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Who is this head coach stylishly surfing through the crowd during a time off from television? It's Jam Arc Shepherd from Oregon State. The rookie head coach has become a benchmark for a program that was left to languish just a few years ago. Three years ago, the Beavers were a Pac-12 ranked team. Then, the rest of their conference found another place to go, and Oregon State was left behind. Their coach left, the players left, their resources disappeared, and the victories vanished. Now they have a new coach, the number one passing offense in the country led by a quarterback no one wanted coming out of high school, and the opportunity to compete for the championship of a conference they helped to resurrect. So how did Oregon State fall so low
? And is what we're seeing in 2026 really the beginning of its rise? If you enjoy college football stories like this one, don't forget to hit the like button. Subscribing to the channel lets me know you want to see more content like this. To understand how much the new era of college football has hurt Oregon State, you must remember what this program was like before the Pac-12 collapsed. In 2022, the Beavers finished with 10 wins and 3 losses. They beat Florida 30-3 at the Las Vegas Bowl and finished the year ranked 17th in the country. Jonathan Smith, a program alumnus who took over as head coach in 2018 after a disastrous 1-11 season, had built a team capable of competing in the Pac-
12 without being the biggest brand or the most glamorous recruiting destination. It wasn't a one-year wonder. The following season they won eight games, even losing by only two points against Washington, the eventual national runner-up. A season in which the Pac-12 was the most competitive we've ever seen. That's what made the moment of what was to come so incredible. They were not a team from the bottom of the table. They were competing for major conference titles. The Beavers had their coach, an identity, and the conviction of their fan base that winning 10 games could become more than just a rare exception. Then, everything they knew changed around them. USC and UCLA were headed to the Big Ten.
Eventually, Oregon and Washington joined them. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah found their place in the Big 12. Stanford and Cal crossed the country to join the ACC. 10 schools left. Oregon State and Washington State were the two that did not have an invitation waiting for them. Imagine being an Oregon State fan through all of this. Your team just finished a 10- win season competing at a national championship level, when suddenly Colorado, with a 1-11 record, knows what its future holds while your program doesn't even know if it will be able to find 12 games to play in 2024. Suddenly, Oregon State had to answer questions that no winning program wants to face. Who are we playing against? What are we building towards? And
can we afford to keep doing things the way we have been? The Beavers and Washington State were the only teams left in the Pac-12. And the conference was about to be shut down, and the repercussions were real. The first big blow was losing the person who had put Oregon State back on the winning track. After the 2023 regular season, Jonathan Smith left to become the head coach of Michigan State. Just when Oregon State needed to prove to everyone that its future was secure, Smith left his alma mater during one of the most crucial moments in the program's history. When MSU formally introduced Smith as their new coach, he was asked why he chose East Lansing and his answer said it all. He said that the
community network, a passionate fan base, the opportunity to win, the resources available to win, and the community committed to winning, I think all of that was here. Resources were where Corvallis simply couldn't compete. With only two members at the conference, Pac-2 did not have a major media rights deal to negotiate with television networks. Oregon State didn't even have much to play for on the field, so mobilizing its fan base, but more importantly its sponsors to financially support the program, was an uphill battle. Its sports budget fell by more than $8 million and its revenue decreased by more than $15 million. This is the part of the reconfiguration that is easy to overlook when we only talk about who joined which
conference. One university gets a new schedule and a new TV deal, while another has to rethink what it can spend while trying to convince its coaches, recruits, and fans that it still belongs in the conversation. Oregon State hired Trent Bray, a former Beavers player and longtime staff member, to replace Smith. He knew the program, he cared about it, but he was entering one of the most difficult transitions in college football. That's when the decline hit the field. The 18 wins in the last two seasons under Jonathan Smith turned into five and seven in the first year under Bray's command.
Playing mostly against opponents from the Mountain West, a conference that a year earlier was not considered to be on the same level as Oregon State in the Pac- 12. Their conference rival, Cal, finished sixth and seventh that year; In their first year in the ACC, they crushed Oregon State 44-7. The following year was the lowest point. The Beavers finished with two wins and 10 losses. Oregon State was exactly where the restructuring left them: out of the big conferences, out of the big games, and out of the conversation altogether. But with the Pac-12 adding six new teams for the 2026 season, they fired Trent Bray in search of a leader who could prove that Corvallis was still worth building something with.
