Casey Woods: From Tennessee Walk-On to Missouri State Head Coach

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, fire up the grill, crank the speakers loud. Saturdays feel holy in this college crowd. Sethin' James on the mic, preaching gospel true, talking rivalries, legends, red, black, old and blue From dead valley lights to the camp, Randall Cold, they're telling stories, they never get old, ain't no bench warm hearts on the show tonight. They're walking on proud on the stadium lies. Little preferred walk on, no scholarship still putting it on From the church until gate hands in the air.

speaker-1: Welcome to the Preferred Walk On Show, The People's College Football Show. I am your host, Seth Saunders, and we have a very special guest today. Now, to everyone watching, an introductory press conference looks like a beginning. A new head coach, a program on the rise, a podium, a jersey, a vision for what comes next. But moments like that are rarely beginnings. They are culmination of years spent taking reps in the dark, doing the monotonous things that breed excellence, the late nights recruiting. The hard conversations with players, the wins that validate the grind, the losses that expose the gaps, the mentors who shape your standard and teach you what culture looks like when it's real. Today's guest has lived that journey. He was a player and captain at Tennessee. He was part of a national championship staff at Auburn. He helped build winners at UAB and SMU. And everywhere he's been, he'd been working towards solving the same problem. How do you build a program that lasts? Now he gets to answer that question from the head coach's chair, leading Missouri State into one of the most exciting eras in programmed history. Today we have an enthusiastic preferred walk-on welcome from Missouri State head football coach Casey Woods. Coach, welcome to the show.

speaker-0: Man, thanks Seth. Well, that was a intro. I need to get you just to introduce me every time I'm speaking somewhere here in town. No, that was great, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Really excited to be here.

speaker-1: Come on with it, coach. I'll come out there and do it whenever you want, man. I'll I'll head to the Rotary Club with you. VFW. I'll go to all of them, man.

speaker-0: So it's we're excited to be here. Good time to be here. Well hey man

speaker-1: When you're introduced as the head coach at Missouri State, you know, like like I alluded to, most people see the press conference, which is the result, but they don't see the years behind it, all the work, all the development. When you look back, what were the moments that prepared you most to sit in this seat?

speaker-0: Gosh, that's all of ⁓ right? It was ⁓ you know, I think it was a slow recognition of how little ⁓ you actually do know and trying to fill those gaps, you know. It's ⁓ I think there was great opportunities as ⁓ you know, I got ⁓ I always joked, so I gotta I got done playing at Tennessee in two thousand seven, so I worked that next year in two thousand eight for Coach Fulmer. That happened to be his last years. ⁓ and then I caught on at the staff at Auburn in two thousand nine and ten so I ⁓ you know, I kinda always joke that I got fired my first year in coaching and I won a national championship my third year in coaching. So it's kind of just bounced around in between you know, in between there how all the emotions have. ⁓ I no, I've been very fortunate my career. ⁓ I I think I've I think this will be my nineteenth season. I've coached in nine championship games and we've won six of ⁓ you know, and that's less to do with me, but it's but more to do with the ⁓ You know, I've I've been around really good people. I do know what winning looks like. We're gonna do the things the champions do before we get there and I'm excited about that. I think, you know, probably you you always learn more in the hardest parts, right? And so there's losses, there's failures, there's things that I didn't do right along the way that you look back and you're like, Man, that's this one coach I I would ⁓ coach Malzon is is writing a book with with this guy and I spent two hours on the phone with him yesterday and it was just thinking about all the grace man Coach Malzon showed me during the seven years I spent with him and, you know, all the lead, you know, development moments that I had when when he could have not had patience with me, I I think he saw something in me that, you know, maybe I didn't even recognize in myself yet or or couldn't articulate it at that point. But, you know, there's guys that are there and certainly now that you do get to this chair, you want to make sure that you've got good young staff, good young coaches that you can continue to see vision in, you know, like those guys did for me.

