football program

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State fired coach Trent Bray on Sunday after the team fell to 0-7, its worst start to a season since 1991.

Robb Akey will be the interim head coach for the rest of the seson pending a national search for Bray’s successor, athletic director Scott Barnes said.

“I want to thank Coach Bray for the energy and determination he brought to the role. A former student-athlete, proud graduate, and dedicated mentor, Trent’s connection to Oregon State runs deep — he will always be a Beaver,” Barnes said. “This was a difficult decision, but the results on the field were not acceptable and after evaluating every aspect of the football program, I believe it is in the best interests of OSU football student-athletes, our fans and our university.”

The move came a day after backup quarterback Deshawn Purdie threw for 270 yards and four touchdowns in his first start for Wake Forest and the visiting Demon Deacons beat Oregon State 39-14 in front of a listless home crowd. The Beavers haven’t started this poorly since 1991, when they started 0-10.

After the game, Bray said he planned to keep showing up “until they tell me I can’t.”

“I’m frustrated. I’m disappointed. I look at myself, and I’ve got to fix it,” Bray said after the game. “It’s unacceptable to me where we’re at. That’s just how I look at it. What can I do? I’ve got to look at it. What can I do different to get these guys going?”

A week ago, Oregon State fired special teams coach Jamie Christian and Barnes said he and Bray were evaluating the program with an eye toward making immediate changes.

The buyout of Bray’s contract will be paid “exclusively using donor-generated funds,” the school said.

Akey is a veteran coach with experience in college and as an NFL assistant.

Well, it is starting to appear that we are on the way to another in a series of mediocre football seasons at my alma mater UCLA.

I am now officially in the “I don’t care about UCLA Football anymore” camp. I graduated from UCLA in 1975 and while every once in a while UCLA will have a somewhat successful season, the best they seem to be able to do is be invited to a second-tier bowl game. The College Football Playoff? Forget about it.

Coach DeShaun Foster is very clearly in way over his head. I predict he will be gone after this season.

Bruce Dunklin
Thousand Oaks

It has to be painfully obvious that the DeShaun Foster experiment at head coach is a dismal failure. The loss to UNLV was not just embarrassing but shameful. It was once said that Foster was Karl Dorrell 2.0, but that is unfair. Dorrell had a 10-win season and beat USC. Coach “We’re Close” Foster is in way over his head. His team is undisciplined and unprepared. This clueless performance will lead to a completely empty Rose Bowl and eventual desertion of NIL sponsors. What is the athletic department going to do when we lose to New Mexico and go 0-12 for the year?

Thomas Auyong
Diamond Bar

DeShaun Foster has to be the worst head coach in UCLA history. If a team is a reflection of their coach, then this is the worst UCLA team every. Does the team have a weight program? They are getting pushed around out there and it’s only going to get uglier. We are going to lose 100-0 to Ohio State.

Ed Villanueva
Chino Hills

UCLA fell for the third consecutive game to open the season, with their drubbing at the hands of New Mexico. Maybe it’s time for AD Martin Jarmond to consider dropping the football program to a lower division, or just dropping football completely (the latter might help balance the athletic budget). Either way, coach DeShaun Foster and the Bruins are in for a long season.

Chris Sorce
Fountain Valley

My 98-year-old father and I are 25-year UCLA football season-ticket holders. We love our Bruin football, but let’s face facts. When our AD, Martin Jarmond, hired coach DeShaun Foster, he looked at us with a straight face and told us that they had interviewed upward of 40 candidates for the head coaching position and that Foster was the best of the group. A man with no offensive, defensive or head-coaching experience.

It sadly is now painfully obvious that Jarmond and Foster should be replaced with more experienced and qualified candidates.

Christopher Armen
Woodland Hills

Brett Steigh, a Narbonne High graduate, booster, local businessman and gambler, claims he violated City and Southern Section rules by paying parents of high school football players to help level the playing field.

Steigh said during a Monday night appearance on the “Fattal Factor” podcast that he paid parents to secure transfers for Narbonne and St. Bernard before currently “helping” Bishop Montgomery. Narbonne in Harbor City is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles operates St. Bernard in Playa del Rey and Bishop Montgomery in Torrance.

While name, image and likeness policies allow for payment of players, recruiting transfer athletes and paying their parents as much as $50,000 remains a violation of the California Interscholastic Federation’s undue influence rules.

“I ain’t doing nothing that others aren’t doing,” Steigh said, alleging Orange County private schools, including national powerhouse Mater Dei, paid to secure transfer players.

A Mater Dei spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment in response to the allegation.

Steigh said he recruited players in 2018 and 2024 to Narbonne without the knowledge of the head coaches while paying parents to move. Both times, Narbonne was sanctioned by the City Section for rule violations.

