Oregon State Hires Keith Heyward As Defensive Coordinator
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An Oregon State alumnus is coming home...
New head football coach Trent Bray named former Beaver standout Keith Heyward to be the program's next defensive coordinator.
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Heyward comes to Corvallis after spending the 2023 season as a defensive quality control coach with the Las Vegas Raiders. Before the Raiders, he was UNLV's defensive coordinator in 2022.
He was a standout player for the Beavers from 1997-2000, starting 35 straight games at cornerback and earning All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention during his senior season in 00.
Heyward began his coaching career with the Beavers in 2005 as a graduate assistant after spending several years post-college playing in the professional ranks in Canada, Scotland, and the US (arena).
After serving two years on Mike Riley's staff, Heyward moved to Cal Poly where he was linebackers coach for one season. That departure was short-lived as Riley re-hired Heyward the following season as defensive backs' coach, a position he would hold until 2011.
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During that stretch, he recruited/coached several of the Beavers' top defensive backs in recent memory, including Jordan Poyer, Lance Mitchell, Brandon Hughes, Al Afalava, Brandon Hardin, Keenan Lewis, and others.
He departed Oregon State for Washington in 2012, spending two seasons before following Steve Sarkisian to USC where he served two additional seasons.
After that coaching staff was let go he moved on to Louisville as DB coach in 2016, before arriving at Oregon as the safeties coach in 2017.
When Mario Cristobal took over in 2018, he named Heyward as Co-Defensive Coordinator (with Andy Avalos) in addition to being safeties coach. The following season, he was given the title of assistant head coach with the Ducks.
After Cristobal hired Tim DeRuyter to replace the departed Avalos (Boise State), Heyward left Oregon to join Justin Wilcox's Cal staff for one season as linebackers coach in 2021 before moving to UNLV.
Stick with BeaversEdge.com as we'll have continuing coverage of Oregon State's coaching changes and more!
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