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When Sonny Dykes was hired as the newest head coach of the TCU football team, Dykes brought several assistants over from his staff at SMU. One of those assistants was running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples, who has earned a reputation as an elite recruiter in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and had already made an impact at TCU in a short time period.
But for the second time since Dykes took over the program, TCU will lose one of its newest assistants before the 2022 season even begins. According to multiple sources including Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Samples has been hired to be the new running backs coach for the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
TCU is losing Ra’Shaad Samples. He’s headed to the LA Rams to take over the RB coach job. @mzenitz on it first.
— Drew Davison (@drewdavison) March 4, 2022
Samples will be a tremendous loss for the Horned Frogs, who had already lost former defensive line coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe earlier this offseason. Uzo-Diribe was announced as the new outside linebackers coach for the national champion Georgia Bulldogs one day after National Signing Day this past month. Samples was expected to serve as assistant head coach and running backs coach, which are the roles he served under Dykes at SMU.
Not even 10 years ago, Ra’Shaad Samples was a four-star recruit from Skyline.
— Joseph Hoyt (@JoeJHoyt) March 4, 2022
In 2018 he got his first college job as an on-campus recruiter and assistant WR coach at Texas.
Next season, at the age of 27, he’ll be the RBs coach for the LA Rams, per @mzenitz. What a rise.
The 27-year-old Samples has risen quickly up the coaching ladder in his short career. A former 247Sports 30-under-30 and Dave Campbell 40-under-40 Watch List honoree, Samples began his SMU career as an offensive assistant in 2019 before working his way up to becoming SMU’s running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. In his brief tenure with TCU’s football program, Samples brought over and helped retain high-level prospects including four-stars Jordan Hudson, Chace Biddle and Major Everhart.
TCU quickly recovered from Uzo-Diribe’s departure, naming former Louisiana Tech coach JaMarkus McFarland as its newest defensive line coach. The Horned Frogs will likely move with similar speed to replace Samples, with the team’s Spring Game approaching soon.