But the problem was that they no longer fished in the same pond as before. That's where Jamarcus Shepherd comes in. Shepherd was not a Group of Six-level star trainer looking to make the leap to becoming a national contender. It wasn't John Sumrall, Bob Chesney, or Eric Morris. Oregon State couldn't afford that. They could pay their new coach 20% less than they paid Bray, and instead of $5.85 million for assistants, the new coach would have $3 million to work with. Jamarcus Shepherd was the wide receivers coach and assistant head coach at Alabama under Kalen DeBoer. He had never been a head coach, and his experience calling plays at the college level was limited to roles such as co-
offensive coordinator at Purdue and Alabama. But now it's clear, just a few games into his tenure, that Shepherd was hired for the way he cultivates a culture. It may be his first time as head coach, but it's not his first time as a leader. Belief is something you cannot see. Okay? Right now, they have to believe that we can be the team we will be, long before it's visible. He is also more than just the football team's coach, which is exactly what Oregon State needed as it began its transition to the new Pac-12.
There is openness, transparency, and a coach who not only tries to win games, but to make Corvallis a place where everyone wants to be. I need our fans to support this football team. I'm telling you this so you know. Guys, guys , there will be some adversity this year. I 'm telling you. Now, I need you to help us overcome this adversity. We have to do it together. He embodies the underdog role that Oregon State finds itself in, and he has found players who also accept it. The quarterback is Braden Atkinson. If you've seen my video about him, you know how improbable his path was. He threw 53 touchdowns in his
senior year of high school, but doubts about his height prevented him from getting opportunities in the FBS. He was not ranked when he was a high school recruit. Atkinson went to Mercer, won the Jerry Rice Award as the best freshman in FCS football, and immediately proved all the evaluators wrong. Somehow, after visiting Notre Dame this off-season, Jonathan Shepherd convinced him to join Oregon State. He and freshman wide receiver Jesiah Balaguy are the reason Oregon State has the third-best passing offense in the nation. Atkinson averages 353 passing yards per game. Balaguy trails only Jeremiah Smith in receiving yards right now,
surpassing 100 yards in every game, something that hadn't been done at Oregon State since Brandon Cooks in 2013. Against No. 12 Texas Tech, he totaled 240 receiving yards and two touchdowns. La Grange is another story of overcoming adversity that is taking this program to new heights. A 5'10" and 175 lb receiver who played mainly as a secondary defender in high school until his senior year at St. Francis, one of the best prep programs in the country. Despite having four- and five-star teammates by his side, La Grange had no offers to play wide receiver on signing day until he received the call from Coach Shepherd.
During my senior year of high school, I had no offers because I had switched to the wide receiver position that senior year. And seeing that Coach Shepherd and Coach Irvin were the only ones who believed in me, I feel like they have something good planned for me. So, now you can see that everything turned out well. La Grange said he chose Oregon State because he wanted to play. Actually, I didn't know anything about the university. His 585 yards and six touchdowns in four games in his first year, with an absurd average of 25.9 yards per reception, have given him everything he was looking for. If you want to play football, come to Oregon State. We'll find a way to put the ball in your hands. That's what we do.
If you look at the Pac-12 standings right now, you'll see the Beavers with two wins and two losses, without having played a conference game yet. It's not exactly a record that would indicate to most fans that the show is resurging under Shepherd's leadership. In fact, they started the season with 0 and 2, losing to number 23, Houston, and number 13, Texas Tech, in games that were not decided until the last quarter. But narrow defeats against ranked teams are not moral victories in their eyes. We are changing the culture here. It is no longer enough to settle for moral victories. Those are not enough. The idea that we compete against teams in the top 25 is nonsense. We want to win these matches. The standard here, I don't care what it was before. I
wasn't here. Coach Shep wasn't here. We don't care. The standard is that we're going to win these games. And we're going to compete. And, for example, it's a small detail, but fans like to applaud after the game. Challenge to the Beaver Nation: Show up, stand out, and hope we win. It's not enough to lose by 11 points or to be leading in the third quarter against Texas Tech. No, we came here to win in the Pac-12 this year, and we expect to win every game we play. The way everyone on the show talks about the team and their approach makes you want them to succeed. That's why the clip of Sheppard doing "swag surfing" is so shocking.
A year ago, it was fair to ask how many people would still be coming, believing in this program. His sports donations fell from $16 million to just $9 million. Some might look at Jamarca Sheppard, Braden Atkinson, Jessie Legree and say, "This is all well and good for now, but they'll surely be signed by bigger teams at the end of the season." But what if Sheppard didn't come to Corvallis just to make Oregon State a funny story in September? The Beavers helped bring back the Pac-12. Now, they begin their journey to prove they can win it.
College football has left Oregon State behind. I have a feeling the rest of us will spend the season catching up, and the best time to jump on board is before it looks like one. Thank you for watching. My name is Tyler McKillop, and if, like me, you enjoy being the first to know the most understated stories in college football, don't forget to like this video and subscribe to The Score.
