FootballScoop is proud to announce that Chris Hampton and Rashad Wadood (Oregon) are the 2025 FootballScoop Defensive Backs Coaches of the Year presented by Teamworks as selected by prior winners.
Oregon, a program known for high-flying offense and attention-grabbing uniforms, is both guilty as charged on both of those fronts. But the Ducks didn't go 11-1 and soar into the College Football Playoff with by points and style alone; the Ducks also patrolled the air with one of the stingiest pass defenses in college football.
For starters, the Ducks were among the toughest defenses in the country to throw a complete pass against. Opposing quarterbacks have hit on just 167-of-323 attempts to date, a 51.7 percent completion rate that ranks fourth in the nation, second among the Power 4, and first in the Big Ten. Four opponents were held well below 50 percent.
When those passes were completed, they often did not go very far. Oregon is third in the country at 144.3 yards per game allowed, and fourth at 5.4 per attempt. Sixty-six of 323 passes defended have resulted in completions of 10-plus yards (20.4 percent), and 20 (6.2 percent) netted 20 yards or more. Oregon is one of 12 FBS teams to allow just a single completion of 50 or more yards on the season.
Oregon defenders are also more likely to swipe a pass themselves than surrender a touchdown. The Ducks are in the top 20 nationally in both passing touchdowns allowed (12) and interceptions (13), and they are one of 17 teams to register more interceptions than touchdowns. Three of 12 opponents to date have left a game with Oregon having thrown more touchdowns than interceptions. One of those three (Penn State) saw their game, season, and effectively a whole era of its program end after safety Dillon Thieneman snared a game-sealing, season-changing interception in double overtime.
Add it all together and you get a unit that is fourth nationally, second among the Power 4 and first in the Big Ten at 100.95 passing efficiency. Furthermore, that number stands as the best by a Big Ten team over the past two seasons, and the best by an Oregon team in at least the past 10 seasons.
The Ducks limited Heisman Trophy finalist Fernando Mendoza to his lowest passer rating in a Big Ten game and, frankly, left some opponents feeling as if they'd have been better off not throwing the ball at all:
-- Oklahoma State: 7-of-19 for 67 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions
-- Northwestern: 11-of-22 for 135 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions
-- Oregon State: 7-of-22 for 80 yards and no touchdowns
-- Rutgers: 8-of-27 for 79 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions
-- Wisconsin: 7-of-21 for 86 yards with one touchdown and one interception
-- Washington: 15-of-30 for 129 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions
Thieneman was named a First Team All-Big Ten honoree, while true freshman corner Brandon Finney, Jr., was a Second Team All-Big Ten performer.
A four-year letter-winner at South Carolina, Hampton won the Gamecocks' Harold White Award as the player with the highest GPA on the team. He entered coaching as a GA at Arkansas State in 2008 and landed his first full-time role as the defensive backs coach at Central Arkansas in 2011. Hampton went on to coach defensive backs at McNeese, Tulane and Duke before landing the defensive coordinator role at Tulane in 2021, and by 2022 the Green Wave had gone from 2-10 to 12-2 with an American championship, a Cotton Bowl victory over USC, and the school's first AP top-10 finish since 1998. Hampton joined the Oregon staff in 2023 as co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, and is expected to be promoted to defensive coordinator upon Tosh Lupoi's departure for the Cal head coaching position.
Wadood, an Eastern Washington graduate, joined the Oregon staff in 2022 as director of community engagement before moving to a graduate assistant role in 2024. He was promoted to cornerbacks coach ahead of this season.
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by Teamworks are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Dominique Bowman [Southern Miss], Brett Arce and Chip Viney [Arizona], Demetrius Sumler and CJ McGorisk [San Diego State], Ross Watson and Perry Eliano [Toledo] and Hampton and Wadood) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Previous winners of the Defensive Backs Coach of the Year award are Tim Billings (Wake Forest, 2008), Everett Withers and Troy Douglas (North Carolina, 2009), Chad Glasgow and Clay Jennings (TCU, 2010), Ron Cooper (LSU, 2011), Bill Busch and Kendrick Shaver (Utah State, 2012), Jeremy Pruitt (Florida State, 2013), Dave Wommack and Jason Jones (Ole Miss, 2014), Mike Reed (Clemson, 2015), Charles Clark and Joe Tumpkin (Colorado, 2016), Anthony Campanile (Boston College, 2017), Bryan Brown and Greg Gasparato (Appalachian State, 2018), Mickey Conn and Mike Reed (Clemson, 2019), Perry Eliano and Colin Hitschler (Cincinnati, 2020), Phil Parker (Iowa, 2021), Aaron Henry (Illinois, 2022), Patrick Surtain, Sr. (Florida State, 2023), and Terry Joseph and Blake Gideon (Texas, 2024).
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