speaker-1: Well, coach, your dad obviously had a major influence on your life and on having a great example to follow as you started on your coaching journey. What did he teach you about leadership, work, the way you treat people and and maybe most importantly, how special has it been to be able to add him to your your staff and your first journey as a head coach?

speaker-0: Yeah. Well, I mean, my dad's my hero, right? And it's ⁓ he's taught me everything I knew about all those things that you mentioned. You know, he was I think probably the reason I got into coaching, maybe I couldn't have put my finger on it when I was twenty six years old, but looking back was all the things that I spent mad at him, eighteen to twenty two years old, you know, ⁓ is the reason I got in now, man. He had great compassion for his players, he had great love for his players. ⁓ he really had impact on a lot of their lives and it was It was amazing. I I don't you know, I was speaking in St. Louis ⁓ three weeks ago and we are this dad's with me and our staff was up there. We had worked the Lennon Wood camp and ⁓ this guy comes up to him and he had played for him at Iowa State back in the seventies. He hadn't seen him in forty years, you know, and this but he read on the he read on the sheet of paper that Sparky Woods was coming, so he came to see him and it was I was amazing. You know, it was just an amazing moment. It just kind of ⁓ full circle moment to realize that's why you get into coaching right there, because it was such a profound impact on that guy's life. Marky Woods did in nineteen seventy nine, you know, that it's like, ⁓ man, that's great. ⁓ now having him up it's cool because he's my dad, right? I mean that's that part's fun because this is I have not lived in the same town as my parents since I left for college. And ⁓ you know, we're the closest we've ever been to my wife's ⁓ family as well. So ⁓ so that part's cool, right? The f the family part's cool. But also he's got the best resume in the building, right? Seventeen years a head coach, ten years a coordinator. ⁓ he's coached at one double A, ⁓ one A NFL. I mean, he's you know, he's ⁓ he brings an invaluable resource. ⁓ he really he helps me differentiate between what's needs to be addressed right now and what doesn't, you know, and he helps me prioritize. He's really good influence on the young coaches and just trying to he's a together guy. So, you know, he's he's kind of the guy that's that's pulling all the people in the same direction to to get us moving the right direction. But man, it's it's an honor to have him on my staff. Really excited about these these next few years with him.

speaker-1: I absolutely love that story, Coach. I always think, you know, we I I said this recently, but I think very crudely, we always boil down coaching to wins and losses. And and at the end of the day, man, it's a people business. And it's how do you affect the kids that are in the building with you? That's the best part. So man man, I love that. I love

speaker-0: Yeah, it's it's a great thing.

speaker-1: If you were gonna have to hammer it down a as you're building ⁓ this program in your journey now, sitting in the chair, what are the non-negotiables for a Casey Woods football program?

