Texas Football: 4 best replacements for WR coach Brennan Marion
Ra’Shaad Samples, Arizona State WR coach/pass game coordinator
Another true rising star around the football coaching ranks in the last few years is the former Los Angeles Rams running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples. And despite Samples recently getting hired on new head coach Kenny Dillingham’s staff with the Arizona State Sun Devils in the PAC-12, he is still someone that is probably going to be a real candidate for Sark and the Longhorns to replace Marion.
Throughout the last few years, Samples has continually proved himself in different positions at different destinations. Granted, he spent most of his time as a football coach in the last half-decade or so in various roles on staff with the SMU Mustangs in Dallas.
From 2019-2021, Samples was one of the fast risers on then-head coach Sonny Dykes’ staff at SMU. He also joined Dykes for a little bit of time with the TCU Horned Frogs, but that didn’t last for long as the NFL’s LA Rams swooped in to hire him as its running backs coach for the 2022 season.
Moreover, prior to getting the SMU job, Samples was an assistant wide receivers coach on Tom Herman’s staff in 2018. He only held that position for one year, though, prior to taking an offensive assistant role at SMU.
In the last four or five years, Samples has proven to be one of the best recruiters among positional coaches in all of college football. In the last couple of years alone, he spearheaded the recruitments that landed TCU a pair of talented blue-chips in safety Chace Biddle and wide receiver Jordan Hudson.
He also did some good work recruiting in the NCAA Transfer Portal for SMU early in his time in Dallas. Samples helped SMU land key portal players such as former Texas quarterback Shane Buechele and West Virginia wide receiver Reggie Roberson in the late 2010s.
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Samples is actually the first name that came to mind for me when considering some of the top potential candidates for Texas to find its next wide receivers coach. He just makes too much sense given his proven track record of finding and connecting with top talent both out of high school and by way of the transfer portal.