For Kyle DeVan, coaching job with Beavers is ‘dream come true’

Offensive line coach Kyle DeVan is excited to be coaching for his alma mater

Updated 7/16/2024 5:05 PM

CORVALLIS — As Kyle DeVan was ending his football playing career with the Tennessee Titans at age 27 in 2012, he thought he might turn to coaching.

And he knew where he would like to end up.

“I started here, and I knew this was the dream,” Oregon State’s new offensive line coach said Thursday at the Valley Football Center. “I had a great mentor here in Mike Cavanaugh (his O-line coach at OSU). It wasn’t, ‘I’m going to work my way up and get Cav out.’ It was, ‘I’m going to create my own path and hopefully one day it leads me back here.’

“To say in 12 years the dream has come true, it’s a reality.”

When Trent Bray was named Oregon State’s head coach last November, one of the first calls he made was to DeVan, his former teammate. Bray was a standout middle linebacker, a first-team All-Pac-10 selection as a senior in 2005 for the Beavers. DeVan was a three-year starter at center who, after a redshirt year in 2003, had a career that spanned from 2004-07.

“I get to do this with somebody who means a lot to me, and not just from a professional level,” says DeVan, 39. “We have a personal relationship. We are friends. We were roommates in college. We hit each other every day in practice for three years.

“To be able to do this with Trent makes it even more special. When I got the call, it was surreal. I pinch myself every time I think about it.”

DeVan began his coaching career as a grad assistant at OSU in 2013. Over the next decade, he had one NFL job (as assistant O-line coach with the Saints in 2015) and stints at Ball State, Arizona, Michigan and Colorado before landing at Charlotte as O-line coach, associate head coach and run game coordinator last year. When Bray beckoned, it was time for Kyle to come full circle and return to his alma mater.

Kyle and wife Erin celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary on Saturday. Their children are son Bode (nine) and daughter Lola (eight).

“It is so much fun to be back,” DeVan says. “Feels like home already.”

Cavanaugh began as DeVan’s position coach at OSU in 2005, when Kyle was a sophomore.

“I loved coaching Kyle,” says Cavanaugh, now assistant O-line coach at Oregon. “He was smart and tough, a great guy to coach. I am really proud of what he’s doing. After serving as a GA for a couple of years, he got to fully join the profession and has done a great job. I’m excited for him and his future.”

The head coach during DeVan’s five years as a player at Oregon State was Mike Riley.

“Smart, tough, talented,” says Riley, now retired and living in Corvallis. “He competed all the time. He was very easy to coach because he was self-motivated and wanted to be good.

“From the time he spent with us, there was no doubt he was going to be a coach. A good O-line coach is so important to the heartbeat of the offense and the team. It’s not an easy find. Kyle was destined to be one of those guys by the way he approached learning about football and the way he could verbalize and teach it.”

Riley watched a few practice sessions during spring ball.

“Kyle was well-coached by Cav and has enough pro experience that he has been able to form his own philosophy about coaching the line,” Riley says. “It makes me proud to see him out there coaching the Beavers.”

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DeVan could have gone a different direction. A two-sport star at Vacaville (Calif.) High — a city of 100,000 tucked midway between Sacramento and San Francisco — he was CIF heavyweight champion as a senior and was offered a scholarship at national power Oklahoma State.

“I committed to play football at Oregon State in the fall my senior year,” Devan says. “This was like the dream — college town, big-time ball. It fit all my needs. The (assistant) coach who recruited me was Craig Bray — Trent’s dad. Whenever we see each other, he tells me I owe my career to him.”

But in late January of 2003, just before football letter-of-intent day, Oklahoma State called. Specifically, assistant wrestling coach Mark Munoz, father of current Beaver wrestling standout Trey Munoz. The Cowboys, who would win the NCAA championship that fall, were offering a scholarship and wanted to know if he would come to Stillwater for a visit.

“But my dream was always to play football,” DeVan says. “It was a hard decision, but I signed with Dennis Erickson’s (Oregon State) staff.”

Two days later, Erickson left the Beavers for a head coaching position with the San Francisco 49ers.

“I played my college career for Mike Riley,” DeVan says, “which turned out to be a blessing.”

After serving a backup role to Matt Brock in 2004, DeVan started 38 straight games to end his career. He was part of an outstanding group of O-linemen that included Roy Schuening, Andy Levitre, Adam Koets, Jeremy Perry, Adam Speer and Tavita Thompson. DeVan, Schoening, Levitre and Koets all played in the NFL.

DeVan was a three-year starting center for the Beavers from 2005-07 (courtesy OSU sports communications)

“And Jeremy was probably the best one of us all, but he got injured,” DeVan says. Perry was Pac-10 Co-Freshman of the year in 2005 and first-team all-conference as a sophomore before suffering a broken leg and knee injury from which he never fully recovered.

