Ryan Beard has been recognized as one of the up-and-coming head coaches in the FBS. And now he’s on the move.
Beard, who led Missouri State during its first season as an FBS program to a bowl game berth, will be Coastal Carolina’s next head coach.
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In their inaugural season in the FBS, the Bears are 7-5 and will be playing Arkansas State in the XBox Bowl on Dec. 18.
Beard was the youngest person to become Missouri State’s head coach when he was promoted at 34 years old in December 2022.
Previously, Beard was Missouri State’s defensive coordinator for three seasons. During that span, he coached a defense that earned 18 all-conference nods and four All-American accolades while three players from that time had opportunities to play professionally. Missouri State was among the best in the country in several statistical categories on defense when Beard was the DC.
Before going to Missouri State, Beard was a special teams and safeties coach at Central Michigan in 2019. He was a quality control coach at Louisville, where he was from 2017-18, before becoming the team’s linebackers coach and co-special teams coordinator. He was also a defensive quality control coach there from 2014-15.
He coached defensive backs in 2016 at Western Kentucky, where he was a two-time All-Sun Belt defensive back himself, and was a graduate assistant at WKU in 2012-13.
