Oregon State Football Coaching Staff Review: Offense

With fall camp looming on the horizon, we're launching a short series reviewing Oregon State's 2026 football coaching staff. Today, we're covering the coaches on Jamarcus Shephard's offense.

Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach Mitch Dahlen

A couple weeks after Shephard's introductory press conference in Corvallis, the Beavers' new leader hired his proverbial lieutenant. Dahlen cut his teeth calling plays for NAIA-level College of Idaho (Caldwell, ID), helping the Yotes earn back-to-back winning seasons in 2017 and 2018. Two years later, he joined Kalen DeBoer's first staff at Fresno State as an offensive quality control coach and assistant quarterbacks' coach. In the years that followed, Dahlen became one of DeBoer's closest disciples, coaching Washington's 2023 national championship runner-up, and then the blue-chip Alabama Crimson Tide.

This publication has previously detailed Dahlen's accomplishments. In their first year together, the young coach helped Fresno State quarterback Jake Haener become the Mountain West Conference's top passer, throwing for 356 passing yards per game. With Dahlen as an assistant during their 2023 title run, Washington torched defenses: quarterback Michael Penix led the nation in passing yards (357 per game), won the Maxwell, finished second in the Heisman race, and earned an 8th overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft. For added measure, three wide receivers - Rome Odunze, Ja'Lynn Polk, and Jalen McMillan - went in the first three rounds.

Dahlen has first-hand experience working in DeBoer's system, which will now be imported to Oregon State, but he has never called plays at the Division I level. Potentially, no hire on the Beavers' 2026 is more important than Shephard's first year offensive coordinator.

Associate Head Coach and Running Backs Coach Lee Marks

Later in December, Shephard zeroed in on experienced running backs coach Lee Marks, a former all-conference running back at Pac-12 newcomers Boise State. Like his offensive coordinator Mitch Dahlen and head coach JaMarcus Shephard, Marks boasts prior experience with Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, as the two worked together on Washington's aforementioned 2023 staff. That year, Huskies' tailback Dillon Johnson amassed 16 touchdowns and over 1100 rushing yards.

Over the past two seasons, Marks served as the running backs coach at Memphis.

Co-Offensive Coordinator and Tight Ends Coach Ryan Wallace

When Ryan Wallace was a senior tight end at Western Kentucky, JaMarcus Shephard's coaching career took its first steps as a volunteer coach with the Hilltoppers.

Together, they learned under shared mentor Jeff Brohm - working together on Brohm's Western Kentucky staff from 2013 to 2015, then again at Purdue - and after three seasons coaching tight ends for Brohm's Louisville Cardinals, Wallace joined Shephard's first staff at Oregon State.

Offensive Line Coach Kirk Barron

Like his colleague Ryan Wallace, Kirk Barron first met JaMarcus Shephard when the former was a player and the latter was a coach. After back-to-back years as a Purdue team captain, the standout offensive lineman tried his luck in the pros. Four years later, a career change to coaching got its first big break: in 2021, Barron worked as a graduate assistant at Oregon under Mario Cristobal's right hand man Alex Mirabal, then the Ducks offensive line coach.

Buttressed with experience gained alongside two of the top offensive line coaches in America, Barron's career found lift-off. Two years removed from his short spell in Eugene, the then-Alabama assistant offensive line coach was honored on OurCoachingNetwork's 30 Under 30 list.

Barron will be assisted by Mitchell Malot, who played offensive line at NAIA-semifinalist Southern Oregon in 2017, before launching a coaching career. Malot has tutored linemen at his alma mater Southern Oregon, fellow NAIA powers Carroll College, and Division III contenders Linfield (McMinnville, OR).

Wide Receivers Coach James Finley

James Finley might have the best story on JaMarcus Shepard's first staff. In mid-December 2025, the Colorado State assistant celebrated his daughter's Oregon State acceptance letter. Less than a week later, Finley joined her in Corvallis, becoming the Beavers' new wide receivers coach.

The Inglewood native played two seasons at Oregon from 2005-06, then plied his trade coaching high school football, eventually working at one of America's top prep programs Mater Dei in Orange County. From there, Finley earned his shot at the college ranks, leveraging his Southern California connections to become of the region's best recruiters. Previously, he has coached at Hawaii and Colorado State.

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