JaMarcus Shephard is the football-coaching equivalent of a self-made man. The newest addition to the Cougars’ staff played his college football at Division III DePauw University in Indiana. He got his start in coaching thanks to an academic mentor who saw potential in him.
When inside receivers coach David Yost left Washington State to become the quarterbacks coach at Oregon earlier this year, Mike Leach didn’t just seek an assistant who’d worked for him before.
He called an audible instead and sought out Western Kentucky receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard, who has no tie to Leach other than the fact that “we knew some of the same people,” Leach said.