“Coach Begnal brings a wealth of special teams experience to the program,” Coach Ford said regarding his newest coordinator. “He was my right-hand man in 2022 when I was the special teams coordinator and has since been to three FBS schools, improving his craft. Most recently at Michigan St over the last two seasons, serving as the assistant special teams coordinator. He excels at building relationships with players across all position groups and understands every aspect of building a successful ST unit. Joe will bring energy, toughness, and instill a ‘get to’ attitude when it comes to Special Teams here in Moscow.”
Begnal comes to Moscow following a two-year stint at Michigan State, where he was an assistant special teams coordinator. In 2024, his first year at MSU, he was a special teams analyst, and Ryan Eckley and Jonathan Kim, the Spartans’ punter and placekicker, both earned All-Big Ten honors.
Before his time in East Lansing, Begnal spent time at Memphis. In 2023, the Tigers went on to a 10-3 season and beat Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl.
No stranger to Moscow, Begnal also spent time with Colorado State and with Idaho as a special teams quality control coach.
Outside of his experience coaching special teams, Begnal spent the 2017-19 seasons coaching wide receivers at New Haven, and also spent a year at Lincoln University (Mo.) where he was defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2016.
His coaching career started in the high school ranks at his alma mater, Sacred Heart High School in Conn., where he called plays for the offense. In 2011, he started coaching college and became the assistant coach at Western New England, his alma mater. After two years there, Begnal went to Post University, where he was the special teams coordinator. He would go on to travel across the nation and take over the associate head coach and defensive coordinator position at Brethren Christian High School in Huntington Beach, Calif.
