On the day of Missouri State’s first-ever bowl game, the Bears landed their head coach for the future.
SMU offensive coordinator Casey Woods was named head coach at Missouri State per multiple reports.
Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Missouri State is finalizing a 5-year deal with Woods, who is expected to officially be announced head coach as early as Friday morning. Woods will follow Ryan Beard as the second frontman of the program at the FBS level, and this marks Woods’ first time as a head football coach at any level.
Woods spent four years on The Hilltop in Dallas (2022-25), guiding SMU to conference championship appearances in both the American (2023) and ACC (2024) and leading the Mustangs to the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024. In four years calling plays for SMU, Woods’ offenses finished 12th, 8th, 8th, and 27th in the FBS in scoring, peaking at 38.7 points per game during the 2023 American Conference championship season. In total offense, SMU ranked 14th, 16th, 27th, and 35th over the timespan, often featuring a good balance between the passing and rushing attacks — with three different starting quarterbacks and four different No. 1 running backs in those four years.
Prior to arriving at SMU, Woods earned experience in the state of Missouri, serving as the Tigers’ tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator from 2020-21. As recruiting coordinator, he landed a top 10 national recruiting class in his final year on Eli Drinkwitz’s staff, and his familiarity with the area can pay dividends at Missouri State. Woods, a former Tennessee wide receiver, held other previous jobs in the coaching industry including graduate assistant at Tennessee (2009), offensive quality control coach at Auburn (2010-11), wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State (2012), director of player personnel at Auburn (2013-15), and run game coordinator, tight ends coach, and recruiting coordinator at UAB (2017-19).
The 42-year old Woods replaces Ryan Beard, who served as the Bears’ head coach from 2023-25, facilitating a successful transition to the FBS level this year. Missouri State is 7-5 entering its Thursday night Xbox Bowl matchup vs. Arkansas State. The Bears never took a bad loss all year, with all five of their defeats coming to winning records. One of those defeats happened to be vs. Woods and SMU, which outlasted Missouri State 28-10 in Week 3.
Woods makes his head coaching debut with Missouri State on Saturday, Sept. 5 as the Bears travel to Texas A&M for a Week 1 showdown at Kyle Field.
