Colorado State’s defense gave up 56 points to Oregon State on Saturday. Its defensive coordinator did not finish the game on the sideline, and he is no longer with the program.
Oregon State won 56-26 at Canvas Stadium on Oct. 3. Tyson Summers was stripped of play-calling duties during the first half and disappeared from the sideline. Head coach Jim Mora confirmed afterward that Summers is gone.
What Actually Happened Is Murkier Than the Headlines
Accounts differ, and the difference matters. Reporting states Summers was not formally fired during the contest. What happened in-game was the removal of his play-calling responsibilities. ESPN framed the overall outcome as a firing. Yahoo used “parts ways.” No source has confirmed whether this was a termination, a resignation or a mutual exit, and Summers has not spoken publicly.
Co-defensive coordinator Kenny McClendon took over the calls immediately and keeps the job. Cornerbacks coach Trent Matthews helped with signals.
Also worth correcting: the margin was 30 points, not 31.
The Numbers Were Indefensible
Oregon State led 14-0 early in the first quarter. Beavers quarterback Braden Atkinson finished 30-of-34 for 413 yards and five touchdowns. Thirty of thirty-four.
That was not an outlier. Colorado State had already surrendered 59 points to UTSA and 41 to BYU. Entering Week 5 the Rams ranked 129th nationally in scoring defense at 34.2 points allowed and 127th in yards per play at 7.4. The team is 2-3 after opening 2-0 and losing three straight.
Mora had flagged the problem publicly before the game, saying the defense needed to “un-complicate it” and calling what he was watching “chaos.”
Summers Has Been Through This Before
Summers is 46. He was Colorado State’s defensive coordinator in 2015, head coach at Georgia Southern in 2016 and 2017 where he went 6-18 before being fired, and returned to CSU as coordinator in 2025. He served as interim head coach for the final five games of 2025 after Jay Norvell was dismissed.
Then he was passed over for the full-time job in favor of Mora and kept on staff anyway. That arrangement almost never works, and it did not work here.
Mora Owns This Now
Mora is in his first season at Colorado State, hired Nov. 26, 2025 from UConn, in the Rams’ first year in the rebuilt Pac-12. His contract runs five years, paying $2.4 million in 2026 and rising to $2.8 million by 2030, with a $150,000 signing bonus, a $150,000 annual retention bonus and a $5 million assistant pool. CSU is also covering his $1.5 million UConn buyout.
Fan reaction to the mid-game demotion has been harsh, with plenty calling it disrespectful. I understand the discomfort and I do not share it. Mora kept a coordinator he did not hire, watched a quarterback complete 88 percent of his throws, and made a change in the moment rather than waiting out a loss he had already lost.
The optics were bad. The defense was worse.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.