speaker-0: I've got five core values that I live by. ⁓ salvation, loyalty, toughness, hard work, impact. ⁓ I think that those have always got to be the standardized non negotiables that they you know have to resonate throughout the the program. That don't mean we've got to break down to them or anything like that. But as I make decisions or or do this, it's, you know, we're gonna do that. Salvation for me certainly is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, it's ⁓ it's a posture of thanksgiving, right? It's a posture of salvation. This is the single greatest opportunity I've ever had. And it is for me, you know, d kid does my staff feel the same way? Do our players feel the same way? Do the does the equipment manager and the trainer feel the same way? You know, we we've got to start with that posture. And I think if you do that and you're loyal to the people and the cause, and I think the people, you know, it's a lot of people use family as, you know, as a buzzword, really. And some people it's like kids are in the way at practice and that's the kind of environment I want. I grew up knowing when I was welcome in the building and when I wasn't. And so I you know, I want our staff to w we're gonna have a better coaching staff if they're good husbands and fathers and they got an opportunity to do that. So we're ⁓ so if you're loyal to the people, right, loyal to the cause, which we've got great vision here, right? I think our vision's to win the first ever conference championship, recruit better than it's ever been done. We're gonna turn our stadium into a great environment to play and we're gonna have an impact on on our on our university, you know, in a positive way. ⁓ so if you're loyal to that, I think if you're tough, right, because everybody, it doesn't matter what walk of life you're from, you you encounter tough you encounter hard times, right? And it's like so obviously we play a physical game, but we, you know, I think what we're talking about is mental toughness, it's emotional consistency. It's making sure that you develop all the things that it takes to be a man into your life, right? And then And then hard work kinda is what it is, right? Goes don't need a ton of explanation for that. It it costs what it cost. I can sit here and say all those four things of the vision, or I can make sure that all that our coaching staff went into all four hundred and twelve football playing institutions this spring. I've spoken to twenty two fraternities and sororities, and I'm speaking at all sixteen freshman orientations this summer to help our student body understand what we need done on game day. You know, we're out preaching, you know, Springfield's about to cross five hundred thousand residents, you know, it's the entrepreneurial center of the United States right now. It checks all seven main boxes for business hungry communities, you know, and I think that we are it's just such a cool time, you know, to be here. I think if you start with that heart of salvation, if you're loyal tough and you work hard, then you got a shot. You got a shot to make an impact. And that's what we want to do, right? I do, you said it earlier. And, you know, one of the things that kind of came into you you can't separate the wins and losses from what you're ultimately trying to get done from an impact because the cost of the platform that we have, right, to impact people's lives is winning and losing. And so I've been very fort fortunate to be around a ton of winning in my career. And so we gotta, you know, in order for me, this is the greatest opportunity I've ever had to coach football, this is also the greatest opportunity I've ever had to impact guys' lives or impact a community. And the cost of that is winning games. So I'm gonna do everything we can to win games in order to maintain that platform.

speaker-1: We talked about it earlier with the with the story you shared about your dad and so so I'm interested when a player leaves your program, whether it been when you were an assistant coach or now when you're as the head coach, what do you hope that he carries with him beyond

speaker-0: football. ⁓ gosh. That's a great question. So ⁓ I took this job and then Rhett Lashley was good enough to let me work the bowl game in San Diego, as a matter of fact. So we're coaching at the holiday bowl. And so the night before we're gonna go play the game and then and then everybody gets on a plane and we're never I'm I'm leaving, you know, we had two two I coach tight ends, you know, as well as being the offensive coordinator. So two of my tight ends are in the NFL now. I mean it was like full dispersion the next day, right? And sometimes you encounter those moments in life like all right, this is goodbye. So if I had one thing to tell you, what would I tell you? You know? And so what has become our cultural standard here was actually based off of that last conversation I had with those tight ends sitting around the table, man. And I told them four things. I said, I said, love your team, whatever team you're a part of, right? And that's that can be a sports team, certainly, but that can be your family. That can be your job. Like you're gonna be part of teams throughout your life. You gotta love the oneness of that team. Like, what are you serving that's bigger than yourself? Right. So love the team. Number two would be love your teammates. That's the individual connections, right? That's the shepherding that takes place in order to you are loving the oneness of your team, but you're also loving the individuals that are involved in that. And how do you get to know them and what do you build from that? And it's within a family setting, within a work setting, within a team setting, you know, love your teammates. The third one is always compete. Winning matters. Winning matters in life. And really it's probably because because at its core, it's like what your dad told you when you were six to do your best. Right, or whoever told you to do your best. And so probably trying to win, it maybe is more valuable than winning itself, you know, because sometimes there's there's circumstances that you can't control, but you better be trying to win, right? Always compete. And and it does matter. And in a culture that we live in where it kind of blurs the line on what matters and what n that matters. It matters that you do your best. Right. And then And then the fourth one is is enjoy the journey. You know, this is it's You get one shot at this and it's you're gonna meet a lot of cool people along the way. ⁓ you gotta have fun while you're doing it. You gotta enjoy the people that you work with. You gotta enjoy your team. You gotta enjoy your teammates. And y you can't be so razor edged about some extraneous factor that you don't enjoy the people that you're doing it with, right? And and that you can't, man, laugh and have fun and cut up and get together and be, you know, you gotta keep the mood light so people enjoy being around you. Love your team, love your teammates, always compete and do you and ⁓ enjoy the journey. Yeah.

