A defining era of Mustang athletics has come to a close after over two decades. MSU’s head football coach of 22 years, Bill Maskill, announced his retirement Sunday afternoon.
The MSU football program soared to new heights under Maskill, as he posted 160 career wins, the most in school history. Under Maskill’s oversight, the Mustangs won five Lone Star Conference titles and posted numerous playoff appearances.
Maskill and athletic director Kyle Williams quickly agreed that longtime defensive coordinator Rich Renner was the right man to lead the Mustangs going forward. Renner joined Maskill’s staff 18 years ago as defensive line coach. With just two years in the position, Renner took the step up to defensive coordinator and now, 16 years later, is taking the reins as the head of the program.
Williams said he is confident in Renner’s abilities.
“We now get to embark on a new era, and a new position, a new person to lead our football program, and we think we got a good one,” Williams said.
Williams was effusive in his praise of Renner in the new coach’s introductory press conference, stressing his confidence in Renner both on and off the field.
“Rich is a man of integrity, he’s a man of character and he’s a great football coach,” Williams said.
Renner said he appreciates the guidance Maskill gave him. After almost two decades under the former head coach’s tutelage, Renner said he feels better prepared for the task ahead.
“And again, I thank Coach Maskill for all these years, alright, of inspiration. But also too, just of the growth and learning of preparing me for this situation. You know, Coach Maskill has been awesome for 17 years,” Renner said.
Renner also thanked a string of coaches he worked under, players he coached and his family.
“I want to thank all the players that I had the ability to coach over the years. I think it’s very important to understand without those guys then I wouldn’t be standing here today. Great football players, it was great to get the texts and phone calls yesterday and today that I really appreciate. But those guys are the ones that really matter. Those are the guys that, well the reason I got into this profession is to give back to them,” Renner said.
Renner added that he appreciates being able to stay so long in one place, particularly in an industry where changing locations every few years is standard practice.
“For 17 years, I’ve been able to call “home” in one place. So that’s been something that’s been very important to me and my family, especially in this coaching profession,” Renner said.
Renner’s decades of work represent the culmination of a longtime dream for the new Mustang head man.
Renner said he was confident from a young age that he wanted to coach.
“I knew I wanted to be a coach at a young age. I can tell you growing up that there’s a lot of coaches in my life that was very influential,” Renner said, adding, “Obviously I wanted to give back to those young men that was given to me. Obviously when I say young men I mean young men that I would eventually coach. Obviously I was very fortunate to have that.”
Now, Renner is tasked with carrying on the winning legacy left behind by Maskill.
Renner said he wants to build for the future while remembering the positive impacts Maskill left on the program.
“It’s obviously an honor to lead this team into the future, but I also want to be a builder, okay. A team that is disciplined, hard-working, mentally tough and competitive. Those are the same things that we talked about under Coach Maskill, but obviously I want to continue to build off of that and that foundation that Coach Maskill and our staff have developed that over the 22 years that he was here,” Renner said.
