JaMarcus Shephard Previews Oregon State Spring Game

In four days, Oregon State will kick off its' 2026 Spring Game.

As anticipation mounts, head coach JaMarcus Shephard is busy at work. For almost thirty minutes on Monday afternoon, the first year head coach spoke with the media. This piece offers several highlights from that conversation.

JaMarcus Shephard on recent success for the passing game

"I think our offensive coaches have done a really good job of taking the things that we needed to work on, and continue push vertical on those things, and give us a chance to be successful. Whether we need to throw the ball fifty times or run the ball fifty times in a game. So I feel like we've had our times, and our moments, where it's been really highlighted in one phase or the other. So certainly that allows us to review this as spring ball concludes and say 'Hey, what are we really good at? Why werent we so successful early on, and what made us successful later on in the various areas?', but that's also on the defensive side of the ball.

We got to do the same thing - a self assessment of what we installed and what really can be helpful for us when we get to game days - but ultimately, I feel like our offense has had some moments where it's been very, very explosive. It's the consistency piece of it - you know, even in today's practice, our defense really kind of stepped up, man - they really wanted to make a statement today in this practice today, and it was very evident that they wanted to control the practice from the beginning to the end, and for the most part they did. So, kudos to them on the defensive side of the ball finding a way after the offense had a bunch of success on Friday, coming back today and making a very physical, gritty - they gutted it out today - I appreciate that. Best part about it is the offense didn't back down at all. They did not back down."

Jamarcus Shephard breaks down the spring game format

"So, spring game will be offense versus the defense. That's what it'll be. We will have our offense: they'll get points for the points that they score. So, if they score touchdowns, if they kick field goals and make them, then they'll get points. The defense will get points for varying factors. If they get a three and out, they'll receive points for that. If they get a stop, they'll get points for that. Getting a fourth down stop at various locations in the field is more valuable. So, they'll get more points for getting fourth down stops, in those various areas of the field. We'll release the actual format itself, we have it, I just haven't released it yet. And then obviously if they get a pick six, take it back, turnovers, those are points associated for the defense as well.

We've kept track of this format for the last two scrimmages that we had. In this last one, it was a three point game going into our red zone segment. So obviously once you start putting the offense down in the red zone, they get some easy points down there, if you have one mistake. So we had a mistake or two that allowed us to score, to get a little bit of a wider margin, but it's been very close with that scoring format. We'll see what happens on Saturday."

JaMarcus Shephard on building consistency on offense

"I mean, it has a lot to do with just being assignment sound, being able to line up appropriately, exactly where we want it to be done. There's times when we do it exactly right, guess what? We have explosive opportunities because we know and understand exactly what's supposed to happen on that particular play. We're able to line up in the location - triangle - read the defense - see the alignment of where they're at, and then be able to make the play.

So when we don't do that on a consistent basis, it turns into a hodgepodge of I don't know what. Coach Dahlen [offensive coordinator Mitch Dahlen] has been really pushing the tempo on these guys, and adding more and adding more, and adding more. Their plates are about full right now. I know we got some big old linemen. One of them weighed over 400 pounds and you think he can add more to his plate. He can't right now. So going into the spring game, we're going to try to dial it back a little bit, and give them a chance to just go play football of 'Hey, you got to line up here, shift to this, and doo all that good stuff.', we'll try to dial it back a little bit in that regard."

JaMarcus Shephard on his recruiting strategy

"Well, historically speaking here at Oregon State, it's been you got to recruit the kids here in the state of Oregon. We will, and we have; they've been on our campus frequently. If you have been on campus, get on campus, we're ready for you. We've been talking to your coaches. Your coaches are on campus. We want to have more of them on campus, but then you also got to recruit Washington heavy.

So we'll be at a couple satellites [satellite camps] in Washington, just because of proximity. That's like home for us in a lot of ways; anything within a 500 mile radius we kind of consider home. Then NorCal - because they can actually drive up here to Corvallis from Northern California - that's going to be a big piece of how we're going to recruit. Then we'll do satellites down in LA, because you're going to get a lot of really good players down in Los Angeles. We're going to be in Utah; the Weber [satellite camp] is what we're planning to do. We'll be in Texas, and then believe it or not, Florida. We're going to do a camp out in Mercer in Georgia. A lot of that it's just because we got relationships, you know? We got kids on the roster from that part of the country, and so we got relationships, so we won't send a full allotment of coaches to those just because I'm going to send the guys who got those relationships there, but here on this west coast here in Oregon, Washington, California, no we'll send allotment of coaches."

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