JaMarcus Shephard Speaks Following First Practice of Fall Camp

Today, August 5th 2026, the Oregon State Beavers football program began their first fall camp under new head coach JaMarcus Shephard and his coaching staff.

After practice, the Beavers' first year coach spoke with the media. This piece highlights our five favorite quotes from that conversation.

JaMarcus Shephard on the Beavers' story

"From the moment I got here, I really thought we didn't tell our story very well, and that's part of the reason why some of the things happened in the history of our program - didn't do a good job of just storytelling - and I'm going to do my best job of making sure that I tell the right story for our 2026 football season."

JaMarcus Shephard on the practice field's new turf playing surface

"I believe that right now, as I stand in front of you, my legs feel pretty good. So I'm very happy with the key point of the turf - to ensure that our players can play fast on it - it also helps with injury prevention, but it also takes away some of the pounding from their legs. So one day in, I feel pretty good about it."

JaMarcus Shephard on his team culture

"I think we've grown there the most, without a shadow of a doubt. DeCorion Temple, one of our tight ends, yesterday we have what we call Tattoo Tuesday, I told a story about me asking my grandmother if I could get a tatoo, I don't have any tattoos, but obviously I wanted one for a specific reason. Each of these young men, they have tattoos on their body that tell a story, he got up in front of the team and told them so many stories about why he had all the tattoos on his body. Every single one of them had meaning - from a best friend, from brothers and sisters, from parents - he just had so many stories behind it. That's how you grow family within a program. He started to tell his why. It's written all over his body."

JaMarcus Shephard on the potential return of Van Wells and Jaheim Patterson

"Right now we are working through that with our compliance department, our athletic director, as well as the Pac-12 offices, to try to make those things happen if it's something that can [happen]. At this point, we don't have clear direction in terms of how to do this, but there has been communication with them."

Jamarcus Shephard's takeaways from the first day of practice

"I loved seeing our defense early on get some takeaways. That was really exciting. We have to do that in order to win football games, and that's just the reality of the history of this game. You have to get takeaways, and then don't turn it over. So I was happy to see our defense get a few of those."

"I felt like our quarterbacks were seeing the field really well. They throw some balls that I didn't think that they would have thrown during spring ball, and they took the liberty of attacking the defense a little bit more because they threw in some tighter windows, and it was good to see. It was good to see that they weren't reckless with the ball, either. That to me is the part that we needed to clean up over the summer, and it looks pretty good today."

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