SPRINGFIELD–Exactly 8 months ago this very day, Missouri State announced Ryan Beard’s hiring as head football coach. Jump back to present day, and the Bears are a mere six days from their first game of the season.
But the boys in maroon and white couldn't wait that long for competition, so they held an intrasquad scrimmage at Plaster Stadium.
And man were these guys playing like they were lining up in Lawrence next friday night. Example a, this pitch and catch between Jordan Pachot and Liam O'Reilly. The red shirt freshman lowers the boom while picking up the first down.
Coach Beard's team motto is out hit, out hustle, well Celdon Manning would've liked to definitely out hustle his defender. Solid run though, moved the chains.
In the battle for starting quarterback, red shirt sophomore Jacob Clark made some impressive throws. Between hitting quick slants and a couple deep shots like this, he's giving Ryan Beard good reason to consider him.
As for Pachot, the junior demonstrated he's also capable of running the offense. Pachot led his unit to the endzone a couple times, so they're not making beard's decision easy.
Defensively, the frontline was able to record a few sacks on both quarterbacks and force 2 turnovers. But tackling was a bit sloppy.
The true test for MSU comes in less than a week, and Coach Beard is already focused on fixing one issue he noticed.“It was a good battle back and forth,” said Bears Head Coach, Ryan Beard. “I like the creativity of the offense in regards to play action pass game. Some of the thigns they did to create different moving pieces for our defense’s eyes. On defense we have to play consistently harder. That’s one thing we’ve been pushing on in camp. Everybodies come a long way since camp. Obviously as you can tell form everyon hooting and hollering around you, they’re excited to get a day off their feet and go catch their breath a little bit.”
