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Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard takes Coastal Carolina job
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- Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard takes Coastal Carolina job
After arguably the greatest season in Missouri State football history, the Bears will be in the market for a new head coach.
Ryan Beard will be the next head coach at Coastal Carolina, the school announced in the early evening of Thursday, Dec. 11. CBS Sports insider Matt Zenitz had reported the news just hours earlier.
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His departure comes after the Bears' first regular-season run as an FBS program in Conference USA. He spent the last three years as the program's head coach, posting a 19-16 record.
Mo State went 7-5 in its first FBS season, earning an appearance in the Xbox Bowl. The Bears play Arkansas State on Thursday, Dec. 18, at 8 p.m. at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Beard came to Springfield in 2020 as the program's defensive coordinator under Bobby Petrino, his father-in-law. When Petrino departed after three seasons to take an offensive coordinator job at UNLV (and eventually Texas A&M), Beard was promoted to head coach.
Aug 30, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Missouri State Bears head coach Ryan Beard watches from the sidelines in the first half against the Southern California Trojans at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
The Bears went 4-7 during his first season, but doubled their win total in 2024. The Bears went 8-4, including an eight-game winning streak, but they were ineligible for the FCS playoffs due to the NCAA's two-year transition rules for schools moving up to the FBS ranks.
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That set up a magical 2025 season in which the Bears went 7-5, including their first six wins over FBS opponents since 1990. Because not enough teams won the required six games to become bowl eligible, the Bears qualified in their second season of the FCS-to-FBS transition.
Beard's contract with Missouri State went through the 2030 season. He was paid $450,000 to coach in 2025, ranking 121st out of 122 head coaches with publicly available contracts, according to the USA TODAY Coaches Salary database. Missouri State was expected to try to increase his salary, hoping to keep him, but their efforts were not enough.
Beard will replace Tim Beck, who was fired after three seasons as Coastal Carolina's coach with a 20-18 record. Beck was paid $1,159,750 in 2025.
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_ , contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard takes over Coastal Carolina
