Oregon
Who are potential Oregon State coaching candidates? Meet these 4 names
Watch Oregon State celebrate its win against Washington State
Oregon State players and fans celebrate their 10-7 victory against Washington State on Nov. 1 in Corvallis.
Oregon State football is looking for its new head coach.
While a disastrous season is coming to an end Nov. 29 with a matchup against Pac-12 foe Washington State, the Beavers’ search for a head coach is well underway.
Oregon State began the season with Trent Bray at the helm, but fired the OSU alum after an 0-7 start and just two seasons in charge. Interim head coach Robb Akey has led the Beavers to a 2-2 record since but has not emerged as a top candidate for the job long term.
Nearly a dozen major college football programs across the country have fired their head coaches this season. Stanford, UCLA, Arkansas, Penn State, Florida, LSU, Auburn, California and more are filling vacancies and competing for top candidates.
The national coaching carousel is speeding up and Oregon State has some hefty competition in the search for the right head coach to lead the Beavers into a new era of Pac-12 football in Corvallis.
Here are some of the coaches reportedly gaining traction as candidates for the Oregon State football head coaching job.
Paul Chryst
Chryst does not currently operate as an NCAA coach, but he has the most experience of nearly any candidate rumored to be in the running for the Oregon State gig.
Chryst, 60, is a Madison, Wisc., native who played quarterback for the Badgers in the 1980s. He jumpstarted his coaching career with West Virginia, followed by short stints with teams in the Canadian Football League and NFL.
In 2003, Chryst joined the Oregon State staff as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, a job that lasted just two years. Chryst was notably in charge of the offense with OSU legends in quarterback Derek Anderson and running back Steven Jackson.
He then jumped to Wisconsin for seven years in similar roles before landing his first head coaching job with Pittsburgh in 2012.
Wisconsin called Chryst back in 2015, where he spent seven years as the Badgers’ head coach. He had an overall record of 86-45 as head coach of Wisconsin.
Kerry Eggers, a longtime sports reporter based out of Portland, reported Nov. 24 that Chryst pulled his name out of contention for the OSU role despite being a favorable candidate.
Tosh Lupoi
Lupoi is currently the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the Oregon Ducks. Lupoi, 44, joined the Ducks in 2022 and has been an integral part of the team’s success in the transition to the Big 10.
He’s a California native who played for the Golden Bears in the early 2000s. His first coaching gig was with the Golden Bears, too; he served as defensive line coach from 2008-11.
A jump to Washington in the same role in 2012 was followed by a five-year run with Alabama. With the Tide, Lupoi acted as a defensive analyst, then linebackers coach, then co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
In 2019, Lupoi moved to the NFL. He was a defensive line coach for the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars in consecutive years until joining the Ducks in 2022.
Lupoi is a two-time national champion as a coach with Alabama but has never been a head coach. His credible defensive coaching experience working with some of the most talented defenders to come out of college over the last decade, as well as his recruiting prowess, would make him an enticing get for numerous programs.
On Nov. 24, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said Lupoi is a “relentless worker,” and will make “an outstanding head coach,” one day when the right job comes along.
With a recent California head coaching vacancy, Lupoi has also emerged as a candidate for that job. There has been no official reporting on Lupoi’s interest in the Oregon State job despite social media buzz.
JaMarcus Shephard
Shephard is currently an assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Alabama. The 42-year-old Indiana native joined the Tide’s staff in February of 2024 following a career that’s taken him across the country.
After starting out as a high school coach in the mid-2000s, Shephard took a job to Western Kentucky, where he acted as an assistant in numerous facets from 2011-15.
Shephard had a brief one-year role with Washington State before moving to Purdue in 2017. There, he was pass game coordinator and eventually co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.
His name was recalled by Washington in 2022-23 under current Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer. Shephard served as assistant head coach, pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach for an offense that fielded now-Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Penix and all-American now-NFL receivers Rome Odunze and Ja’Lynn Polk.
Shephard is renowned for his work with top-end wide receivers, such as Alabama’s Ryan Williams, and as a hard worker on the recruiting trail.
Shephard is reported to be on Oregon State’s candidates list by On3.
Brent Vigen
Vigen is currently the head coach at Montana State. He’s led the Bobcats to a 10-2 record this season in the Big Sky Conference, with the team’s only two losses coming in the first two weeks to Oregon and South Dakota State.