speaker-1: That's that's all outstanding. I'm I'm maybe have to steal a little bit of that. I love the the piece about the oneness and and embracing the oneness of your team. And I I just think that's so transferable. Yeah. Our show is obviously built around the walk on mindset, you know, earning your place, finding your role, becoming invaluable to to your team. We call it being a TNT all American, being elite at everything that takes no talent. And so when you hear that, when you hear that. walk on mindset. What does that mean to you?

speaker-0: Well, I you know, I was a walk on. So it's I know exactly the feeling of what it is that goes in there and it's you're fighting from the bottom and and you can't just fight yourself to a tie because if you get to a tie then they're gonna pick the non walk on, right? They're gonna they're gonna pick where their money's invested. So and it should be that way. But it is so I I I had a fantastic career. The proudest day of my life is when the University of Tennessee put me on scholarship, you know, and that is Just because not, you know, I wasn't a great player at Tennessee. I did play and had a bunch of had a ton of fun. We won a lot of games while I was there. I met some of my best friends. I got into coaching. It was if I didn't have Tennessee in my Tennessee, you know, it was once said that nobody has ever done more for football than football has done for them. And I think that that's the walk on mindset, right? It's ⁓ it is it's that heart of salvation that I'm talking about, right? It's that's my core value number one. It is ⁓ and I think there's Nobody's ever done more for the University of Tennessee than the University of Tennessee probably has done for them, you know. And I think that that's everywhere along the way is you're you're encountering some mechanism that is allowing you to to grow and develop and and ⁓ and invest in the future. So and I think that that's ⁓ that that the T N T mindset is funny that you said takes no talent. So when I was probably twelve years old saying that I wanted to coach football, and this is a dad story, I th so I thought you might like it, right? So I looked for six things when I was hiring a staff, but the very first two, my dad told me when I was twelve years old, he said two things every single coach can be is they can be organized and they can be enthusiastic. And that is a take no talent, you know, mindset right there. So it's it's so I demand of our staff, man, you gotta be organized, you gotta be enthusiastic. You don't have to know steam, you don't have to recruit. You don't I mean they they do have to do that, but you don't have to but you don't have to have any of those skills to be organized and enthusiastic. Well, it's good stuff. Yeah, I it's

speaker-1: You talked about it earlier about learning more from the hard times. And I agree with that. And I know every coach has moments where the game humbles him, where certain situations humble him. What has adversity taught you the most about yourself and how has it prepared you well for for where you are now?

speaker-0: ⁓ you know, I teach it teaches you several things. One, it teaches you humility, right? This is this is a this is a profession that demands that you have low ego in order to execute what you want to do, but it sets you on a pedal you know, it it's worldly in the sense that it pff it can give you big ego real quick, right? So I think that there's humility at if you're gonna be a team, if you're gonna be able to love everybody and do all the things that we talk about doing, then you've got to be low ego and and everybody involved does, right? And so I think that that's one I think that there is the beauty about a football season, which is what everyone loves about sports in general, is it does you can't dwell on your failures very long, right? It's ⁓ if it's a loss in season, then you've got twenty four hours and then you gotta like roll on, right? If you get fired at the end of a season, then I I mean you gotta go get a job and you got six months before there's another season, right? So it's not there there's these very small ⁓ windows of time that you have to be able to flip your mindset and be able to improve and be able to put yourself in position to ⁓ to grow kind of like you said, you know. And I think that ⁓ adversity demands that you you said it kind of I think in the intro. I thought it was great. There's there's adversity, demands ⁓ problem solving. It demand like I okay, I can't I can't keep doing it this way because, you know, whereas winning, if you're winning and you're doing it wrong, it doesn't help you because you just assume that you can out talent or out recruit or out whatever, you know, and you're not actually problem you're not actually getting to the problem that you need to solve. And so I think it it demands that from you. And so I think that there's I got a young staff, we're kind of in the process of recruiting right now, but we are recruiting better than it's ever been done before in the history of Missouri State University right now. And we're still losing some kids in these recruiting battles, right? Because whatever reason. So it's and we got a young staff that's learning how to that, you know, it's w another thing my dad said when I got into this business, it's about who you do get, not about who you don't get. And so, you know, teaching a young staff how to navigate that, right? These guys have been investing in relationships for four or five months and we've won more than we've lost, but there's still some you know, I mean, it's you're gonna get every one of them. And so those guys learning what their investment is and and maybe and recruiting's fickle in that way, which is also good that you you can do everything the right way and the kid ultimately gets to choose where he goes, right? Or you can do it not the right way and at the last second, which all right, come on, man. I'll for any commits and you're like it, you know, so it was ⁓ so I think that there's, you know, there's a lot of wisdom that comes from that, a lot of practice. And it's good. We got a good young staff that's got great energy. They are or or organized. They are enthusiastic. They are bought in. They're appreciative. They start with that heart of salvation. And and so it's it's gonna be fun to have an opportunity not just to press them to get our entire organization to win, which is important, but to develop them as coaches. And my ultimate goal would be to create an environment where they want to stay as long as they want to stay. But if I've got bigger schools coming to poach my staff, then I'm doing the right things. So it's ⁓ that's that's what I want for them and us.

