Ra'Shaad Samples (born December 11, 1994) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach who is currently the Assistant Head Coach and Running Backs coach at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

. He previously served as running backs coach for the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...

for part of a season. A native of

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. He previously served as the assistant head coach at SMU for 2 seasons (2019-2021).

Playing career

Samples was a former four-star

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

Oklahoma State Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

who later transferred to play at

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. His playing career was cut short when he was forced to medically retire due to suffering a number of concussions.

Coaching career

SMU

Samples was hired as an offensive assistant at SMU in 2019, serving as the program's top recruiter rather coaching a position. He was officially promoted to running backs coach and recruiting coordinator in 2020, and was promoted to assistant head coach in 2021.

Texas Christian University

In late 2021, Samples left SMU and was announced as the assistant head coach and running backs coach for

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

, joining new head coach

Sonny Dykes Daniel "Sonny" Dykes (born November 9, 1969) is an American football coach, and a former college baseball player. He is currently the head football coach at Texas Christian University (TCU), and previously served in the same role at Southern Meth ...

Los Angeles Rams

Around three months after joining the staff at TCU, Samples left for the NFL to become the Los Angeles Rams running backs coach for the 2022 season in March 2021.

Arizona State University

After 6 months with the Rams, Samples left the Rams before the end of the 2022 season to return to college as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach at

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

for the 2023 season.

University of Oregon

After the 2023 season with Arizona State University, Samples left Arizona State to join Oregon as running backs coach and assistant head coach in April 2024.

Personal life

Samples is the son of current

Duncanville High School Duncanville High School is a secondary school located in Duncanville, Texas, Duncanville, Texas, United States, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The school is a part of Duncanville Independent School District. The school includes grades 9 through 12 ...

and UIL Football State Champion-winning head coach Reginald Samples. Samples played for his father while a student-athlete at Skyline High School.

References

External links

*
SMU Mustangs profile

Arizona State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samples, Ra'Shaad 1994 births Living people Players of American football from Dallas Coaches of American football from Texas American football wide receivers Oklahoma State Cowboys football players Houston Cougars football players Houston Cougars football coaches Texas Longhorns football coaches SMU Mustangs football coaches Los Angeles Rams coaches Oregon Ducks football coaches