New Coastal Carolina head football coach Ryan Beard was introduced earlier today at the HTC Center on campus and as far as opening acts go, this one was pretty good.
Beard is the fifth head coach to lead Chanticleer Football and will be the youngest to do so at 36 years old. However, listening to his remarks today one would almost believe he’s been doing this for an awfully long time.
He began by commenting on dinner the night before with his family and with VP for Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Rec Chance Miller and his family. Specifically, the prayer offered before the meal from Miller’s son, Cason. I thought mentioning that prayer and how his own faith guides him in his life was refreshing to hear from the new guy in town.
All good coaches have a core belief, phrase or motto that guides them and Beard is no different. His is simply “Outhit, Outhustle,” meaning the relentless pursuit of excellence in everything you do. He stressed this is vital not only on the football field but in everyday life as well.
Beard mentioned the word “excellence” many times today, and that’s definitely one characteristic Coastal Football needs to reestablish. Beginning in 2003, Coastal Carolina has been a winning program, consistently excellent, with numerous conference titles, 10-win seasons, FCS playoff victories, All-Americans, NFL players and bowl championships on its resume.
However, the last two seasons saw an alarming and definite decline in excellence, which is something that Beard and staff say they will work towards rebuilding every single day.
I also liked Beard mentioning the three Cs: community, classroom and competition. The last two are obviously important, but it’s that first one, community, that is exceptionally critical.
Again, in recent years, community engagement and involvement were woefully inadequate and certainly weren’t considered important. The program insulated itself and kept people away, on and off campus, to a degree that was obviously detrimental to its progress and success.
I think that mindset changed as of today. Beard knows having been a head coach of an FCS / G5 FBS program, community engagement, cooperation and buy-in is absolutely essential to your program.
Beard says his goal is creating a culture of developing great young men and the people they bring in and surround themselves with is crucial to that culture. Additionally, he said it was going to be hard work and take toughness to bring Coastal Football back to excellence, not just physical toughness but also mental toughness to achieve all that can be possible.
He said more but we’ll cover that, and the energy around his arrival in Conway, with him and Miller tomorrow night (Wednesday) on a special edition of The Strut at 8:30 p.m. Join us with your comments and questions.
Ryan Beard may indeed be the right guy at the right time for Coastal Carolina Football. This program desperately needed a change of leadership and direction. It needed new energy, vision and culture, a relentless pursuit of excellence and an infusion of physical and mental toughness and beginning today, here’s hoping that Beard is the new leader who will check all those boxes.
LET’S GO!! CHANTS UP!
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