Breaking: Oregon State Special Teams Coach Jamie Christian Relieved Of Duties
Following a 0-6 start to the 2025 campaign, Oregon State head coach Trent Bray has decided to make a change with the football staff. Special teams coordinator Jamie Christian has been relieved of his duties, effective immediately.
Bray issued the following statement:
“Now is the right time to make a change in our football program, and I have relieved Coach Jamie Christian of his duties at Oregon State. All of us appreciate Coach Christian’s commitment to helping us build the program and wish him the best moving forward.”
BeaversEdge talked about the need to make staff changes at special teams since the Fresno State game disaster, and Bray was steadfast that he wouldn’t make changes unless it was for the benefit of the players. Just a little over a week later, things have changed as the Beavers will be under a new direction on the special teams side.
Oregon State’s special teams had cost the team at least two, if not three, games this season, and the Beavers’ unit was one of the worst in college football. Entering the App State game, Oregon State was one of the lowest-graded special teams units in all of FBS, and if you included FCS, they also found themselves near the bottom.
As of Sunday afternoon, the Beavers ranked 135th out of 136 teams in season-long special teams’ grade, narrowly edging out Colorado State.
Christian joined Trent Bray’s inaugural staff following the staff turnover at the conclusion of the 2023 campaign. Bray ultimatley chose not to retain STC Jake Cookus, who also wasn’t extended an invite to East Lansing, instead opting to bring in Christian from New Mexico, where he had been since 2020.
Christian had also previously served at Oregon State as a defensive graduate assistant on the 2000 and 2001 staffs.
Bray said this about Christian at the time of his hiring:
“Jamie has a great history of coaching at the collegiate level and will be an asset to our special teams at Oregon State,” Bray said. “As a bonus, he knows what it means to be a Beaver and has been a part of success here.”
It’s unclear who will handle the special teams moving forward, but the Beavers have some options in-house that could handle things on an interim basis. It’s not likely the Beavers will seek out an outside hire mid-season, but rather look to have someone on staff take over.
Special Assistant To The Head Coach Robb Akey could be an option as he’s coached special teams across his long coaching career. His son, Daniel Akey, is the current special teams quality control coach, but he has relatively limited experience.
Wide receivers coach Patt McCann coached special teams early in his coaching career for a pair of seasons, and could be an outside-the-box idea, as could defensive line coach Ilaisa Tuiaki, who handled special teams duties several times in his career, including 2015 with Oregon State.
Another option could be defensive quality control coach Mark Criner, who has coached special teams at four different spots across his coaching career.
Bray has several options in-house, and it’ll be interesting to see ultimatley who is tabbed to lead the unit moving forward. We’ll likely have more clarity from Bray’s Monday press conference, stay tuned to BeaversEdge for the latest…
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