to do so by setting up camp under Lanning's wing and trying to soak in as much information as he can on what it means to be a head coach at the college football level.
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From the sounds of it, Lanning is doing all he can to bestow his knowledge and build his coaching tree.
"Some of the opportunities he gave me during playoff prep, to you know, kind of just be around him and see his day-to-day is just an invaluable experience that I don't think I'm going to get anywhere else," Samples said. "Just working for Dan and this staff we have is what kept me here."
Lanning is certainly happy to have Samples back for another year, leading a talented group of running backs and hopefully making their way back to the Big Ten Championship and the College Football Playoff. What happens after that is anyone's guess. A betting man would put money on Samples fielding more calls, getting a well-deserved promotion, and taking over his own team in the near future.
For now, though, his heart is at Oregon.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Ra'Shaad Samples details return to Oregon football over Dallas Cowboys
