Oregon State general manager Eron Hodges does not concern himself with the opinion of a previous regime. He compared himself to a lion and the former college football staffer to a sheep.
This comes after a new report suggested an ongoing beef between the past and the present.
It will be interesting to see how the Beavers fare during this new era of college football in Corvallis. They have a new staff and a new conference— and it can’t get much worse than it was.
Oregon State overhauled its college football staff.
The Beavers were not very good in the last two years. Abysmal, actually.
Head coach Jonathan Smith won 10 games at Oregon State in 2022 and eight games in 2023 before he left for the same job at Michigan State. Trent Bray was hired as his replacement at a dire turning point in the program’s history.
A team that was long considered a basement dweller in the Pac-8, Pac-10 and Pac-12 Conference found itself as one of only two remaining members after the 2023 season when UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington, Oregon, Cal, Stanford, Colorado and Utah left for the Big Ten, ACC and Big 12. Oregon State and Washington State were the only teams left.
As a result, the Beavers technically played as an independent in 2024 and 2025. They went 5-7 in 2024. They only beat Lafayette, an FCS program, and split the unusual two-game series against the Cougars to finish at 2-10 in 2025.
Bray was fired after an 0-7 start. JaMarcus Shephard, the former assistant head coach and co-offensive coordinator at Alabama, was later hired as his replacement. He hired a new staff around him. Most of Bray’s staff is gone.
Shephard also brought in Eron Hodges as the first General Manager in program history. He previously served as the Associate Director of Player Personnel at Alabama.
A former college football staffer was bad-mouthing Eron Hodges.
According to Andrew Nemec of West Coast Biased Recruiting, a former member of Bray’s staff reached out to multiple members of the media to talk down on JaMarcus Shephard’s staff. It started with this post on social media in late January:
Nemec received a DM from a former member of the Oregon State staff shortly thereafter.
“I saw your tweet and was curious how the numbers stacked up. Given that you seemed to have done the research, I thought I’d go straight to you with my question.”
The former staffer challenged Nemec’s commentary about the number of offers extended to high school football players in the Beaver State. He was not aware of one public offer announcement and one behind-the-scenes re-offer that made his assertion true.
To make it even more interesting, Nemec had never spoken to the disgruntled staffer in the past. This was their first interaction.
And if that was not strange enough, the same staffer was doing the same thing with at least one other reporter.
“That media member insisted that same staffer/coach had DM’ed him out of the blue to talk negatively about Shephard’s staff as well, most notably general manager Eron Hodges.”
Nemec did not name the Bray staffer. However, there are unconfirmed rumors that it was the former Director of Player Personnel.
Regardless of who it might be, Hodges is not worried about it. He is a lion. The former staffer is a sheep.
Lions don’t concern themselves with the opinion of sheep.