Ryan Beard couldn’t help but smile after being asked about the dominance his Missouri State defense showed on Saturday.
For the second-year head coach, who previously served as the Bears’ defensive coordinator in the three seasons before, it was music to his ears. A season after constant questions about the unit’s struggles, Missouri State’s defense showed it may be headed in the other direction.
“I wanted to puke every single day that I watched those first few games last year,” Beard said. “We turned it back on and it was hard to watch. I tell the guys all the time that the best lessons are learned through pain. It’s good to see them getting back to form.”
Unfortunately, in preseason camp, there are offensive struggles when there is defensive dominance. The unit MSU fans thought they wouldn’t have to worry about heading into the Bears’ opener at Montana created a few questions that need to be answered within the next three weeks.
More: All of our 2024 Missouri State, high school football preseason coverage in one place
Missouri State QB Jacob Clark was frustrated at times with offense’s struggles as revamped wide receivers group struggled to get separation
At one point, a clearly frustrated Jacob Clark, the Bears’ starting quarterback, slammed his helmet on the turf after a drive stalled. Later, the offense failed to pick up another third down and he spiked the ball out of bounds.
Clark wasn’t satisfied in his first live-action since returning from shoulder surgery that knocked him out after four games last season.
Most of the time, there wasn’t much open down the field. While that’s a testament to how well the Bears’ secondary played, it still leaves questions about how they reloaded their group that notably lost All-American Raylen Sharpe to the transfer portal and Terique Owens to graduation.
“That can be tough just…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/5-overreactions-missouri-state-footballs-182642148.html
Author : Springfield News-Leader
Publish date : 2024-08-10 18:26:42
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