Oklahoma is reportedly hiring Arizona State’s Jamar Cain to fill the outside linebacker coach position, per Bruce Feldman.
SOURCE: #ASU DL coach Jamar Cain will become the new OLB coach at #Oklahoma. Cain was rated as one of the top two recruiters in the Pac-12 this year and is considering a rising star defensive coach.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 31, 2020
Ruffin McNeill, who held the position since Lincoln Riley took over as the head coach in 2017, officially announced last Thursday he was stepping away from the program for family reasons. Riley and McNeill coached at Texas Tech and East Carolina.
Cain served as the defensive line coach at Arizona State last season under head coach Herman Edwards. Before ASU he spent two years with Fresno State coaching defensive line.
Upon breaking the news of Cain’s hire, he noted that he was a “rising star” among college football coaches. Feldman cited Cain was one of the top two recruiters in the Pac-12 conference last season.
The Sun Devils improved from the No. 36 overall class in 2018 to No. 26 in 2019 according to 247 Sports.
In an interview with Michelle Gardner of azcentral.com, Cain expressed his thoughts on the opportunity ahead of him at Oklahoma.
“I was surprised. I didn’t think I had done enough to get that kind of attention,” he said. “It was too good of an offer to pass up, I loved my time here but at the end of the day it’s a business.”