speaker-1: All right, coach, wanna close with you like this today. Let's hop in Doc Brown's DeLorean. You get to go back and walk with young Casey as he as he leaves the field at Tennessee ⁓ in the eighty five uniform for the last time. What advice would you give him as he prepares for the road end?

speaker-0: Man. The first one would be you gotta treat people really good. And I always thought I treated people pretty good, but I didn't have any concept of that when I was that age. And I blamed it on external factors that were just excuses at the end of the day. But so I you know, I think that you gotta develop that, be prepared to develop those relationships. ⁓ I think that so I so I think life is life is all about relationships, right? I think that you I think don't ever, ever, ever settle for average. And I and I've been fortunate in my career not not to have had to do that, right? But don't ever settle for average. Go keep pursuing your dreams and don't and and the ones that are gonna tell you no you can't or d you can't you gotta ignore that, right? And so never settle for average. ⁓ you know and I and I think the third one is there's ⁓ I think when I was younger I used to say, always make your path a little straighter. I think that that's important. ⁓ there's a guy, there's a high school coach here in town that wrote a book called Never Stop Improving. That's probably a better way to put it. ⁓ that is ⁓ like every single culture, and I talked about this in my this isn't necessarily with my team, but but I do think like as I've spoken around town, every single c if you're gonna develop a culture and culture's never mattered more than it does right now in college football, but I think every every culture's gotta have core values. Which I was fortunate to have since college, right? Every every culture's gotta have vision. Like where are we going, you know? ⁓ every culture has gotta have spirit. And that's probably maybe one that's hard to put your finger on, but there that's that's the have funness. That's the energetic moment. That's the clapping your hands, that's the singing the song, that's the being with one another. There's an entertainment that that involves the spirit, right? And if whatever culture you're in, you gotta have togetherness spirit. And maybe hard to define, but when you see it, you know that's that's spirit, right? And then and then you gotta have universal ⁓ accountability, right? So you've got to be willing to do all the things that you're demanding of everyone else, you know, from a leadership standpoint. And then then I think you have to have ultimately what I was getting to is is a developmental plan for the future. And that is that I think that's independent of the vision, right? Vision is like where we're headed. The developmental plan is is how you're gonna get there and and how you're gonna develop the know the people in the organization to do that, how you gonna develop the calendar to make sure it matches up with what you're doing. How what what is your it's my plan for my my I got a great running backs coach. What happens when my running back coach goes to a different job? I better have another running backs coach, you know, and so I think that you gotta have continual development for ⁓ for your organization at all times.

speaker-1: Coach, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the time today. And I am sure of many things after talking with you, but the one I am most sure of is that the Missouri State Bears are in fantastic hands as y'all move forward. So well we we wish we we wish you nothing but the best this season. And again, man, th thank you so much.