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Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard on the challenges of Conference USA

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When Ryan Beard started as Missouri State’s defensive coordinator under Bobby Petrino in 2020, he and the rest of the coaching staff were caught waiting for a biology lab to come out of the classroom so their football team could had one of the first dates. .

Once the Bears entered the room, they didn’t find the walls filled with inspirational quotes or team mottos that typically hang in a football team’s meeting room. Instead, there were posters of the periodic table of elements and various scientific terms.

“I love science,” Beard said. “But it wouldn’t hurt to have, you know, some program goals, some core values ​​on the wall and some of our words and terms that make you feel like a Division I football player.”

It was one of the early examples that Beard, now entering his second year as the Bears’ head coach, found showed how far the program has to go. There is some infrastructure he needs to build further when he believes Missouri State football has been neglected until recent years.

More: 6 Missouri State football position battles we’re watching as 2024 preseason practice begins

Now, the 35-year-old head coach leads Missouri State football into the Football Bowl Subdivision and Conference USA in 2025. He knows it’s a lot of work. And it won’t be easy.

“This is going to be extremely difficult,” Beard said. “It won’t be an easy road, but the resounding picture is that for the entire community and the university, this is the right move.”

Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard is aware of the challenges ahead

Beard is more aware than anyone of the challenges facing Missouri football.

He promises not to show the beauty of Plaster Stadium to the recruits, knowing full well that many renovations are needed. Millions of dollars need to be raised for several projects, either to upgrade the stadium or for the football team to have its own building, when he believes the current facilities are 30 years old. Few high schools in the area have indoor football practice facilities when Beard yearns for better nutrition options that “real Division I programs give their players to be as successful as possible.”

Missouri State is not a school like James Madison, a former FCS power that had everything in place to be an immediate Sun Belt contender and one that was bowl eligible for its first FBS season. Unlike the University of Virginia, Missouri State didn’t spend decades spending as an FBS program, intending to move up to that level.

More: Ranking the top 5 Missouri State football games of the 2024 season

“We’ve been behind in our own conference in the FCS when it comes to infrastructure,” Beard said. “The James Madison thing? You can throw that comparison out the window. I can only control my daily life and how we prepare each day. The powers that be will determine year by year whether we have done enough to stay. in my seat and I respect my seat more than you could ever imagine. I am blessed and humbled to be the head coach of this football team and I hope to be a head coach for a long time.

Ryan Beard knows that head coaches often struggle during the transition from FCS to FBS

Adding to these challenges is what Beard is paid to do: win football games. Missouri State will exit the Football Championship Subdivision without winning a playoff game since 1989. The Bears have just one winning season since 2010 and are coming off a 4-7 season in the toughest FCS conference.

It’s also not lost on Beard that head football coaches leading an FCS to FBS often struggle. Of the 15 coaches since 2009 who coached their FBS playing team’s first season, only five finished their time at the school with a winning record. Eight others were fired.

More: The 12 Missouri State football newcomers you should know ahead of the 2024 season

“I believe in the people we work with every day and that this can be a great place,” Beard said. “But I’m not going to sit here and say it’s going to happen to me. I don’t know if I’m going to lift you up and make you a big national championship, but I know that we’re going to do the right things every day to make you proud in different ways. Hopefully we can get some wins, but we’re going to do the right things on the court and off this university.”

Ryan Beard believes in the future of Missouri State football with the coaching staff, the new president

That’s not to say Beard doesn’t believe in what he and the staff are doing; it’s the other way around. He looks at his coaching staff and recognizes those who have coached in bowl games and at the power conference levels knowing they are capable. Beard looks at a player like Todric McGee, who went from a true freshman who never thought he’d see the field to an all-conference player years later, knowing that what do can work.

Beard also believes in Missouri State’s new president, Richard “Biff” Williams. The two recently had a private meeting with Williams, asking what the university could do to help. Williams recently attended a Missouri football fundraiser where he spoke to donors and alumni to encourage support for the program. Williams is currently searching for Missouri State’s next athletic director following the departure of Kyle Moats.

Investment in the program must meet expectations, Beard preached. He wants Missouri State to be somewhere his players can be proud of. If the expectation is to win a national championship or at least compete for a conference title, the commitment has to be in the same vein. He believes MSU is well on its way to doing that.

“Plaster Stadium needs a facelift and our players need to feel like they’re at a Division I college football program,” Beard said. “It’s not just the quality of players we get or the quality of the staff, but they have to be surrounded by the things they need to be successful. I think President Williams understands that.”

More: What to expect from Missouri State football’s 18 homegrown players in 2024

Those facelifts are on Williams’ radar, Beard said. The manager promises fans that the entire west side of Plaster Stadium will “feel some love”. He said he has never been in the stadium’s infamous toilets but has heard the stories, noting that the fan experience is a priority between him and the university’s new head.

“It’s not going to be like fireworks and stuff like that,” Beard said. “We need nice, usable bathrooms and concession stands that flow efficiently. We need nice new paint on the walls, they’re going to change the suites, and obviously we want to make people comfortable in the press box.

“This is our chance to get it right and that was my biggest talking point. We have a chance to basically be the proverbial Phoenix. Football has been neglected until the last few years and now is our chance to make the Division on who move it, FBS, play nationally relevant ball and bring in high-quality student-athletes who can make it happen.”

The energy around Missouri State football has been “through the roof” with the move to Conference USA, Ryan Beard says

Whether it’s Beard leading the Bears when they compete for Conference USA championships or not, the head coach believes Missouri State will make it work. He’s seen the buzz the move has created in the community as he looks ahead to 2025, with one from last year at the FCS level starting later this month.

Excitement built with Missouri State attracting an ACC program like SMU coming to Springfield in 2025 and Marshall visiting the following year. There will be more home games against bigger football programs while also facing a CUSA program as some compete for a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff.

Missouri State has seen some recruiting benefits with a three-star, top-100 class of 2025 quarterback already committed to the Bears and a handful of former four-star high school recruits transferring to MSU for this and future years.

But it will still require patience. Potential eight- to nine-figure renovation projects won’t be built or financed overnight. There will come a time when the Bears aren’t looking up at the periodic table of the elements on the meeting room walls to see images from bowl wins and postseason success. It will take time.

Beard is aware of the many challenges ahead, but knows in his heart it will be worth it as he leads Missouri State football onto the national stage.

“Football brings people together in a multitude of ways,” Beard said. “It brings people into the community. SMU will be sold out, maybe even when tickets go on sale. When you can play premier football in the national spotlight, all it does is bring new media to our community, our business leaders and our academic achievements highlight what we already know is great in Springfield nationally.

“There will be new people seeing Missouri State and feeling the excitement. They’ll know we’re headed in the right direction and it’s a great time to be a bear.”

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