Elizabeth Dedert: Today I am joined by football head Coach Casey Woods. Coach Casey Woods will be going into his first year as head coach for Missouri State Football after coming from SMU where he was offensive coordinator since 2021 and also chief of staff. Thank you so much, coach, for joining me today.
Casey Woods: Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here on campus and really appreciative of your time.
Dedert: Of course. Well, it's your first year here at Missouri State. What has been one thing that you have been looking forward to the most going into the fall 2026 season?
Woods: Well, you know, I think probably the most that I'm excited about. I'm excited for our players. You know, I think that we got a great schedule, great opportunities out there to do some things. I'm really excited to see what our stadium can do. You know, what our student body — we've really gone out and worked hard this spring, you know, been to 22 sororities and fraternities, judged Greek Jam, went to the step show, speaking at all 16 freshmen orientations this summer. I think the student body is going to understand the assignment, you know, and we've got to get that eastern side rocking. And then, you know, the west stands over there, we've got to make sure the community fills those in. And I, you know, I've really challenged them to break our attendance record twice. I think that we've got the ability and the momentum to do that. So, it's about people getting up and going to the games and doing their job to help us win.
Dedert: Yeah. And that's what we talked about in the spring look, that that was one of your biggest goals for the student body was to pack out Plaster Stadium and to just rally up the sports. And you talked about how you were going to just different student bodies and everything. Can you talk a little bit more about what exactly you've been doing?
Woods: Yeah, well, I went to the fraternities and sororities. I went to 22 of those. Talked to them about the importance of coming early, staying the entirety of the game, doing that. We were — my wife and I — were judges at Greek Jam. We did go to the step show. We're speaking at the freshman orientations, all 16 of those. I spoke at that this morning at 8 a.m. to make sure the freshman class understands kind of what we're rallying here. I do, you know, we took our team to a men's basketball game, took our team to a women's basketball game. Took our, you know, we set the attendance record at the women's softball game. The attendance record at the acro STUNT meet. We went to men's baseball, obviously, when they beat Arkansas was a ton of fun. I think we've tried to be as best as we could in the student body as it is. And every other student, there's four or five other student organizations that I've had a chance to get in front of and speak. And there's leadership organizations and faith organizations. It's a really big student body. And there's a lot of different people that belong to a lot of different organizations. So, trying to get the word out as best we can to every organization that we can.
Dedert: And just cover all grounds.
Woods: That's it. And just keep expressing to them the importance of being there, being a part of this, being a part of our community and how football as the front porch and the connective tissue of this university can impact them, right? They're impacting us. But our success directly or indirectly impacts them as well because you get what you get out of the college experience, what you get out of the development of the university and the people that are the community investors in this place. I think Springfield, which is, golly, the entrepreneurial city, I mean, entrepreneurial center of the United States, right? It's got — what better investment can they have right now than Missouri State University and these students that are coming out of here? If we can promote our university in the best possible way by being that front porch or by being that connective tissue then that just that serves both sides, right? That serves our student body going out into this community and it serves our community because we got people, we got great students at a great school coming out that are prepared to enter and contribute to this community moving forward.
Dedert: Yeah. And for football wise, you guys have been putting in tremendous work. I mean, every single time that I go past the stadium there's always at least one player there always putting in work. Walk me through for Missouri State fans, what does that work look like in preparation that you've done leading up to this moment and also leading up into the start of the season with Texas A&M in September?
Woods: Yeah. So, everything's dictated by the schedule and by what we can get done. You know, the NCAA kind of limits what you can do during certain times of the year, so we came in here the very first thing is we got in the weightroom, and we completely changed our weight program. Just them getting adjusted to that was about an eight-week process through spring break. Once we got back from spring break, we entered our spring practice period, which is true football, right? You get pads, you get balls, you get equipment, all the things that you need to execute and improve at football. And we spent 15 — you get 15 of those practices. Over the course of about three and a half weeks, we got in 15 practices that were big that we reached out and had the community be a part of that. We had student body try to be part of that. We culminated on the day of Greek Jam. So, we practiced in the morning then took our entire team to Greek Jam. There's some crossover between — our student body understands that we're invested in them, and we want them to be invested in us and athletics. We did that. Once we got done with spring practice, they did get a little break at the end of the semester, just kind of reset their bodies and minds.