Vigen, 50, is a North Dakota native with 15 years of assistant coaching experience at North Dakota State. His roles spread across the offense from tight ends coach, quarterbacks coach, running backs coach and was eventually named offensive coordinator from 2009-13.
Following that, Vigen had a two-year stint with Wyoming, where he was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, followed by three years of associate head coaching duties. Vigen, notably, was Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen’s coach and coordinator at Wyoming.
Since 2021, Vigen has been head coach of Montana State. He has an 88% win percentage with the Bobcats, the best in MSU history. In 2022, Vigen won the Eddie Robinson Award for college best coach of a Football Championship Subdivision team.
Vigen landed at the Portland International Airport earlier this week, as reported by The Oregonian’s Ryan Clarke, but did not share what he was doing at PDX.
Rumors and social media are in a frenzy that Vigen made the trip to Oregon to interview and meet for the Oregon State coaching vacancy.
Justin Wilcox
Wilcox was the head coach of California for the past nine seasons before being fired by the Golden Bears on Nov. 24.
Wilcox, a Eugene native, went to Junction City High School and played for the Ducks upon graduation. He played from 1996-99 under head coach Mike Bellotti.
Before his nine-year tenure with California, Wilcox travelled the country as a defensive coordinator with a track record of producing quality defenses.
From 2006-09, Wilcox was the defensive coordinator at Boise State. He then bounced to Tennessee for the same gig, then Washington, then USC, then Wisconsin. Wilcox spent less than two years at each of those schools before taking the reins in Berkeley in 2017.
At Cal, Wilcox delivered a career record of 48-55 all time. Wilcox was 5-4 against Oregon State, including a 34-15 win this season over former OSU head coach Trent Bray.
The 49-year-old is not likely to be a candidate for top head coaching vacancies around the NCAA following his more-to-be-desired stint with Cal. But his defensive mind and years of experience make him a quality candidate for the opening in Corvallis.
Landon Bartlett covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at lbartlett@salem.gannett.com or on X or Instagram @bartlelo.
EUGENE, Ore. – Another Oregon Ducks recruiting target announced his commitment in May after listing the Pacific Northwest program among his finalists.
Like the success coach Dan Lanning and the program had with the offensive line recruiting announcements, things swung in their favor once again with three-star safety Malakai Taufoou’s decision, who announced his decision on the Rivals YouTube channel.
Three-Star Safety Malakai Taufoou Announces Recruiting Decision
Taufoou decided between the Ducks, the California Golden Bears, the Washington Huskies, the BYU Cougars and the Penn State Nittany Lions. The Golden Bears were for a long time considered the favorites in the recruiting race to land the in-state recruit, but Oregon has gained momentum this spring.
The elite recruit is ranked No. 38 at his position and the No. 436 recruit nationally by Rivals. He cited the Ducks’ development and the opportunity to step out of his comfort zone as the big factors in his decision during the announcement with Rivals.
Dan Lanning Wins Recruiting Battle vs. Tosh Lupoi
The Ducks’ former defensive coordinator, Tosh Lupoi, is shaping up to be a formidable foe in recruiting. Lupoi’s Cal squad is pursuing similar targets to Oregon in the state of California, with the Eugene team winning this round.
Between the Golden Bears, the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins, the California programs are reclaiming their advantage with in-state recruits in the 2027 recruiting cycle. There were some concerns that the Ducks wouldn’t be able to have the same success they’ve had in years past with targets from California, with those teams on the rise, which makes Taufoou’s decision more notable.
Oregon Ducks Safety Future
The starting safety position has been a carousel for the Ducks in recent years. Dillon Thieneman starred at the position in 2025 as a transfer, but played his way to a first-round NFL Draft selection.
Lanning secured another standout Big Ten transfer in the offseason with the addition of Koi Perich. If Perich has a breakout season like many expect him to in 2026, he could have the same fate as Thieneman and be one-and-done for Oregon.
Peyton Woodyard and Aaron Flowers are among the returners in the safety room entering 2026, who may also compete for a starting role. They could be back in 2027 and provide the team with stability.
Lanning also has redshirt freshman Trey McNutt as a long-term option at safety that Ducks fans have long been excited about. He missed 2025 due to injury, but is set to make his debut in the fall after catching fans’ attention in the Spring Game.
