Alabama Wide Receiver Shares Why He Thinks JaMarcus Shephard Will Be Good Head Coach

JaMarcus Shephard, Alabama's wide receiver coach and co-offensive coordinator, was introduced as Oregon State's next head coach on Monday.

Alabama coach JaMarcus Shephard preps wide receiver Isaiah Horton for the Iron Bowl on November 29, 2025. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard was officially introduced as the next head coach of Oregon State on Monday and conducted an introductory press conference on Tuesday. Because of that, he was not with the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa for Tuesday's SEC championship practice, but he plans to be back with Alabama soon according to head coach Kalen DeBoer.

"He really wants to be a part of everything that we do throughout.," DeBoer said Sunday. "There's a couple things here right now early in the week that he's got to part as far as obligations with kind of getting things started there with his opportunity at Oregon State, which we're super excited for.

"We celebrated it actually on Friday morning. He's a guy that pours everything into this program. He's poured everything into me. Something that our players know and feel. Known Shep since 2014. You can't help but be excited for someone that gets to run their own program."

The Oregon State job is Shephard's first head coaching opportunity. He worked at Western Kentucky from 2011 to 2015 and then spent one season at Washington State under Mike Leach. He was at Purdue for five seasons before joining DeBoer's staff at Washington in 2022. Shephard followed DeBoer to Alabama and has been in Tuscaloosa the last two seasons.

Crimson Tide wide receiver Germie Bernard has gotten to play for Shephard at both Alabama and Washington. There's no bittersweetness for Bernard, just excitement for a guy that has poured a lot into him.

"It’s an exciting moment,” Bernard said. “It’s a blessing to get to be a head coach, and I’m very excited for him. This is one of his goals, and we all have goals in life. For him to be able to reach this accomplishment is really an exciting moment for me. Just to see how much he has grown and how much he has helped me, I know he’s going to be able to help a lot of people.”

Bernard has improved on the field each year with the help of Shephard, going from 400 receiving yards and two touchdowns at Washington in 2023 to 801 all-purpose yards and eight total touchdowns at Alabama this season. But Bernard credits Shephard more with the ways he's helped him grow off the field.

"Just becoming a better man in my faith,” Bernard said. “He’s obviously a great football coach, but he really helped me off the field mature mentally. That’s been the biggest change for me.”

Bernard believes Shephard will do great things at Oregon State.

"I just think the person he is, his belief system and how much he trusts in the Lord,” Bernard said. “He has a lot of experience in the game, and he’s going to bring the right people into the program to be beneficial to the guys.”