He said he met with St. Bernard President Carter Paysinger in 2020 and agreed to support that school after former Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas took over the program. Douglas told The Times on Tuesday the payments reached close to $1 million between funding tuition for incoming freshman football players and improvements at the school. Douglas said school administrators were aware of the contributions.

Douglas and Steigh became the subject of FBI and IRS investigations after Douglas failed to report donations from Steigh and didn’t pay taxes on them. Steigh said they didn’t face any charges. Douglas resigned in 2020 and St. Bernard shut down its football program in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Steigh said he has now been “supporting” Bishop Montgomery with the knowledge of the school’s president, Patrick Lee.

Bishop Montgomery had five transfers declared ineligible by the Southern Section and has received more than 20 transfers in its football program entering this school year. The school fired its head coach, Ed Hodgkiss, on Saturday.

In a text message to The Times, Lee denied any connection to Steigh.

“What he said was an outright lie,” Lee said. “Neither the principal nor I ever met this man, spoke to him, emailed him, texted him — nothing.”

The City and Southern Section commissioners are aware of the statements Steigh made during the podcast, with one telling The Times they are reviewing them.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is investigating why five Bishop Montgomery transfer students were declared ineligible for two years by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves submitting false information. The archdiocese declined to address questions about Steigh’s allegations.

“The Archdiocese of Los Angeles does not discuss details of an ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson told The Times. “Once we have more information, we’ll share that with you.”

Bishop Montgomery canceled the game it was scheduled to play Friday against Leuzinger High, the second consecutive week the team forfeited a game after calling off a contest against Mater Dei last week. If Bishop Montgomery cancels the remainder of its football season, the players on the roster might be free to immediately transfer to other programs if they get a hardship waiver.

Steigh said he agreed to appear on reporter Tarek Fattal’s podcast because he felt it was wrong that Hodgkiss — the Bishop Montgomery football coach — was fired.

“Pat knew what the deal was and now he’s backing away. Not fair,” Steigh said, referring to the Bishop Montgomery president.

Hodgkiss told The Times he has been advised by legal counsel not to answer any questions.

A Bishop Montgomery parent wrote in a letter to The Times that an influx of football transfers joining the program was given preferential treatment.

“Returning players were demoted, excluded from trips or quit,” the parent wrote. “Archdiocesan Catholic values appear secondary to short-term athletic exposure. Despite my June outreach to the school, no reply ever came.”

In the spring, The Times asked new Bishop Montgomery Principal Michele Starkey if she was aware of any involvement by Steigh in Bishop Montgomery’s program. She said no.

When Steigh was asked during the podcast why he would risk players’ eligibility by getting involved at Bishop Montgomery, Steigh said he felt previous administrations he worked with didn’t have the backbone to succeed at recruiting players.

“They told us it wouldn’t be … sorry I shouldn’t say that,” Steigh said of Bishop Montgomery’s leadership. “They’re basically supporting to win right now.”

When pressed for more details, Steigh said, “I can’t comment on any players at Bishop Montgomery.”

He said he has now decided to retire from supporting high school football programs.

Steigh said he previously was a traditional booster at Narbonne, making donations to help pay for helmets, uniforms and a washing machine.

“In 2018, I decided to play the game that everyone else was playing,” Steigh said. “The head coach at the time did not want to do this. It was all on me. I lied to him. These players just showed up. Why? I wanted to compete with the private schools. I felt it was unfair public schools being left behind.”

Four coaches of Marine League schools forfeited games against Narbonne last season while demanding a City Section investigation into whether transfers were paid to play for the school.

“All these rumors through all these years, it’s all true,” Steigh said. “It was all me.”

There’s another Catholic school sports scandal under way, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles apparently was the only one who didn’t see it coming.

On Saturday, Bishop Montgomery in Torrance announced football coach and co-athletic director Ed Hodgkiss was no longer employed by the school.

In other words, he was fired.

He’s apparently going to be the fall guy for five Bishop Montgomery transfer students being declared ineligible by the Southern Section, multiple Bishop Montgomery suspensions imposed after players left the bench with 24 seconds left in a loss in Hawaii and Bishop Montgomery having to forfeit to No. 1 Mater Dei on Friday because of lack of players.

People in the Southern California football community have been talking about Bishop Montgomery for months as they saw one transfer after another welcomed to the school. Southern Section officials waited for weeks to receive the transfers’ paperwork. Five players were declared in violation of CIF bylaw 202, which includes providing false information.

If a school trying to rapidly improve its football program with short cuts sounds familiar, it is.

In 2020, St. Bernard turned to former Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas, who won eight City titles. Douglas was forced out at Narbonne and didn’t coach in 2019 after a nine-month Los Angeles Unified School District investigation. Narbonne was banned from the 2019 playoffs and forced to forfeit its 2018 City title for use of an ineligible player.

