Ryan Beard earned an excellent reputation as a head coach, especially after he led Missouri State to a 7-5 record and a berth in the XBox Bowl in the Bears’ first season in the FBS.
But with that notoriety came more opportunities. Beard was named Coastal Carolina’s next head coach after Tim Beck was fired.
And now, as MSU seeks to be even more competitive in Conference USA, the Bears are looking for a new head coach. Here are a few names they could consider:
Vanderbilt Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck
I could see Beck – who is not the former Coastal Carolina head coach – be in the mix for several FBS head coaching jobs like this in the near future.
Beck hasn’t been a Power Four coordinator very long, but he’s been extremely successful and has head coaching experience, albeit at the Division II level.
Beck’s offense ranks eighth in the country in scoring (39.4 points per game) going into bowl season. He’s also helped Diego Pavia become a Heisman Trophy finalist. The quarterback is second in the country with 334.8 yards of total offense per game after the regular season.
Beck, who arrived at Vanderbilt last year, was the OC at New Mexico State from 2022-23 and was an offensive analyst at TCU in 2021. He was the head coach at Pittsburgh State, his alma mater, from 2010-19 and led the team to a national championship in 2011 and got to the postseason on three other occasions. He was an assistant there from 1988-2009.
Tennessee Tech Head Coach Bobby Wilder
Wilder is a current FCS head coach, but he has experience being the head coach of a program that’s new to the FBS and Conference USA.
He’s been at Tennessee Tech for two seasons but has been successful in a short amount of time. He’s 18-7 since 2024 with an appearance in the FCS playoffs this year.
Before that, he went 67-56 in 11 years as the head coach at Old Dominion, where he helped restart the football program. He led ODU to two FCS playoff appearances, guided the Monarchs through their transition to the FBS, and helped them earn a bowl win in 2016.
Wilder was at Maine, where he played quarterback, from 1990 to 2006. He worked with running backs (1990), defensive linemen (1991-92), wide receivers/tight ends (1993), and quarterbacks (1994-99) before becoming the team’s offensive coordinator and QBs coach (2000-06). He was also a graduate assistant at Boston College from 1988-89.
Southern Illinois Head Coach Nick Hill
After Missouri State just left the Missouri Valley Football Conference, maybe the the Bears try to hire another coach that’s currently in that conference.
Nick Hill is a name that could come up in this search. He is 55-61 during his tenure at SIU, but since 2019, he’s led the Salukis to five winning seasons with three FCS playoff appearances during that span. He’s also helped the program earn three wins over FBS opponents as the HC.
He’s been SIU’s head coach since 2016, so he has plenty of head coaching experience. He was also a co-offensive coordinator at SIU in 2015 while coaching quarterbacks in 2014-15.
Lamar Head Coach Pete Rossomando
Rossomando’s tenure at Lamar has been impressive.
In 2023, his first season as head coach of the Cardinals, the team had won a single game the previous year and just five games in the three seasons prior. Under Rossomando’s leadership, Lamar put together the fourth-biggest single-season turnaround in the FCS by going 6-5 overall.
Rossomando was a Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award finalist thanks to that turnaround. And Lamar has had two winning seasons – 7-5 in 2024 and 8-5 with an FCS playoff berth in 2025 – since then.
Rossomando has also briefly been an FBS head coach. He was an interim head coach at Charlotte in 2022, and the 49ers went 2-2 during that time. He was also an offensive line coach there.
Before that, he was an O-line coach at Vanderbilt in 2020 and Rutgers in 2019. He was also a head coach at Central Connecticut State. He led that program to its first FCS playoffs appearance ever. He was also a head coach at the University of New Haven, which made the Division II playoffs twice during his tenure and was ranked as highly as No. 3 in the country.
Rossomando has the head coaching experience and FBS experience to be a candidate for most G5 programs, including Missouri State.
SMU Offensive Coordinator Casey Woods
Woods was in the mix to be the head coach at UAB, which ultimately went with Alex Mortensen. But if the Mustangs OC is still looking for a head coaching gig during this cycle, a program that’s in a state where he has experience could make sense.
Woods is a successful FBS coordinator. The Mustangs were eighth in the FBS in points per game (38.7) and 16th in yards per game (454.9) in 2023, their last year in the American. SMU, in its first year in the ACC, reached the College Football Playoff in 2024. The Mustangs are tied for 27th in the FBS in scoring offense (32.9 PPG) and 36th in total offense (419 YPG) this season.
At UAB, Woods was a tight ends coach, run game coordinator, and recruiting coordinator for three years after the football program came back in 2016. The Blazers set several school records and put together some highly-regarded recruiting classes during his time there.
Woods has also been a tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Missouri. He also coached wide receivers and was a recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State in 2012 when the Red Wolves went 10-3, earned a Sun Belt title, and won the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
