Michigan State continues to promote from within regarding its 2025 coaching staff. The latest move comes with the promotion of Joe Begnal III to assistant special teams coordinator, sources tell Spartans Illustrated.
Begnal served as a special teams analyst for MSU in 2024. He primarily worked with Michigan State's specialist group (kickers, punters and long snappers) during practice throughout the season.
Sources also tell Spartans Illustrated that Keith Bhonapha (who is also the assistant head coach and running backs coach) and Chad Wilt (who is also the rush ends coach) will continue their roles as co-special teams coordinator. Begnal will now have added responsibility and input regarding the special teams.
Begnal and Bhonapha had a previous relationship. Bhonapha originally hired Begnal in December of 2022 while he was the assistant head coach/special teams coordinator/running backs coach at Boise State, but Bhonapha ended up joining head Jonathan Smith at Oregon State ahead of the 2023 season and Begnal did not end up with the Broncos.
When Bhonapha followed Smith to East Lansing, he called Begnal about joining Michigan State. Begnal joined the Spartans in February of 2022.
Prior to Michigan State, Begnal spent time as a special teams quality control coach at Memphis in 2023, working under special teams coordinator Chris White, whom he is close with. Begnal has also worked with veteran college coach Brian White, Chris' brother.
Before Memphis, Begnal spent time at Idaho and Colorado State as a special teams quality control coach. While with the Rams, Begnal worked with punter Ryan Stonehouse, who earned All-Mountain West honors and went on to become the starting punter for the NFL's Tennessee Titans.
Additionally, Begnal has coached wide receivers for three seasons at New Haven (Division II) from 2017 through 2019. Before that, in 2016, he spent one season at Lincoln University in Missouri (Division II), where he served as the defensive coordinator and worked with the linebackers during the 2016 season.
From 2014 until 2016, Begnal worked as the associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Brethren Christian High School in California.
Begnal also served three seasons as special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach at Post University (Connecticut, Division II).
He began his collegiate coaching career in 2011 when he took over as an assistant coach and JV defensive coordinator at his alma mater, Western New England (Division III), in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was a four-year starter as a safety for the Golden Bears.
Begnal began his coaching career at his high school alma mater, Sacred Heart High School in Waterbury, Connecticut. While at Sacred Heart, he played under his father, Joe Begnal Jr., who was a high school head coach in Connecticut for 25 years.
Begnal III's promotion comes during a flurry of news regarding the Michigan State coaching staff. Smith has recently hired Jon Boyer as quarterbacks coach, hired James Adams as safeties coach, promoted offensive analyst Aaron Pflugrad to passing game coordinator, promoted defensive graduate assistant coach Antjuan Simmons to assistant defensive line coach, promoted defensive analyst Andrew Bindelglass to assistant linebackers coach and promoted graduate assistant Jacob Lail to assistant offensive line coach.
Michigan State also had a departure from its coaching staff this offseason, as it lost cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin to UCLA.
The new-look, extended coaching staff comes after a recent rule change in June of 2024 by the NCAA Division I Council, which removed restrictions regarding countable coaches. Now, any staff member may provide technical and tactical instruction to student-athletes during practice and competition. Prior to the rule change, schools were only permitted to have 11 on-field coaches. With Begnal III's promotion, MSU currently has 16 known on-field coaches for the 2025 season.
Notably, the NCAA still limits how many staff members are allowed to recruit off campus, which is 11.