Cavanaugh had plenty of both bark and bite as a coach. DeVan thrived under his guidance.

“Cav had the biggest impact of any coach on my life,” DeVan says. “To play O-line for him is hard. Not everybody can do it. But once you prove yourself, he becomes your best advocate. He will help you in any way he can.

“My sophomore year was so hard. I had to do the blitz pickup and make all the changes. I was a first-year starter and he put all the pressure on me. But that made it easy on Saturday. That was the thing I always appreciated about Cav. He would yell and scream and make it hard Monday through Friday. Then on Saturday, he was awesome. He didn’t yell and scream unless we needed a little amp or pick-me-up. He made it slow and easy for us. It was tough love, but he loves you more than anybody else.

“That is what my view is with my players today. I am going to be hard on them, but we had the O-line over for a barbecue last night. I am going to feed you, I am going to hug you, I am going to tell you I love you. That was important to me as a player; I think it is still important to the kids nowadays.”

During DeVan’s four years, the Beavers went 31-19, including 3-0 in bowl games. They were 10-2 against their Northwest rivals — 4-0 vs. Washington, 3-1 vs. Oregon and Washington State. The Beavers beat every Pac-10 opponent except UCLA.

“Our class especially accomplished just about everything we wanted to do,” DeVan says. “In ’05, we were young. There were a lot of sophomores starting in the O-line. We knew we had a good future.

“We got a chance to do things that hadn’t been done with a class, even the (2001) Fiesta Bowl team. The core of the ’06 and ’07 teams were high school signees who went through the process together. I was fulfilled by my collegiate career, both individually and collectively as a team.”

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DeVan played in the East-West Shrine Game after his senior year but went undrafted. He spent parts of the 2008 season on the practice squad of the Washington Redskins and New York Jets but was let go by the Jets at season’s end. DeVan returned home, spent some time substitute teaching at Vacaville High, then played three games of Arena2 Ball with the Boise Burn in the spring of 2009. “Had the time of my life,” he says.

But he was in a quandary. He was making about $200 a game in Boise. Was he wasting his time? Should he give up playing football?

“Two times I had that conversation with coaches,” DeVan says. The first time was with Cavanaugh.

“Nope,” Cavanaugh told him. “Play until you are ready to stop playing or until everybody stops calling.”

Not long after, the Indianapolis Colts called with an offer to attend their training camp.

DeVan was starting right guard on the Indianapolis Colts’ 2010 Super Bowl team

“I signed as the 15th of 15 guys on the O-line in camp,” DeVan says.

DeVan’s position coach was Howard Mudd, who would spend 38 seasons as an NFL O-line coach. Kyle considers Mudd as parallel with Cavanaugh as his greatest mentors. The Colts had a veteran at center in Jeff Saturday.

“If you want to make the team, you have to play guard,” Mudd told DeVan.

Kyle had never played guard, but he learned fast.

“During camp, I was with the second team at guard and the third team at center,” he says. “It got me a ton of experience.”

DeVan survived the first cut to 12 O-linemen, then the final cut to nine.

“I was the ninth guy, but I was on the team,” he says.

Kyle didn’t suit up for the first two games but rotated in at guard for the next five games. He played well enough to earn his first NFL start in week nine, and started at right guard for the rest of the season.

“It was a wild year,” he says.

Under first-year head coach Jim Caldwell, the Colts went 14-2 in the regular season, then knocked off Baltimore and the Jets to set up a Super Bowl matchup with New Orleans in Miami.

DeVan won’t forget the thrill of playing in the Super Bowl in his first pro season.

“It brings back every childhood memory you can think of the Super Bowl, from the coin toss on,” he says. “You watch it on TV and on the opening kickoff (the camera) pans the stadium and you see the (camera) flashes. Luckily, (the Saints) had the ball first so I got to cherish the moment and kind of pinch myself. Once the game started, we were such a veteran team, it helped me out. It was just football after that.”

The Colts, behind quarterback Peyton Manning, jumped to a 10-0 lead and still led 10-6 at halftime, but the Saints rallied for a 30-17 victory.

DeVan played two seasons with the Colts and developed a personal relationship with Manning.

“In the offseason, we spent some time together,” DeVan says. “We golfed, we hung out. I spent two Thanksgivings at his house. Went to a Tennessee game in Knoxville with him. Got to go to his Hall of Fame enshrinement (in 2021).

“I was blessed to be taken under his wing. I loved his competitiveness, the accountability he had. It was great for me.”

The Colts’ offensive system was complex.