June (we) came back — we get a little bit of an opportunity to work with them in June, so we kind of reinstalled our base schemes offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. We spent three weeks doing that, the previous three weeks. And then the next five weeks is really dedicated to strength and conditioning, right? Speed improvement, conditioning, flexibility, all those things. So, they'll be with Coach Sims as our head strength and conditioning coach, and he gets out there with his staff, and they really do a great job, and all that is in preparation to entering fall camp. So, we report for fall camp on August 4th, I think, is a Tuesday, and so, we'll have 25 practices leading starting then until we play Texas A&M, and that's kind of the buildup into the season. The development of your depth chart and understanding exactly schematically what we're going to be strong at and what we need to pour into and what we need to back off on. You know, that's all the preparation for the actual season, and so, it is a year-round job to get judged 12 times, you know, so, we do have a team, I've been really proud of our team. One, they work, like you said, there's a cost to what it cost. I can say anything I want to say, I can say we're going to have a packed stadium, and I'm going to invest in the student body. But, if I don't do the things that I say that I'm doing, then it's not, it's just talk, right? We do have some doers on our team, and I think that they've, you can see why they've won here the past two years pretty consistently. And then they've been very receptive to the changes that have come, right? What was done here before — I've talked at length about what Coach Petrino, Coach Beard did to set a foundation for us to springboard to the next level. But the way we do things is very different than how they did things. And that's schematically on the football field, but that's also off the field and how we operate, you know, academically and in the locker room and in the weight room. And, you know, and they've been welcoming to all that. Sometimes when you get a team that's won, they can be resistant to change. And they've not. They've jumped in there and they've understood the vision they've bought into where we're going. And I've been really proud of them from that standpoint. I think that they're, they do the things that winners do, and we're going to keep doing those and until the wins start coming.
Dedert: And you said that they want to continue winning. Have you kind of got that they want to continue that momentum, especially after their first season in Conference USA going and having the record that they did and then going and having a bowl game in their first and fighting, you can tell. Can you tell from this team as your first year that they want to continue to fight and keep that momentum?
Woods: Absolutely, absolutely. And that's the reason that they're doing the things that they're doing is because they see, you know, what we've talked about, the very first thing that I said we're going to do is win a championship here, the first Division 1 championship. And so, they see that, and they see the path to get there. And they know that we've got an incredibly tough schedule and a great conference that's going to give us a chance to go in there and be super competitive every week. But oh no, there's they're absolutely hungry, and I think that that's why they've been as receptive as they have been.
Dedert: And speaking of hungry — going into kind of a jumpstart into the future, you've got a long list of commits. You've got — as I was looking even this morning, you've got another one. You've got 19 as of right now. What does it mean to you as head coach to kind of find these people and that they are saying, "I want to commit to this program?"
Woods: Well yeah, I mean, I think that they see the vision that our team does. And I think that that's important. Our staff has done a great job, you know, and I said — you know, I kind of promised or I laid out a four-prong vision in my introductory press conference. The first one was to win the championship that we kind of just talked about. The second one was to recruit this place better than it's ever been done before. And I think that we are — we can do that. We have done that. We're going to continue to accelerate from that standpoint. And I've been really proud of our staff. You know, I said we're going to go into all 412 football playing schools in this state within a calendar year. I said that in January, and we did it by May 1st.
Dedert: Wow.
