What the Petrino family has meant to Missouri State football

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In the days after Missouri State ended a season 1-10 for the second time in five years, the university announced it would retain its head coach.

The few who still cared in 2019 were exhausted, while others grew louder in calling for the program’s dissolution. After decades of irrelevance, Missouri State football only existed to lose games and bleed money. At least it put athletes through college.

That all changed about a month later with the coach’s sudden departure and the eventual hiring of a family that changed the outlook for Missouri State football.

Bobby Petrino was named Missouri State’s football coach in January 2020, bringing his son-in-law and eventual head coach, Ryan Beard, to Springfield, along with other family members on the coaching staff.

Together, the family combined for three winning seasons, a Missouri Valley Football Conference championship, two FCS Playoff appearances and the program’s first-ever bowl appearance as an FBS program. At the same time, the staff brought in many of the best players in the school’s history and put the program in a position to make the jump from the FCS ranks to the FBS, joining Conference USA for this past season.

Missouri State’s appearance in the Xbox Bowl on Thursday, Dec. 18, will mark the culmination of unquestionably the greatest six-season stretch the football program has ever seen. It could also mark the final game for the Bears under the Petrino family, the saviors of Missouri State football.

“They changed everything,” Art Hains, the now-retired longtime radio voice of Missouri State athletics, said. “From where we were in 2019, to this, in a six-year span, changed everything. It’s gone from football being an afterthought to now being the main sport. It’s all account of Bobby’s hiring and Ryan staying.”

Bobby Petrino immediately helped Missouri State win

Petrino had a reputation from his firing at Arkansas in 2011, a successful tenure that ended in controversy. He coached his way back onto the sidelines, coaching Western Kentucky in 2013, and then leading Louisville from 2014-18. He helped turn Lamar Jackson into a Heisman Trophy winner, but his second stint with the Cardinals ended during the 2018 season.

After taking a year off, Petrino, still known for his excellent offensive mind, was given a chance to lead the Bears. Upon his hiring, he brought his son and two sons-in-laws to coach alongside him.

“I think it was one of those scenarios that was a win-win, certainly for Missouri State football, but to them as well,” Dennis Heim, a 1977 Missouri State graduate and one of the program’s all-time greats, said. “The whole family was here, and that’s a pretty unique situation to have at the college level.”

During a pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season, Petrino led the Bears to the FCS Playoffs for the first time since 1990 and to a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference title. The following season, the Bears returned to the playoffs, led by MVFC Offensive Player of the Year Jason Shelley at quarterback.

The Bears missed the playoffs in Petrino’s third and final season in 2022, before he ultimately became the Texas A&M offensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher. In 2024, he was welcomed back at Arkansas as the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator, and he eventually returned to the head coach position as the interim during the 2025 season.

“He got us around that corner,” Heim said. “Bobby took the resources that he had and the skillset that he possessed, and he took it and ran with it, and we’ll be forever grateful for that.”

Ryan Beard was ready to step up as Missouri State football coach

When Petrino left Springfield, there was little doubt who would replace him. Beard, the defensive coordinator in Petrino’s three seasons in charge, had already shown leadership qualities that made him an up-and-coming coach. The Bears didn’t want much to change, and it was the best chance at maintaining key players.

In a way, Beard was already behaving like a head coach behind the scenes.

“In many cases, you see in life, people act like they have the position before they’re actually in that role,” Heim said. “And Ryan was doing that, and it showed because he hit the ground running.”

The Bears went 4-7 in their first year under Beard, an injury-affected season. A year later, the Bears doubled their win total, going 8-4, but they were unable to qualify for the FCS Playoffs due to the NCAA’s two-year FCS-to-FBS transition rule. The year saw Jacob Clark have the greatest passing season in school history, setting the stage for the Bears’ first year in Conference USA in 2025.

Missouri State’s first year as an FBS program far exceeded anyone’s expectations, going 7-5 and qualifying for a bowl game because not enough teams won the required six games. The season was a thrill, seeing the Bears go on a five-game winning streak that featured four one-score games. Their Sept. 6 win over Marshall was the program’s first over an FBS team since 1990.

In a way, the 2025 Bears were a reflection of Beard, an ultra-positive leader who never doubted his team’s capabilities.

“Ryan Beard is a tough, gritty guy who has absolutely no quit in him,” Bears radio voice Corey Riggs said. “I believe that about this coaching staff, and I believe that about these players. There is so much to be said about coach-speak and the stuff that has become cliché, but there is a lot of truth in that coach-speak, and I just love the way these guys don’t ever see that they’re out of a game.”

Petrino family set Missouri State up for a bright future

Missouri State will enter its Xbox Bowl appearance against Arkansas State on Thursday, Dec. 18, without Beard on the sideline after he accepted the head coaching position at Coastal Carolina. Offensive coordinator Nick Petrino, Bobby Petrino’s son, will serve as the interim head coach.

Nick Petrino and defensive coordinator LD Scott, another Bobby Petrino son-in-law, remain on the staff for the game. Depending on who Missouri State hires as its next coach, Thursday night could mark the end of the Petrino family era for the Bears football program.

The Bears’ turnaround under the Petrino family might not be remembered nationally as one of the greatest, but those in Springfield who love the Bears know just how remarkable a feat it was. Beard exclaimed during the season that the Bears were in the “depths of football hell,” and now they’re playing in a bowl game.

Missouri State might not quickly rise to the national level that Bill Snyder helped Kansas State reach in the 1990s and 2000s after decades of irrelevance, or compete for national championships soon, like Curt Cignetti has helped make attainable for Indiana football.

But if this is, indeed, the end for the Petrino family in Springfield, they proved that winning was possible for Missouri State football.

“Springfield becomes a more interesting destination largely due to their efforts,” Heim said. “It’s been a long time coming, and it took a long time, but this has been worth waiting for, and I think what the future holds for us will allow us to continue on the same trajectory.”

Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: What Bobby Petrino, Ryan Beard meant to Missouri State football

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