“For other guys it was hard, because we played so fast,” DeVan says. “You had to learn one run play that could be code-worded 15 ways. You had to process the information very fast. I was good at that. I excelled in that system. Other guys were probably better players than me, but you had four seconds once you change the play to execute. I loved that. Peyton and I had the same philosophy: Work hard and enjoy life.”

After the 2010 season, during which DeVan started 12 games for the Colts, he was waived and picked up by Philadelphia. He played only five games for the Eagles — four as a starter — but met Erin, a native of Canada who was living there. After that season, he had another conversation with an Oregon State coach, this time Riley.

New Oregon State offensive line coach Kyle DeVan, wife Erin and kids Bode and Lola recently vacationed on a Disney cruise in the Caribbean. “We are a Disney family,” Kyle says (courtesy DeVan family)

“Kyle, the game doesn’t wait for everybody,” Riley told him. “If you want to retire, that’s OK. But if you want to still play, you should try. It’s not like you can sit out a year or two and then go back and play.”

The 6-2, 310-pound DeVan played one more season with Tennessee, then called it quits after 40 games — and 26 starts — with the Colts, Eagles and Titans to begin what he calls “my coaching journey.” After GA stops at Oregon State and Southern Cal, he was hired as assistant line coach for New Orleans by general manager Mickey Loomis, a Willamette High grad who went on to play basketball at Northwest Christian.

Kyle says he was “amazed” by the vast knowledge and repertoire of Saints head coach Sean Payton.

“Through the draft, the OTAs and training camp, he wasn’t around much,” DeVan says. “We get to the third preseason game and he walks in and says, ‘What are we calling tonight, guys?’ And he calls every game the rest of the season.

“I’m thinking this is like the smartest guy I have ever met. He was like the CEO figure, and once we got to the season, he totally took control of the offense. We would go to walk-throughs, and we had like 36 plays. He would articulate and demonstrate everything for every position on every single play.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this is so helpful,’ because it was so interactive. I see coaching the game the same way as he does. I would rather walk it and talk it and do it, because I think (the players) retain the information better.”

After two years as O-line coach at Arizona, DeVan took a position as offensive analyst at Michigan. Sherrone Moore — now the Wolverines’ head coach — was the O-line coach. DeVan was his de facto assistant.

The Wolverines went 12-2 overall, 8-1 in Big Ten play and buried Iowa 42-3 in the Big Ten championship game for the program’s first outright conference title since 2003. They lost to Georgia 34-11 in the Orange Bowl and the CFP semifinals, but DeVan’s charges won the Joe Moore Award as the best offensive line in college football.

“I was 36,” he says. “I wanted to learn from people doing it at a high level. It was top-notch.”

DeVan’s experience with head coach Jim Harbaugh was a good one.

“With Coach Harbaugh, what you see is what you get,” he says. “He doesn’t care about anything that is not good for his players. Michigan prints money. They have unlimited resources. But their locker room is very average. Jim will tell you that you don’t need a great locker room to be a good team.

“You do need a great weight room to be a good team. They have the biggest weight room in college for a single sport. It’s ginormous. They have one of the best nutrition systems in all college athletics. Things he cared about and knew impacted the players, he would spend unlimited resources. If it didn’t, he wouldn’t care about it. This game is all about the players, and it is all about what is going to make them better.”

Harbaugh’s philosophies weren’t set in stone. He was adaptive, DeVan says.

“He doesn’t live in a black and white world,” Kyle says. “Everything is gray. It doesn’t have to be done the way it has always been done. He was a West Coast (offense) guy, but there was a lot of critical thinking. He was always trying to tweak things to become a better teacher of the game.

“When you are working for him, it becomes hard. You are changing things right before meetings or the start of practice. But he always did it because he thought it would be the best thing for the kids.”

In 2023, DeVan took the position at Charlotte with first-year head coach Biff Poggi, who had been Harbaugh’s associate head coach and DeVan’s office mate at Michigan. In their first year in the American Athletic Conference, the 49ers went 3-9. As associate head coach, DeVan experienced much of the administrative side.

“To be Biff’s No. 2, I was involved in a ton of meetings,” he says. “I got to meet with senators and people in the state government. I wish (the 49ers) well. I want to continue to see the growth in that program.”

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DeVan is bullish about his 2024 Oregon State O-line, which returns only one starter in senior Josh Gray.

Senior guard Josh Gray has started 44 games in his career for the Beavers (courtesy OSU sports communications)

“I like the group a lot,” DeVan says. “What they have done here is built it with blue-collar kids who are hungry, love Corvallis and want to be good. Last year’s team was experienced. They recruited a lot of young guys who haven’t gotten their chance yet.

“The guys we have now have been a part of the process and are ready to play. You bide your time, and then your time comes.”