Woods: You know, so they've done that. And that's ultimately going to be impactful outside of football also. But certainly, inside of that. I think we've been very aggressive about the type of player that we want. We've talked about length and speed, and we've gone out and improved both our length and our speed here, and that's important to what we want to get done in the future. I think that, you know, we've been a little bit more aggressive with our summer recruiting than I think was done here in years past. I that's not a knock on what they did. That's just, they just had a different approach. And so yeah, I mean, it's, I think we have 19 guys committed. I can't name any of them just per NCAA rules. But, you know, I think we have actually 25 that are committed. So, as they continue to announce over the course of the next few days here, we'll have a chance to get to that point. And so now we've got to hold on to them — signing day's not till December. You know, we got to do a great job, and our coaches have gone out there. I think we're competing against the teams that we want to be competing against, which is those teams that have that have had success in this region in the past, historically, and we want to make sure that we're dominant, particularly in the state of Missouri. There's SEC players that are going to go play at Mizzou. We're all for that. But there's this great class of players that's maybe not quite an SEC player that we want to consider us. And right now, of those 25 guys, we've got 11 of them from the state of Missouri. We got guys from Kansas City and mid state and Saint Louis and from down here in southwest. That part's been really fun to see. And I think that there is good buzz, there's good general excitement. Our — honestly, our team has done a great job because part of the recruiting process is getting these guys on campus and letting them spend time with their future teammates, guys that are currently members of our team, and they've done a great job recruiting those guys as well as us, you know, and so really proud of the staff, really proud of the team. And I think that we're just going to continue to put the hammer down on recruiting because that's, I mean, that's the easiest way to win games is to have good players.
Dedert: And I mean, you've been a recruiting coach before. Is it easier to put yourself in that mindset since you've already kind of dipped your toes in the water before at previous schools?
Woods: Yeah, I mean, I spent, you know, this will be my 19th season coaching and I spent, I think 12 of those years as recruiting coordinator. So, it's maybe more than that. I've got a lot of experience in that sector of college football. I've got a lot of confidence in the things that have worked in the past to generate the kind of grassroots beliefs that we have. And I think that we as a community have bought into that, right? There's investors in this community that are helping us. There's restaurants and that are partners and there's hotels that are partners. Obviously, our team's bought into what we're doing there. And so, I do have a vision for what I want it to look like. I think over the course of 18 years, I've been able to say, this is good and this isn't, you know. And I think that Springfield's got a lot to offer. Missouri State's got a lot to offer. Our coaching staff in this football program's got a lot to offer, and so, it's just a matter of packaging that in such a way that, they see the vision for where we're going and if we can do that and then paint that on the tapestry of who we are as men, right? That we are impact driven family men. We bring them in here; we introduce them to our family. We want their family introduced to us and that they understand that a lot of people use family as a buzzword. And some people's like kids are in the radio studio.
Dedert: Yeah, right.
Woods: Or, in the way of practice. So, it's the easiest way to, you know, sell families to actually just be one. So that's, our staff's bought into that. I think I got vision for that. Our team's bought into that, and, as our community continues to all pull in the same direction, it's going to increase our profile and make it more and more attractive for, not just good football players, that's my number one job, right, is to get good football players here. But hopefully we're setting up an attractiveness level for Missouri State. So, as we enter these 412 schools that we want the valedictorian, and we want the best tuba player, and we want the chemistry major. And we want that — we want every, we want the very best, that want to go get a great college experience, come to Missouri State because one, you can get an affordable world class education...I've grown up in college towns and there's a bunch of places where you go to school and you leave as soon as you get done, right? Springfield, you can make a life.
Dedert: Exactly.
Woods: And I think Springfield knows that. I think the people here know that. And that's something that is not every place that you recruit against can offer.
Dedert: Yeah. And I think the biggest shocker moving for addition to your roster was former basketball star Michael Osei-Bonsu is now a football star for you, and he went to other colleges and then ultimately came and stayed in Missouri State. How has that transition been? I talked to him previously, and he said that he was extremely excited to do something new and that you guys were an amazing opportunity to talk to to help him with that transition. From your point of view, how was that transition been?
Woods: Well, one, big thanks. You talk about it, and it takes us all a moment, man. It takes it took this community, right? And the love that they have for Michael already and what he's already accomplished. It took our basketball fans and our football fans. It took Cuonzo Martin. It took our basketball staff. It took what we — the vision that we have on our football staff, right? It took Al Davis and Brett Kulka and Sam Hollander and Mark Cala and all those guys that have invested, you know, in selling Big Mike on the dream of transitioning to football. One thing that's very unique about Mike's case is that a majority of the stories that you hear of basketball players that go play on in the NFL, at least have some kind of background in football. At some point, they played youth sports or high school ball or something, and Mike really doesn't have that. He's never played football in his life. And so, getting him out there and our goal this summer was to teach him the game. That's when we use communication words like three technique or reach block. He needs to know what that means. I say go line up on the hash, he needs to know where the hash is. So, it's been a big teaching summer for him. He is arguably one of the five most athletic players on our team already. He's a lot bigger, more compact solid than I thought he was when he played basketball. I knew he was powerful, but I thought he was a 260-pound guy. He's a 300-pound guy.
