Jonathan Beasley is entering his 14th year at Tarleton State in 2025 as Director of Football Operations.
This will be Beasley's fourth season in the operations role after spending 10 seasons on the coaching staff. He’s served as a tight ends coach, wide receivers coach and running backs coach, coaching three positional players of the year, three All-Americans and 13 All-Conference selections. Beasley has also had a major hand in bringing in the most elite talent this program has ever seen over the past 10 years, many players who have went on to play professional football, as he was the team’s recruiting coordinator in addition to his other duties.
The Texans just posted a historic campaign in 2024, going 10-4 overall and 6-2 in United Athletic Conference play, winning their FCS Playoffs debut against Drake before dropping a tight contest at No. 4 South Dakota in Vermillion in the second round. It was the longest regular season in program history both in number of games played and number of days on the calendar, with Tarleton State opening on Week 0 (a 26-23 win over McNeese on ESPN2) on Aug. 23, and finishing with a 42-31 loss at South Dakota on Dec. 7. On Nov. 30, 13-seed Tarleton hosted Drake in the first round of the FCS Playoffs winning 43-29 at Memorial Stadium. The Texans became the fifth team in the history of the FCS Playoffs (Division I-AA Playoffs), which goes back 46 years, to win their first playoff game at the FCS level in their first year eligible after reclassifying from NCAA Division II. Two of those five teams comprised of the four-team playoff field in that initial round of the FCS Playoffs – Florida A&M and UMass, in 1978. The other two programs are currently in the FBS; Troy in 1993 and UCF in 1990. The Texans earned the No. 13 seed in the FCS Playoffs among the 24-team field across 129 FCS programs in just their first year of championship eligibility. They had become just the first team fresh off of reclassification to make the playoffs since 2009 (South Dakota State). Tarleton State was named No. 12 in the final AFCA FCS Coaches Poll of the season, and No. 13 in the final Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll of the season. Tarleton State was ranked in both polls every single week of the 2024 campaign, from the preseason through the postseason. The Texans were just one of 11 teams nationwide to never leave the polls, joined by Idaho, Illinois State, Montana, Montana State, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State, UC Davis, UIW and Villanova. Tarleton State started 2024 7-1, with a six-game winning streak, their best start and their longest winning streak in the D1 era. The Texans finished second in the UAC. Across the board, Tarleton was ranked No. 22 in total offense and they forced the tied-third most turnovers. Tarleton had both the leading receiver (Darius Cooper at 1,450 yards) and the leading rusher (Kayvon Britten at 1,982) across all of the FCS.
Beasley was part of all four years of Tarleton State’s reclassification period, which was special nationwide, as the Texans posted the third highest winning percentage in a reclassification period since 2004 at .610 (25-16). Among all Texas D1 and D2 programs since 2018, the Texans own the best winning percentage in the state at .727 (48-18).
Prior to the move to Division I, Beasley helped transform the Tarleton offense into the most prolific rushing attack in the country and the best season in school history with a 12-1 record, the first outright LSC championship and advanced to the NCAA regional finals in 2018. Behind a pair of 1,000-yard running backs in Xavier Turner and Daniel McCants, the Texans rushed for a school record 4,301 yards and 310 yards per game, ranking third in the country and the best for a non-option offense. Turner, a Harlon Hill nominee and LSC Offensive Back of the Year, ran for 1,469 yards and 22 touchdowns while McCants had 1,141 yards and eight touchdowns. Turner signed a free agent deal with the Arizona Cardinals.
That season followed up with yet another undefeated regular season and LSC Championship as the 2019 Texans went 11-1. McCants enjoyed one of the finest rushing seasons in school history on his way to being named the LSC Offensive Back of the Year and to four different All-America teams. The senior from Killeen rushed for 1,457 yards on a mere 164 carries to lead the nation in yards per attempt (8.9). As a team, the Texans rushed for 3,207 yards for the season and were the No. 14-ranked rushing attack in the country.
Over the final two seasons in the LSC, Beasley coached back-to-back LSC Offensive Backs of the Year (Turner and McCants) and three All-Americans (Turner, McCants, QB Holmes). He also coached TE Brant Bailey to four straight All-LSC honors.
Beasley took over coaching the running backs and tight ends in 2016 and saw much success from his student-athletes. In that first year, his running backs combined for 1,060 yards and 10 touchdowns while freshman tight end Brant Bailey took home second-team All-LSC recognition in his debut season under Beasley’s leadership. Beasley later helped Xavier Turner earn All-LSC Second Team honors in a breakout season that saw the junior rush for 765 yards and 11 touchdowns. Turner also became the second player in school history to rush, catch, and throw for a touchdown in a single game – which he did at Midwestern State.