Douglas later resigned in the spring of 2020 when he came under an FBI and IRS investigation over money received from a Narbonne booster to pay for a trip to Hawaii while coaching at Narbonne.

St. Bernard proceeded to drop its football program in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

This past week, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese wrote in an email in response to a request for an update about Bishop Montgomery, “The investigation is ongoing and there are no developments to share at this time. The school and the Department of Catholic Schools are in communication with the CIF Southern Section office as the investigation continues.”

Last spring, Bishop Montgomery’s new principal, Michele Starkey, was asked by The Times in a phone call, whose participants included new school president Patrick Lee, if she was aware of any involvement by the same Narbonne booster tied to Douglas’ resignation in Bishop Montgomery’s program. She said no.

The archdiocese should start its investigation right there. Players don’t start suddenly showing up from all over Southern California with no reason.

Lessons were not learned. Players from last year’s Bishop Montgomery team saw what was happening and transferred out. Maybe the Archdiocese should ask them what was happening.

A Bishop Montgomery parent wrote in a letter to The Times, “Returning players were demoted, excluded from trips or quit; Archdiocesan Catholic values appear secondary to short-term athletic exposure; despite my June outreach to the school, no reply ever came.”

Messages left for Hodgkiss and Lee on Saturday were not returned.

It’s another big mess for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to clean up, and it was very much preventable if lessons from the past had been learned.

Ed Hodgkiss is no longer the football coach or co-athletic director at Bishop Montgomery. Principal Michele Starkey and president Patrick Lee made the announcement in a letter to parents on Saturday, writing Hodgkiss is “no longer employed at Bishop Montgomery.”

Bishop Montgomery and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have been scrambling to deal with the fallout from weeks of turmoil in the football program.

It started with the Southern Section declaring five transfer students ineligible this season for violation of CIF bylaw 202, which is providing false information. Then the team had numerous players suspended after a first-game loss in Hawaii when they left the bench with 24 seconds left. That forced Bishop Montgomery to forfeit Friday’s game against Santa Ana Mater Dei because of a lack of players.

The Archdiocese announced it would conduct an investigation into the transfer issues.

Hodgkiss came to Bishop Montgomery in 2010 from the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League.

Bishop Montgomery changed principals and presidents last school year and appeared to move to a different sports philosophy, accepting numerous transfer students with the hope of elevating the football program to a higher level of competition. The school is scheduled to leave the Camino Real League after this season.

No new coach was announced. Messages left for Hodgkiss and Lee were not returned.

After months of promising major changes to its personnel operation, USC hired a general manager for its football program.

Chad Bowden, after spending the previous three years at Notre Dame, was hired Friday as USC’s general manager.

“Chad is the perfect fit to help us build and sustain a championship-level football program in the new era of college athletics,” USC athletic director Jen Cohen said in a statement. “Combined with USC’s competitive resources and growing support, adding a general manager of Chad’s caliber and pedigree to our staff is a vital step toward fully realizing this program’s enormous potential.”

Bowden, 30, was named general manager and assistant athletic director at Notre Dame last March, after Michigan pursued him for its GM job. Notre Dame proceeded to make a run to the national championship game, losing to Ohio State. Before that, Bowden first served as Notre Dame’s defensive recruiting coordinator for one year, then director of recruiting for the two years after that.

At USC, Bowden is expected to be one of the highest-paid personnel directors in college football, with a salary believed to exceed $1 million. He’ll have a significant job ahead of him, with landscape-altering changes on the horizon in college football and at USC, where the personnel operation has lagged behind other blueblood programs.

Bowden, in a statement, called the role at USC a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

“This is a place with the resources, facilities and support to build a perennial winner,” Bowden said, “and I’m excited to get to work to help bring more national championships to USC.”

Plans to hire a new GM were first put into motion last August, as Cohen put on a full-court press to lure Alabama’s Courtney Morgan to L.A. But a $1-million salary wasn’t enough to convince Morgan, who took less money to continue working alongside Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer, both of whom worked under Cohen at Washington.

After missing out on Morgan, USC set out on a months-long search that yielded several candidates from the NFL front office ranks, according to a person familiar with those discussions. But USC landed on Bowden, whose vision for USC’s future on the personnel side immediately impressed leaders in the department.

How Bowden and a revamped personnel operation will work with USC’s coach, Lincoln Riley, remains to be seen. Riley worked closely with Dave Emerick, USC’s current general manager, on all personnel matters. It’s also unclear how Emerick’s role will change. A person familiar with the situation told The Times that he was expected to remain with the program in a different role.

Riley, in a statement, called Bowden’s hire “vital to the future of our program.”

