Ryan Beard is about a month away from leading Missouri State in his first game as the Bears' head football coach at FBS Kansas on Sept. 1.
The 34-year-old head coach has been on the Bears' staff as their defensive coordinator since Bobby Petrino took over as head coach in January 2020. Petrino, Beard's father-in-law, departed the program to become the offensive coordinator at UNLV (before quickly moving to Texas A&M) this offseason.
Beard differs from Petrino in a lot of ways but offers the Bears a sense of continuity after it the program built itself back up into relevancy after qualifying for the postseason in two of the last three seasons — the program's first two playoff appearances since 1990.