MIAMI, Fla. – When Ra’Shaad Samples transferred from Oklahoma State to Houston, it was Cougars assistant coach Drew Mehringer that picked him up from the airport. The two drove straight to Cyclone Anaya’s Tex-Mex Kitchen in midtown where Samples shocked Mehringer by revealing he had already met three girls in town. 

“I said, ‘I’ve literally been with you the whole time, you haven’t met anybody,’” Mehringer remembered from media day ahead of the Orange Bowl.  

But Samples clarified that he had met them on Instagram and that he had an easy trick to figure out if a female was interested in him. Mehringer, single at the time, was intrigued and asked about this tactic. Samples would like three different photos on an attractive female’s page and if she liked three back, they were on the same page. Samples told Mehringer to try it and see for himself and it turned out that his new position coach had someone in mind. 

The trick worked. Mehringer pulled up the page of his secret crush, liked three photos and waited for her response. Still a doubter, Samples encouraged Mehringer to try it again. He liked three more of her photos, and 10 minutes later, she liked three of his. 

“And that woman is my wife,” Mehringer revealed with a grin. “Samp has always been a great recruiter. He’s great with people. He can fit anywhere and that’s why I think he is great at recruiting. He can identify with you in some way, with people from every walk of life and every race and income level. He’s whatever person he wants to be.” 

Samples is one of the fastest risers in the college football coaching world and he’s only 31 years old. He’s currently the assistant head coach and running back coach for the five-seed Oregon Ducks, who play Texas Tech on New Year's Eve in one of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. 

He was seemingly ordained to become a great coach. After all, he’s the son of Texas high school coaching legend, Reginald Samples, who is the Godfather of South Dallas football and a multiple-time state champion head coach at Duncanville. The young Samples played for his dad at Dallas Skyline before signing with Oklahoma State as a highly touted wide receiver. 

But Samples himself would disagree. He didn’t become obsessed with football until he was in ninth grade and even once he fell in love with the sport as a player, he never planned on coaching. His degree was in accounting and his plan was to work on Wall Street. Samples’ first love was basketball and he was deep into the AAU circuit and hanging with the likes of Julius Randle, the Harrison twins, and Emmanuel Mudiay. Samples figured he’d be one of the great basketball players to come out of South Dallas and his dream was to play at Duke.

It was Reginald, ever the realist and no-nonsense football coach, that had to break the bad news to his son: Ra’Shaad was too short to make it as a big-time basketball player. His peers were only going to keep getting taller and he’d keep feeling shorter and shorter. There was a ceiling for a 5-foot-11 basketball player, but not one for a 5-foot-11 football player.

In the summer after eighth grade, Samples started spending his days on the practice fields at Skyline rather than the local basketball courts where he was surrounded by the next generation of great football players such as Mike Davis, Corey Nelson, Joe Powell, Andrian Lee, and Steve Williams. His dad’s hypothesis would be proven wrong or right quickly on those fields. If he could hang with those guys, his future extended well beyond Skyline. 

“Here’s all these NFL guys and my dad was pushing me to get in line and compete against those guys,” Samples said. “I was competitive and that gave me a certain confidence and swagger that this is what I want to do.” 

By the time his playing career at Houston ended, Samples had abandoned the idea of a career in finance and found his passion. His dad never pushed him into coaching, in fact, Samples will tell you that Reginald did the opposite of that. He’s teased his dad that if he had pushed him into coaching and made him sit through meetings as a kid he’d be even further along in his career. But deep down, Samples knows that had his father pushed him too hard, maybe he does wind up on Wall Street instead. 

“I think my gift and what I’m called to do is pour into people,” Samples said. “Once you start getting closer to your calling, you can feel it. There is something natural about it, you wake up in the morning with a little more pep in your step. Once I found it, I knew this is what I was doing the rest of my life.”

Most people don’t know what it is like to have a legendary father. Even the ones who do rarely follow the same path. Some people still call him Little Samp and he hates it. And his father hates when people walk up to them and refer to Ra’Shaad as Coach Samples. 

“But it is fine, he’ll always be OG,” Samples admits. “He laid the foundation and I’m proud to follow him.”