Before coming to Notre Dame with coach Marcus Freeman, Bowden served as a recruiting staffer at Cincinnati. He’s made a rapid ascent, stepping into key personnel roles at two of college football’s proudest programs.

Gary Parks, a 1991 Verbum Dei graduate, knows the challenges ahead after accepting the job as head football coach at his alma mater.

“Verbum Dei is home for me,” he said.

Parks, who was head coach at Maya Angelou in the City Section for five years, is bringing with him four Verbum Dei graduates as assistants. If anyone knows how to build a winning program at the all-boys Catholic school in Watts, it’s Parks, who was an assistant coach for the 2006 championship team and helped put together a schedule to deal with the requirement of all students participating in work study.

“I know how the work study works,” he said. “The administration has changed and this one is awesome.”

There are 22 players in the program. Verbum Dei went 0-10 in 2023 and was 0-7 last season when the program was suspended for safety reasons after roster numbers had dropped.

“The first priority is to build up morale,” Parks said. “I welcome the challenge.”

It’s not every day you get a chance to try to reverse fortunes at your alma mater.

“We’re all going home,” Parks said. …

Four top basketball teams from Southern California are headed to Phoenix for the Nike Tournament of Champions Hoophall West showcase. St. John Bosco, Harvard-Westlake, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Eastvale Roosevelt will be playing three games each beginning Thursday. Here’s the schedule. …

Steven Perez of Banning was selected the City Section player of the year in football. Here’s the link to All-City teams.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Narbonne High School’s football program is heading toward an uncertain offseason after the resignation of coach Malcolm Manuel on Thursday.

Manuel was the coach for four seasons, helping rebuild the Gauchos after the exodus of players after the program was banned from the 2019 and 2020 playoffs. The rebuild culminated in a City Section Open Division championship this season.

But there were off-the-field issues. Four Marine League coaches decided to forfeit games rather than play Narbonne, alleging rule violations. Then the City Section declared seven players ineligible right before the playoffs began and made the Gauchos ineligible for next year’s playoffs.

Manuel said everything has taken a toll on him, leading to his decision to step down as football coach but continue as a teacher at the school. His successor could face a similar challenge to what he inherited in 2021, with a depleted roster.

“It was a lot that went down this year,” Manuel said. “I had multiple conversations with my family.”

As for the future of the program, Manuel said, “It will have to be addressed and fixed moving forward. The uncertainty of what’s next for the program is not only weighing on me but parents and kids.”

Van Nuys High School is 109 years old, with the likes of Don Drysdale, Robert Redford, Bob Waterfield and Marilyn Monroe among the famous alumni. Its football program has been pretty much struggling for years, going 2-8 in 2022 and 0-9 in 2021.

Ken Osorio, a Van Nuys grad, took over as coach last year and welcomed the opportunity to teach the many players with no experience who came out for the team. One of those was Carlos Herrera, who joined the junior varsity team in 2022 when Osorio was coach. He was a soccer player who didn’t know how to put on shoulder pads and said it was “nerve-racking” putting on a helmet for the first time.

Fast-forward to Saturday. Van Nuys (8-5) will be playing Panorama in the City Section Division III championship game with Herrera serving as the Wolves’ standout quarterback. Herrera has passed for 21 touchdowns and run for 10.

Van Nuys picked up another soccer player who has made major contributions. Leelen Castro, at 5 feet 5, 140 pounds, is six for six on field goals. See what happens when a coach teaches fundamentals and gets students from other sports to buy in? …

St. John Bosco football center Matthew Perdue is one of the smartest players on any field. He has a 4.3 grade-point average and is considering San Diego, John Hopkins and Amherst among his college choices. …

Ernest Nunley (17) makes the interception to start celebration with Narbonne teammates Michael Ashford (5) and Ke’Von Williams.

(Craig Weston)

Ernest Nunley of Narbonne is a junior defensive back who won’t turn 17 until next August. He entered high school when he was 13. He’s been playing against some 19-year-olds and showing no fear. …

Trevor McSween of Serrano carried the ball 46 times for 301 yards against Hemet on Nov. 15 and insisted he wasn’t hurting afterward, so who knows how many times he might get the ball Friday night in the Southern Section Division 8 final against St. Pius X-St. Matthias. …

Koen Glover of St. Bonaventure.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Koen Glover of St. Bonaventure has had quite a two-year run playing running back. Last season he rushed for 1,189 yards and 15 touchdowns. This season he has rushed for 2,023 yards and 26 touchdowns. He credits better strength for his improvement with no injuries. St. Bonaventure plays Oxnard Pacifica on Saturday for the Southern Section Division 4 championship at Rio Mesa. …

Here’s the complete weekend championship football schedule for City Section and Southern Section.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please send to [email protected].