Photo courtesy of St. Cloud State Athletic Communications St. Cloud State coach Scott Underwood watches his team play. Underwood was named the latest head football coach for SMSU on Jan. 7.

MARSHALL — “To build a culture as a winning program, you must establish relationships.”

Those words were expressed by Scott Underwood, who became the newest head football coach at Southwest Minnesota State University on Jan. 7. Underwood is the Mustangs’ 11th head coach in the program’s 53-year existence, with previous coaching stints at the University of North Dakota, the University of Sioux Falls, Augustana University and most recently St. Cloud State University.

Underwood was always into sports since an early age and spoke on who had the biggest influence on him: his father.

“My dad was an athletic director, he coached football and basketball,” Underwood said. “So I had the opportunity to grow up in a sports background and play multiple sports where I developed the love of sports.”

Underwood was a four-sport star in high school, competing in baseball, football, basketball and track. Although there were many choices to where he could attend college, ultimately, he would choose Augustana, where he would graduate with his bachelor’s degree. He then began his coaching career at Augie, which has spanned more than 32 years. With the Vikings as a defensive secondary coach, Underwood helped guide them to at least eight wins three times and consecutive NCAA playoff appearances in 1988 and 1989. He then spent four seasons at USF as a defensive coordinator, with the Cougars winning three conference championships and the 1996 NAIA Division II National Championship. After four more seasons as an inside linebackers coach at North Dakota, Underwood became the defensive coordinator at St. Cloud State from 2001-2007 before being named the head coach at SCSU, where he held that position for 12 seasons. During those 12 years, St. Cloud State recorded 10 winning seasons, three NCAA playoff appearances and a record of 86-51 with Underwood at the helm.

Unfortunately, in 2019, the St. Cloud football program was terminated, leaving Underwood without a head coaching position. He spoke about his departure from St. Cloud and what led him to SMSU.

“When the program got terminated in late December 2019, I still had three years left on my contract.” Underwood said. “They (St. Cloud Administration) afforded me the opportunity to be in Facilities and Operations management since there were no football positions open.”

This gave Underwood the security needed to fulfill his contract; however, he knew that he wanted to return to the field as a head football coach.

“Having been a coach for 12 years, I still felt that was my calling,” Underwood said. “So, with playing this year and the opportunities that opened within the conference, I was eager to get back into being a head coach. Certainly in a region and area I know.”

In addition to returning to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC), mental health is also of importance to the new football coach, which is why he has implemented a mentoring system between his coaches to be able to monitor his players and have an open-door policy to anything that needs to be discussed. Being able to build relationships with the players is essential to Underwood in maintaining a positive environment around the program. When talking about the makeup of a Mustang football player, coach Underwood advocated this.

“Strong character and integrity,” Underwood said. “The desire to be successful both in the classroom and on the field. How they behave and act as being good stewards to our university and to our program.”

SMSU will begin practices this upcoming spring.