BREAKING NEWS : Sean McVay life is on peril and threatens to leave this season…
Ra’Shaad Samples says working with Sean McVay was ‘invaluable to my career’
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In this age of college football, it seems like coaches are getting younger and younger. When Dan Lanning was hired as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks in 2021, he became the youngest head coach in the nation at 35 years old.
A year later, former Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham took over as the youngest head coach in the nation, going to Arizona State as a 32-year-old.
There seems to be a decent chance that the Ducks produce the next “youngest head coach” as well, with Ra’Shaad Samples coming to Eugene as the new running backs coach earlier this spring. Samples is just 29 years old at the moment, but don’t let his age trick you into thinking that he lacks experience.
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After his playing career was cut short by injuries, Samples started as a student assistant with Houston. He moved from there to Texas as an assistant wide receivers coach, and then moved to SMU as a running backs coach.
In 2022, Samples got his biggest break yet, being hired by Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams to be their RB coach. It was during his year at the NFL level that Samples feels like he learned the most.
“It was invaluable to my career,” Samples said on Saturday. “I think the process is more important than the results, so I think it helped me a bunch with my process as a coach. It helped me learn details.”
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While coaching at the NFL level is impressive in its own right, finding a way onto Sean McVay’s staff is notable. While McVay is just 38 years old, he’s already garnered a reputation for finding and developing elite coaches, and his coaching tree has grown. Over the years, guys like Matt LaFleur, Kevin O’Connell, Zac Taylor, Brandon Staley, and Jedd Fisch have all come from under McVay.
It’s safe to say that if he likes you enough to take a chance on you, then you’ve got a bright future.
“Sean was amazing about communication, so I built and grew on how to communicate to players effectively and efficiently and give them digestible information,” Samples said. “It’s one thing to go up and just coach guys and teach guys plays, but is the information you’ve given them digestible? Do they understand what you’re saying? Being with Sean for that year I spent, I mean, it was invaluable.”
Samples helped develop Rams’ RB Kyren Williams, and now he’s tasked with building up guys like Jordan James, Noah Whittington, Jay Harris, and Jayden Limar. If things go well, it wouldn’t be crazy to expect Samples to only be in Eugene for a couple of years as he continues to climb up the coaching ranks.
