Bobby Petrino frequently took walks around the campus when he was first hired as Missouri State's head football coach in early 2020. He wanted to see the body language of his new players and how they carried themselves when they weren't in meetings or on the field.
"When we first got here, they were beaten up a little bit," Petrino said. "It was hard; I didn't like what I saw. We just tried to work on getting better every day and we've done a great job of that."
Day by day, Missouri State built itself from a program that went 31 years without a postseason appearance into one that won a championship share of the toughest conference in the FCS and one that has made the last two postseasons.