January 17, 2026
SPRINGFIELD — Tyler Foster will join the Missouri State staff as an offensive assistant coach, Bears’ new head football coach Casey Woods announced today.
Foster has spent the past three seasons as assistant running backs coach at SMU and has a decade of major-college football coaching experience.
“Coach Tyler Foster brings professionalism and consistency to coach (Mark) Cala and our offensive staff after three years with us at SMU,” said Woods. “Having spent part of his career in the Midwest, coach Foster understands the importance of recruiting relationships in the region. Player development and accountability will be hallmarks of his room. We welcome him and Ellie and their daughter Emma to the Bears Family! It takes Us ALL! Join the Climb. Go Bears!”
The 2025 Mustangs under head coach Rhett Lashlee finished 9-4 after defeating Arizona in the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl, including a 7-2 surge since September with just a pair of one-score road losses blemishing the team’s ledger the last three months of the season.
Foster worked under coach Kyle Cooper with the running backs in 2024 with that position group playing a major part in lifting the program to its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance.
Transfer Brashard Smith flourished in the backfield, logging 1,977 all-purpose yards, the most in a single season in SMU history. He also became the 12th Mustang to eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark and finished fourth in the single-season record books with 1,332. The senior earned All-America honors by four major publications while earning All-ACC first team honors. He was was all over the top 25 in major FBS statistics, finishing ranked 8th in the country in all-purpose yards (141.2), 12th in total touchdowns (18), 20th in total points scored (112), and 25th in rushing yards per game (95.1).
As a team, the 2024 Mustangs rushed for 29 touchdowns on the year, which ranked tied for third most in school history.
Prior to SMU, Foster spent the 2023 season as the associate director of player personnel at Baylor where he helped assemble the No. 23 recruiting class in the nation for the Bears.
He also served as an offensive analyst at Kansas State from 2021-22 and played a prominent role in coordinating the Wildcats’ recruiting areas, including major metro areas such as Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
Foster served as a recruiting assistant and analyst at Oklahoma State in 2019 and helped assemble the 40th-ranked recruiting class in the FBS ranks for the 2020 campaign.
He also was the run-game coordinator at Kimball High School in Dallas from 2018-19, following a stint as a graduate assistant at Prairie View A&M University from 2015-16.
The Dallas native played at Kilgore College and UTSA, where he received a Master’s degree in Kinesiology in 2017. He earned his bachelors degree in Sociology from UTSA in 2014.
Foster and his wife Ellie have a daughter, Emma.
His hire is contingent upon formal approval by the Missouri State University Board of Governors at its next scheduled meeting.
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