On Thursday, Missouri State picked Casey Woods, a former Tennessee football wide receiver, to be its newest head coach, according to a report from Pete Thamel. The Bears were forced to make a new hire ahead of their second season at the FBS level after Ryan Beard left for the opening at Coastal Carolina.
Thamel’s report indicates that Woods would be on a five-year deal. The hire must be approved by the board on Friday before it can go official. This would be Woods’ first head coaching job.
Woods played at Tennessee from 2003-07. According to his UAB profile, he played in 41 games as both a wide receiver and holder. In that time, the team went 44-20 and three 10-win seasons under Phillip Fulmer.
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Woods began his coaching career at Tennessee in 2008 as a graduate assistant. He worked with wide receivers during that season. That would ultimately be the final season that Fulmer coached the Vols.
After one year at his alma mater, Woods went to Auburn from 2009-11. There, he was an offensive quality control coach. He would get his first job as a position coach in 2012, coaching wide receivers and being the recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State in 2012.
From 2013-15, Woods went back to Auburn as the director of player personnel under Gus Malzahn. After a year off, he joined UAB in 2017 as the run game coordinator, tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator. He stayed there through 2019.
In 2020, Woods joined Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri as the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator. In 2022, he left to join Rhett Lashlee as his offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at SMU. He helped the Mustangs make the College Football Playoffs in this role in 2024.
