OPINION |
Having witnessed the introductions of the last seven Missouri State football head coaches among the 22 who have guided the program in its 113-year history, Monday struck a different chord.
There was the usual enthusiasm of new starts and bold talk beginning with Jesse Branch in 1986 and continuing through Del Miller, Randy Ball, Terry Allen, Dave Steckel and Bobby Petrino in subsequent coaching eras.
But new Bears football coach Ryan Beard felt like a gush of fresh air, sunshine and charisma on a cold, gray and gloomy winter’s day. Beard is a 33-year-old fireball, hired on Friday to replace Petrino and charged with a mission of taking this success his father-in-law began in three seasons and running with it.
Beard has the ‘it' factor
There’s something to be said for youthful enthusiasm and Beard has just that. Introduced officially, with a four-year contract of $275,000 per season plus incentives, Beard is the youngest Missouri State head coach in decades if not in program history.
I’m not sure how old Walter Langston was in 1909 or Howard Blair in 1938, but I’m pretty sure neither matched Beard in terms of the “it” factor. That’s why Missouri State president Clif Smart said the Bears were without a head coach for “about an hour and a half” last Thursday when Petrino opted for the offensive coordinator job at UNLV.
Smart said he and Athletic Director Kyle Moats knew from the time Petrino was hired three years ago that if success came — which it did with two Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances in three years — they could be coach shopping for the holiday season. Both were impressed by what they had seen from Beard, the team’s defensive coordinator and recruiting leader.
Meeting with AD Kyle Moats sealed the deal
Smart asked Moats to reach out to Beard and spend the afternoon with him to make sure Beard was ready. Good thing Moats reached out, because Beard was ready to make a sprint to the AD’s office to express his desire for the job.
“After our discussions, I discovered he was even more ready, that he was the person to lead our program,” Moats said.
Of that youthful enthusiasm, Moats smiled and used the phrase “piss and vinegar” in describing Beard’s infectious enthusiasm. In today’s world of recruiting, where social media and the transfer portal are huge factors, Beard fits.
“Recruiting is different than it has been,” Moats said. “Kids are different. It’s not like it was 10 years ago or even 20 years ago. Ryan gets it and his staff understands the nuances of the portal and kids and how to recruit right now.
“That was a big part of my decision. He gets it. In order to be very good, you have to get players. His recruiting philosophy and his attitude, his staff’s attitude and the ability to navigate the portal is critical for our program.”
Current, former players lobbied for Beard
Evidence came as rumors swirled prior to Petrino’s departure, as several Ozarks-area, high-profile recruits took to social media in support of Beard. Several current and past Bears players also lobbied for Beard’s hire via Twitter.
“The guys are fired up,” Beard said. “I didn’t expect all the Twitter stuff to shake out how it did. But the looks on their faces, when they FaceTimed when they found out I’m their head coach, I can’t put it into words.
“It’s cool to hear guys that you’ve coached in the past and your current players and everyone else, showing you support and love. It just helps you feel that things are going in the right direction here.”
Beard is an enthusiastic recruiter
Beard said he loves to recruit and looks forward to balancing the necessity of adding players through the portal with continuing to build a base of high school recruits.
“The portal has gotten so crazy,” he said. “It’s wild. Obviously, we have connections everywhere. We have to make sure we do it in a way where we get good evaluations on the players as actual football players, evaluate them as people and any kind of background information we need.
“It certainly has changed the recruiting game, but we’re making sure we get some grassroots recruits. We’re making sure we recruit high school guys and continue to get into the junior college and portal when it fits our scheme and guys come around who fit us.”
Some of the recruiting work will be seen on Wednesday, when the early football signing period begins. The traditional signing period occurs in February.
Continuity a factor in hiring
Bringing in an outsider as a head coach certainly would have jeopardized the recruiting process. Moats said continuity was another big factor in hiring Beard, who became the first Missouri State assistant promoted to head coach since Jim Mentis in 1965. That continuity includes not only the players, but the coaching staff including offensive coordinator Nick Petrino.
Beard confirmed that Nick Petrino — his wife Katie’s brother — will return and he called that a huge key.
“Me and Nick have worked together for a long time,” Beard said. “We have a good working relationship. It’s a great opportunity for him as well. It’s a chance for him to step into the light and do his thing and do it in his own kind of way.”
Now the heavy lifting begins
With the Bears coming off a disappointing 5-6 season, after the program’s first playoff appearances in 30 years, Beard said there’s plenty of heavy lifting ahead.
“It’s going to be a grind,” Beard said. “A lot of that will begin in winter program workouts. It’s not so much football, it’s cohesiveness as a group. It’s being willing to compete. There were some games, in the fourth quarter, that could have gone the other way. We just have to dig a little deeper and find a way to get it done when it counts.
“And we still have to recruit some places. We’re not a fully-rounded football team. We can improve in that regard and I think we will.”
Time will tell whether Beard will be a successful hire or not, but if his initial outing as the head coach was a football game he marched the length of the field and scored a touchdown on the game’s first impression.