In his first four seasons at Tarleton, he was the primary wide receivers coach and led two of the top wide receivers in this history of Texan Football – Clifton Rhodes III and Le’Nard Meyers. Rhodes ended his career as the school’s all-time leader in receptions (209) and receiving yards (2,757) while Meyers is second in receptions (202), fourth in yards (2,580), and the all-time leader in receiving touchdowns (27). Meyers also tied Devin Guinn for the school record mark in 100-yard receiving games (10).
Under Beasley’s leadership, Meyers had a banner year in 2015 as a senior. The Texan receiver from Gatesville was a first-team All-LSC selection, two-time all-region award winner, and a third-team All-America selection as well as being named the Lone Star Conference Receiver of the Year.
In 2014, the Texans boasted one of the top receiving corps in the nation with the trio of Le'Nard Meyers, Bubba Tandy and Clifton Rhodes III, who ultimately set the school record for most receptions and most receiving yards in school history. For the second straight season, Beasley's receiving corps had four players top the 400-yard receiving plateau with Tandy leading the way with 830 yards and Meyers checking in at 755. Rhodes III (556) and Tyler Wright (432) were the other top receivers for the Texans while Rhodes, Tandy and Meyers were named all-conference at receiver.
Beasley also spent the 2014 as the team's Academic Coordinator and the Texans had three Texans named to the league Academic All-Conference team and Charles Moore was named an Academic All-America honoree and National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete and finalist for the William V. Campbell trophy.
In 2013, Beasley helped sophomore Le’Nard Meyers have a breakout season with a team-best 731 yards on 58 receptions, including a career-high 178 yards on nine catches and two touchdowns to power a 24-point comeback win against No. 4 West Texas A&M on Oct. 12. Meyers wasn’t the only Texan receiver to shine under Beasley’s tutelage as Meyers, Clifton Rhodes III (675), Bubba Tandy (498) and Jeken Frye (419) all topped the 400-yard receiving plateau. Beasley’s receivers had five 100-yard receiving games in 2013.
In Beasley’s first season with Tarleton, he helped the Texan receivers combine for over 2,500 yards and 18 touchdowns with two receivers amassing more than 670 yards individually.
In his Tarleton career, he had a total of four different receivers, one running back and one tight end earn All-LSC honors.
Beasley, a former star quarterback at Kansas State, came to Tarleton after coaching three years at his alma mater as an offensive assistant coach. Beasley returned to his alma mater and served as the wide receivers coach after being an assistant coach at Montana State in 2007 and 2008.
The Bobcats went 13-10 over Beasley’s two seasons. As part of the Bobcat coaching staff, Beasley also assisted with the weekly implementation of the offensive game plan and served as the MSU Community Service Coordinator.
Before arriving at Montana State, Beasley served as a graduate assistant at Emporia State as well as quarterbacks and running backs coach at Wichita North High in 2006 and JV and freshmen quarterbacks’ coach at Cactus High in Glendale, Ariz. in 2003.
He played professionally for the Wichita Aviators in the APFL (2005), the Wichita Stealth in Arena II (2004), the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars (2003), the NFL Detroit Lions (2003), and NFL Green Bay Packers (2001). He also played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (2001-02). His time in Wichita earned him a spot in the Kanas Indoor Professional Football Hall of Fame with the Class of 2016. The Wichita Eagle also named him one of the Top-10 All-Time Greatest Indoor Football players.
A native of Glendale, Arizona, Beasley was a third-team All-Big XII selection at quarterback for K-State in 2000 and earned MVP honors in the 2001 Cotton Bowl, where K-State defeated Tennessee 35-21 and Beasley earned MVP honors after scoring three touchdowns on 98 yards rushing and 210 yards passing, and 1999 Holiday Bowl. He also earned MVP and team captain honors for the 2001 Hula Bowl and was the team captain for the 2001 East-West Shrine Game.
His heroics in the 2001 Cotton Bowl garnered a prestigious honor in 2019 when he was announced as one of seven individuals to be inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame Class of 2020, alongside his head coach from Kansas State Bill Snyder. He entered the Hall of Fame in a special ceremony in 2021.
Beasley was a two-year starter at Kansas State, compiling a 132.7 pass efficiency rating in 2000, the top mark in school history to that point. He threw for over 30 touchdowns in his career and finished with 4,642 career passing yards. He holds the school record for most yards per completion for a game (23.9), season (20.1) and career (17.9) while also compiling a 21-4 record in two seasons as the Wildcat starting quarterback.
He led K-State to a Big 12 Championship Game appearance against Oklahoma as a senior, and led the Wildcats to a win over Nebraska that same season by throwing a game-winning 12-yard scoring strike in the game’s final three minutes.
Beasley married his wife, Amanda, in July 2014. He has two sons, Tanner and Liam, and a daughter, Olivia.