Like his predecessor, Jim Michalczik, DeVan doesn’t like to call any of his players starters this far from the opening game. He makes an exception for Gray, who will be in his sixth season and has started 44 games at tackle for the Beavers in his career.

“Josh is a starter,” DeVan says. “He has earned that. I am so impressed by him. He is 24 and (got married on Saturday). He is at a different place in his life than most of the guys.”

DeVan sold the 6-4, 305-pound Gray on returning for his senior season by giving him almost unprecedented leverage as the leader of the line.

“We put him in the best spot to be drafted in the highest spot possible,” DeVan says. “A lot of NFL teams want to see him at guard. He will play whatever side is most comfortable for him.

“I am going to play him at both guard spots, and he is also going to practice some at center because in the NFL, you don’t choose. I want to get him exposure at all three now and then have him tell me where he wants to play. “And if he is ready to play some center, I will put him out there at center so we can showcase him to the NFL. We are trying to do what is best for him and his future, because what is best for Josh is going to be what is best for our team.”

The other key returnee is Grant Starck, a 6-4, 290-pound senior from Thurston High who was the first reserve O-lineman and played in 12 games last season.

“Grant is playing his best football right now,” DeVan says. “He was probably the best offensive lineman for us in the spring. He is a four-position player — everything but center. We might move him around, but he has earned the right to start. His family will get to see him play his best season of football in his home state this fall.”

DeVan was O-line coach at Colorado in 2022. That paid off for the Beavers, who recruited a pair of starters for the Buffaloes who hit the transfer portal — junior center Van Wells and senior Gerad “Tank” Christian-Lichtenhan, who could play guard or tackle — along with running back Anthony Hankerson.

The 6-2, 305-pound Wells was the only high school recruit DeVan signed at Colorado. As a true freshman, Wells started games at guard and center and was a Freshman All-American.

“He reminds me of me,” DeVan says with a smile. “He is about the same size as I was, was a bit overlooked, very smart. I have always had a special place in my heart for him. After I was hired and he was in the portal, he was the first guy I went to see.”

Christian-Lichtenhan was a part-time starter for Colorado the past two seasons while dealing with injuries.

“Tank is all of 6-10 and weighs between 325 and 335,” DeVan says. “He is a very large human. At Colorado, he lost a ton of weight that he needed to lose. He was this hungry kid who got exposed as a freshman but worked a lot on his flexibility and mobility. I am excited to see what he can do for us this fall.”

DeVan has penciled in a top-eight group that includes 6-5, 315-pound senior Flavio Gonzalez, 6-4, 370-pound junior Tyler Voltin and a pair of sophomores, 6-5, 315-pound Nate Elu and 6-5, 285-pound Jacob Strand.

“Every kid in the room will play multiple positions,” DeVan says. “I want them to be versatile. I want the best five guys to start, and hopefully we can rotate in guys. When you do that, it allows for you to continue to raise your floor.”

The Beavers have 15 O-linemen on scholarship.

“You really want to find 10 guys who can play going into a season,” DeVan says. “Right now I feel really good about eight; we have to find two more.”

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DeVan is setting his sights high for the upcoming season.

 “Coach Bray talks about it, and we are not going to shy away from it — the CFP playoffs is our goal,” he says. “We are in a unique spot. We have the opportunity to control our own destiny. 

“Look at the route we have to take to go to the CFP. We have the toughest strength of schedule outside of the Power Four. Then it’s us, and then the Group of Five.”

DeVan isn’t sure what the magic number of wins is — 10 or 11 — “but if we get there,” he says, “we have earned the right to get to the CFP. That is our team goal.”

That is going to be very difficult. The Beavers face Power Four opponents Oregon, California and Purdue along with Pac-12 sibling Washington State, though only the Cal game is on the road. There are road games against Mountain West powers Boise State (6-2 in conference, 8-6 overall last season) and Air Force (5-3, 9-4) and home dates with Nevada-Las Vegas (6-2, 9-5) and San Jose State (6-2, 8-5).

“I like our schedule, with seven home games,” DeVan says. “The Mountain West is not a cakewalk. Washington State has been a hard team for us. We are at Cal. It is going to be challenging.

“But can we win all 12 games? One hundred percent. Do we have to be playing our best football every Saturday? Yeah, we do.”

That seems unlikely if not impossible. But this is an unparalleled season for Oregon State, having been cast aside by its Pac-12 brethren. If the talent level has been substantially drained — and DeVan isn’t convinced of that — the motivation won’t be lacking.

“The kids are all hungry to show why they deserve to play,” he says. “They are going to have a little chip on their shoulders. Everybody in Corvallis, at Oregon State, has a little chip on their shoulder. We are going to go out and play that way.”

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