And so that gives him a little bit more position versatility. It's been fun to watch him develop. He's been on both offense and defense since he's been here. He's a guy that is a rare athletic mix. And it's been fun. He's great at it. He's all the things that Missouri State people love about Mike when he played basketball is true to him, right? He's a great person. He's a learner. He's a great question asker. He is super intense. He's super focused. He's obviously rare athleticism. If you combine all those things and you put him in a position to learn the game, one of the big selling points in my opinion, right? The reason we beat Florida and Oklahoma State and Illinois was that this community would have patience with him while he developed because they love him already. They're already invested in who he is as a person. So, how is Mike going to play versus Texas A&M is probably not a fair judgment of what his football career is going to be a year from now, six months from now, 10 weeks from now. You know what I mean? So, I think that his best ball, we want him playing his best ball to just as — by October and then November and just continue to improve at whatever position we end up finding him where he's most comfortable. But the big deal is, is making sure that he understands the skills and the techniques and can apply those. It's, basketball is a very different, it's an explosive sport, but it's a different kind of explosiveness in basketball than football. So, teaching him how to position his body and do some of those things. He's a quick learner, and it's been fun to watch him. And he's powerful now. He is powerful. When he hits things, they move. And that's a that's a good trait to have.
Dedert: Yes. And then lastly, just to close off...what would you say is the game that you are most excited for this season?
Woods: Boy, that's a great question. I mean, I don't want to downplay any game. Every game is going to be super important to what we ultimately want to accomplish, which is...we want to be competitive in November. We want to get back to a bowl game. We want to have a chance to win the first bowl game in school history. But we want to be in the conference race when we get to November, you know, and make sure that we're there. So, I don't think I can downplay any of those. I guess probably, I'm probably most excited about our home opener right now, just because that's our first opportunity for our team to, for this community to see our team to, for Plaster Stadium to answer the call that we've been out there doing for our student body to understand what the assignment is and our community to step in there and do that. And in my opinion, we should shatter the attendance record for Lindenwood. I think we should do that, and we've got some help. Lindenwood's an in-state schools, so they'll bring some of their own. They'll bring some of their own fans and supporters. I think that's something that we need — that's going to be a big measuring stick is, are we buying into the things that we say we're doing? And, and I'm excited for that. Obviously, we've got to play good football. That's what really attracts most people. And then — but we're going to do that, right? We're going to put a great product out there. And when we've got an opportunity to be the front porch, to be the connective tissue of this campus and this university and this community, then we've got to put a good product on the field. And so, we're hard at work at that. And I think that we can continue to work towards that. But there's a long series of, we got six home games. I've challenged us to break the attendance record twice. I think we could do it more than that if you get the right momentum from the student body and just the regular community at large. We've got four Saturday games, we've got two midweek games. So, I think there's a cool combination there of what we can do. And there will be night games and day games. And so, it's just a great all-around football experience that we can do this year. And we've got to win. But as we're working to win championships, as we're working to do that, right? Our community can't wait for us to be champions to show up. Like our community's got to work on being a great fan base. They're practicing just as much of being a great fan base as we're practicing to be a great football team. And as that happens together at the same time, then we're going to get an unbelievable, you know, product out there this season.
Dedert: Lots of changes for Missouri State for Missouri State football. But again, I was joined today by Missouri State football head coach Casey Woods. The Bears will be kicking off their season on September 5th on the road against Texas A and M, and then with the home opener the following week against Lindenwood. Thank you so much again, Casey.
Woods: Thanks for having me here. Really glad to be part of this community and look forward to seeing you this fall. Go Bears!
