Jim Radcliffe’s three decade tenure with Oregon football comes to an end

When a new coach comes in to a football program, it is up to him if he wants to retain any current staff or build his own staff. Willie Taggart has opted for the latter, and Oregon strength and conditioning coach Jim Radcliffe is the latest victim.

Willie Taggart has hired Irele Oderinde as Oregon’s new strength coach, ending Radcliffe’s three decade tenure with the team that began in 1985 when he was hired as the assistant strength coach. That made him the Pac-12’s longest tenured strength and conditioning coach.

Radcliffe is expected to continue to work with the university as the strength coach for the track and baseball teams in the spring.

Oderinde comes over from South Florida, where he worked with Taggart as the team’s director of athletic performance. Their relationship goes back even further as well. When Taggart was the co-offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky in 2002, Oderinde was a defensive tackle on that team.

Oderinde has also been the strength and conditioning coach at Notre Dame, South Carolina, West Virginia and Western Kentucky.

During Taggart’s introductory press conference, he talked about how the team needed to get bigger and stronger, so hopefully Oderinde is the right man to accomplish that.

In the meantime, let’s all pour one out for Rad.