Colorado State defensive coordinator Tyson Summers was stripped of play-calling duties in the first quarter of Saturday’s 56-26 loss to Oregon State, walked off the field and is no longer with the program, head coach Jim Mora said.
Mora framed the sequence as two decisions, not one. He took the headset. Summers chose to leave.
“Tyson was relieved of his play-calling duties, he made the decision on his own to leave the field, and he is no longer with this football program,” Mora said after the game. He added that Summers walking off “wasn’t anything that I would ever consider. I just relieved him of his duties as a play-caller.” Mora called the separation a permanent move made after the game.
The change came early. Oregon State opened with a 50-yard touchdown pass from Braden Atkinson to Jesse Legree, then drove 96 yards in 13 plays for a Gabe Milbourn touchdown run that made it 14-0 with 1:03 left in the first quarter. Summers, who had started the afternoon signaling the defense, was gone after that drive. Co-defensive coordinator Kenny McClendon took the call sheet. Cornerbacks coach Trent Matthews began sending in the signals. A USA Sports sideline report said McClendon had been calling the defense since about midway through the first quarter.
It did not stop the bleeding. Oregon State led 35-14 at halftime and finished with 56 points — 14 in the first quarter, 21 in the second, seven in the third and 14 in the fourth. Atkinson completed 30 of 34 passes for 413 yards and five touchdowns. The Rams (2-3, 0-1 Pac-12) answered with 26 points of their own and still never got back in it.
NEW: Colorado State HC Jim Mora explains why he dismissed DC Tyson Summers:
“Tyson was relieved of his play calling duties, he made the decision on his own to leave the field, and he is no longer with this football program.” 😳
Says this wasn’t something he anticipated. pic.twitter.com/uw9FqdO7fJ
— College Transfer Portal (@CollegeFBPortal) October 4, 2026
Mora said the switch was not a plan he carried into the day. The defense had already made it one. Colorado State entered Saturday allowing 34.3 points and 454 yards a game, third-worst and near the bottom of the FBS in both total defense and run defense. The Rams had given up 100 points over the previous two games, a 41-23 loss to BYU and a 59-45 loss at UTSA. Cameras caught Mora confronting Summers on the sideline in San Antonio. This was the first time since 1984 that Colorado State had allowed 50 or more points in consecutive games, and the Rams have given up 52 points a game over the last three, all losses.
Mora had already said publicly that the package was too big. “Players at any level, regardless of intelligence, can only comprehend so much in a football game. It’s chaos,” he said earlier in the week. “When you get in situations where your players aren’t playing fast because they’re not certain, it’s critically important that you shrink the package.” After the game he was blunter: “This is awful right now. It’s been two awful games in a row. Well, three really. We’ve given up a gazillion points.”
McClendon, the associate head coach and defensive line coach, will be the primary play-caller going forward. He spent the previous four seasons with Mora at UConn. Mora said McClendon’s first call as a defensive coordinator, in his career, was a sack and forced fumble. “He was put in a very difficult situation and he responded well and the players responded well,” Mora said. “We’re going to get better. We’re going to get a lot better. He’s a good football coach.” Oregon State kept scoring anyway.
Summers was not a new hire Mora inherited by accident. The Tifton, Georgia, native returned to Fort Collins in 2025 for a second stint as defensive coordinator — he had held the job in 2015 under Mike Bobo — after three seasons at Western Kentucky and earlier coordinator stops at Colorado and UCF. When Jay Norvell was fired seven games into 2025, Summers took over as interim head coach and went 0-5. Mora, hired Nov. 26, 2025, kept him. Summers is also 5-13 as a head coach at Georgia Southern from 2016-17. Colorado State declined comment on his status while the game was still being played.
True mid-game firings are rare. In-game play-calling changes are not. Coordinators lose the headset at halftime, or earlier, every season. What almost never happens is the coordinator leaving the stadium and being gone from the program before the press conference.
On Oct. 17, 2020, Tennessee lost 34-7 at home to Kentucky. Kentucky Sports Radio reported, citing a source close to the program, that coach Jeremy Pruitt fired defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh during the game and confirmed the dismissal afterward. The Associated Press reported the firing the next day, with Pruitt saying the fit “just didn’t work” philosophically and that he would coach the defensive line himself. Pruitt did not say on the record that the firing happened between the whistles.
Everything else in the modern game sits short of that line: a coordinator benched from play-calling and still on staff Monday, or a head coach fired Sunday morning after a Saturday blowout. Mora’s version of events sits in between. He says he only took the calls. Summers, he says, made the decision to leave. By the time Mora met reporters, the defensive coordinator who had walked out for the opening kickoff was no longer employed.
The Rams have a bye, then play at Texas State on Oct. 15. McClendon will have the headset.
