The coach at Central Catholic is Charlie Landgraf, a walk-on offensive lineman from Jesuit High School in Portland who played on the 2019 Rose Bowl team.
On Sunday Landgraf sent two of his players to Oregon as walk-ons, safety Cole Thomas and edge rusher Hudson Coe.
Thomas committed first, a defensive back and kick returner who could make an impact on special teams. 6-1, 200 with a 3.98 GPA. He had offers from Portland State and Penn. He posted a 4.52 40, a 245 bench and 350-pound squat, by all measures a decent athlete with good size.
In the 6A semifinal 21-14 upset of West Linn, Thomas broke off a 99-yard touchdown run. As a senior he averaged 43.3 yards on four kick returns.
Neither Thomas or Coe earned a star at 247, but a generation ago the Oregon roster was dotted with players like these, good athletes from Oregon high schools willing to put in the work. Coe is 6-3.5, 230, a high-motor player who racked up 15 sacks and 21 tackles for loss as a senior, named second team All-State behind Oregon commit Tony Cumberland.
He's another good student with a 4.04 GPA who garnered scholarship offers from Colgate and St. Thomas.
Blessed to receive second team all state at Defensive Line pic.twitter.com/iYGVbYtYpb
— Hudson Coe (@hudson_coe89) December 27, 2025
An old/new roster strategy surfaces in a different era
The new era of NIL, revenue sharing and the Transfer Portal requires creative, multilevel thinking from coaches and general managers. It's impossible to maintain depth by stockpiling four stars and keeping them in development the way Nick Saban used to at Alabama. Now those players move on to other opportunities, starting jobs at Ole Miss, Notre Dame or Missouri.
To fill out the depth chart and stock the special teams a coach has to look for football players in unusual places. The hard-nosed linebacker from Grants Pass, South Eugene or Central Catholic has a role again, much like he did in the era of Rich Brooks. Sometimes those guys develop into pretty good players, like Chad Cota or Bryce Boettcher.