The Ducks may elect to look in the transfer portal again next spring in search of their next star safety, given the success they’ve had. If they do rely solely on internal development, they have Taufoou, McNutt, as well as 2026 five-star Jett Washington, and secured another commitment from 2027 four-star safety Semaj Stanford.
The 2027 recruiting cycle is far from over. Lanning and the program might still push hard to get an additional safety commitment, either from one of their uncommitted targets or via a recruiting flip.
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — David Brock Smith won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Oregon on Friday, in the last significant race to be called following the state’s May 19 primary election.
Brock Smith, a state senator, emerged from a field of seven candidates to challenge the incumbent, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, in November.
“This campaign is about putting Oregon first. Fighting for affordable living, safer communities, good-paying jobs, responsible government, and protecting the values that make our beloved state strong,” he said in a statement. “This election is bigger than politics. It’s about restoring hope, opportunity, and accountability for every Oregonian.”
Merkley, who was first elected in 2008, is viewed as having a generally safe seat since Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican U.S. senator since 2002. His campaign did not immediately respond Friday evening to a request for comment on Brock Smith’s win.
Friday’s result comes after other high-profile contests were called on election night, including a gas tax referendum and the Republican primary for governor that set up a November rematch for the state’s top job.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected the ballot measure that asked them whether to raise the state gas tax by 6 cents to 46 cents a gallon. The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed the contested gas tax increase and a series of fees last year to help fix roads and plug a gap in the state’s transportation budget. Republicans then launched a referendum campaign to refer it to the ballot and give voters the final say.
Republicans hailed the rejection of the gas tax increase after it was trounced by voters. Democrats have remained mostly silent and didn’t organize efforts to campaign for it as the Iran war caused prices at the pump to skyrocket. Some party members said in the run-up to the primary that they expected voters to defeat it.
In the governor’s race, Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan advanced from a field of 14 candidates to win her primary. She beat opponents who included a fellow GOP legislator who helped lead the gas tax referendum campaign and a former NBA player.
Her victory set up a rematch with Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, who won her party’s primary as she seeks reelection. Drazan lost to Kotek in 2022 by over 3 percentage points in a three-way race that included an independent candidate.
Elected that year to her first term as governor after years in the Legislature, including as Oregon’s longest-serving House speaker, Kotek has sparred with the Trump administration, which sought unsuccessfully to deploy the National Guard to Portland last fall for the stated purpose of protecting federal property and personnel following protests at the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.
Kotek also pledged to tackle homelessness, mental health and education. Despite approving funding and programs aimed at addressing those issues, the state has continued to see rising homelessness and flagging student test scores that have failed to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Drazan will likely try to capitalize on those issues while facing an uphill battle: Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican governor in over 40 years.
Meanwhile, in Oregon’s lone competitive U.S. House district, Democratic incumbent Rep. Janelle Bynum won her primary. Patti Adair, a county commissioner, won the GOP primary there and will work to win back the seat for Republicans. The GOP flipped it in 2022 for the first time in decades before Bynum reclaimed it for Democrats.
Dire wolves had their first playdate
The three dire wolves created using fossil DNA had their first official hang just months before their first birthday.
The Oregon State Police and Wildlife Division is seeking the public’s help after a collared wolf from eastern Oregon’s Desolation Pack was found dead in Grant County earlier this month.
The male wolf was discovered the morning of May 18 near Desolation Meadow on public land next to U.S. Forest Service Road 10, about 3.25 miles northwest of Olive Lake, police said in a release.
Investigators said the wolf appeared to have died from a gunshot wound.
A preliminary investigation found the wolf was likely shot sometime between the late evening hours of May 14 and the early morning of May 15. Investigators believe the wolf may have been shot from the roadway.
The investigation involves the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
OSP said rewards are available for information tied to illegal wolf killings. That includes up to $600 through the Oregon Hunters Association and between $10,000 to $11,500 through the Oregon Wildlife Coalition, depending on where the killing occurred.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the “Turn In Poachers” hotline at 1-800-452-7888 or dial OSP (677) from a mobile phone. People can also email TIP@osp.oregon.gov.
Anonymous tips are allowed. Investigators asked callers to reference case number SP26-160166.
Ginnie Sandoval is the Oregon Connect reporter for the Statesman Journal. Sandoval is a lifelong Oregonian who covers trending news, entertainment, food and outdoors. She can be reached at GSandoval@statesmanjournal.com or on X at @GinnieSandoval.
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