New Oregon football running backs coach on quick turnaround after hire: ‘You don’t sleep’

New running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples hasn’t been sleeping much after getting hired last week by Oregon football in the midst of spring practices.

“You don’t sleep,” Samples said Saturday. “You just be relentless about your approach. You spend all night up here and then you wake up and you come up here early in the morning. You use the outlets you have, you lean on the players, you lean on the coaches, and you just spend the time grinding and picking it up.”

The 29-year-old previously served as the receivers coach at Arizona State before accepting the job vacated by previous Oregon RB coach Carlos Locklyn, who left for the same position at Ohio State.

Because the Ducks were already in the heart of spring ball, Samples left Tempe on April 9 and started studying the playbook on the flight to Eugene.

While on the plane Samples heard from former Duck All-American LaMichael James, and has also been in contact with Kenjon Barner.

Continuing a strong tradition at running back, while progressing his career and surrounding himself with other young coaches like Dan Lanning, Will Stein, and Junior Adams were appealing to Samples.

“I want to continue to grow,” Samples said. “Being around guys like Dan is important to me. Wanting to get the opportunity to be a young head coach, learning from Dan, learning some of the things he’s done and how he does things is important.”

Samples and the Oregon running back room, which includes Noah Whittington, Jordan James, Jay Harris, and Jayden Limar, will make their 2024 debut in the spring game at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Autzen Stadium.

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.