During the early meetings new Missouri State athletic director Patrick Ransdell has had with his coaches, he’s made it clear that their jobs are to win games and have the Bears compete for championships.
Ransdell said his coaches “are grown-ups” and they all understand the business.
“The expectation is for us to win,” Ransdell said. “Everyone is going to be held to a standard of competing for championships, right? If you put yourself in a position to win a championship, then sometimes that’s going to happen and sometimes it’s not. The ball has to bounce your way and that’s OK but they certainly need to in the noise competing for championships.”
Missouri State is a season away from moving to Conference USA and the FBS ranks, giving Ransdell a different factor to consider. Some programs are better positioned than others heading into a new era.
The expectation for football to compete for a CUSA title right away might be unrealistic when the basketball programs will be held to a different standard.
More: Missouri State AD Patrick Ransdell shares plans to ‘reimagine’ Plaster Stadium
Head football coaches rarely find success during an FCS-to-FBS transition. Ryan Beard, now coaching in his second season as the Bears’ football coach, has acknowledged that history isn’t in his favor.
“If you go back and study the last 20 years of everybody making the transition, there’s a lot of two-, three-, four-win seasons that are mixed in those first three of four years. It is what it is. James Madison is the exact opposite of what most people have done. They were resourced as an FBS program playing FCS. They’re a massive exception to the rule.
“We’re gonna have to take (football) year by year and give them the proper resources to succeed. it’s hard to hold people accountable when you don’t give them the proper resources to succeed.”
Ransdell is uniquely positioned as an athletic director with most of his coaches under contract for the long haul.
Beard, notably, was given a new deal in the days after Kyle Moats announced his departure for the AD role at Eastern Kentucky. He now has a contract that ties him to the university through 2028 with $2.3 million guaranteed. On the same day, women’s basketball coach Beth Cunningham received an extension through 2029-30 worth around $2.6 million.
In the months before, Moats hired men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin to a five-year deal that will pay around $2.5 million through 2028-29. New baseball coach Joey Hawkins has a three-year agreement that pays him $144,000 annually through 2027 with incentives that would automatically extend him depending on conference placement.
Ransdell said he’s spent time with each of the coaches, trying to make them feel like they are all in it together.
“It’s now all about creating a good relationship with them so we can talk through challenges,” Ransdell said. “The contracts are what they are and we’re not in a position to have a great deal of flexibility financially. It’s about creating a great relationship with them and just making sure that they feel that I might not have picked them, but they’re my coaches now. I’m gonna get in the foxhole with them, support them and try to give them every resource that they need so they can succeed.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-17 21:03:00
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