New coordinators bring unique style (and facial hair) to K-State football

Kansas State football players didn’t know much of anything about Scottie Hazelton when he arrived as the Wildcats’ new defensive coordinator last winter, but he won them over quickly.

His facial hair was all some of them needed to see.

“That is a mean beard and a good look,” senior K-State receiver Dalton Schoen said. “That is what I want to see out of my defensive coordinator. You know that guy is a classic defensive guy. He is going to get down and dirty with a beard like that.”

Facial hair has become a popular topic around K-State football this year. How could it not with the beard and mustache combination its new coordinators brought with them to Manhattan?

On offense, Courtney Messingham rocks a classic mustache thick enough to make Tom Selleck proud. On defense, Hazelton sports a long gray beard that looks like he belongs on top of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Who has the best facial hair? That’s a popular debate around the football complex.

“I have got to coach with Coach Mess,” junior K-State quarterback Skylar Thompson said. “The mustache is outside our generation, but that thing is sick.”

“The beard is a little more intimidating,” Schoen said.

“You have to like Scottie’s more,” K-State head coach Chris Klieman said. “The only reason I say that is Messingham has had that same mustache since he was 10. It is finally starting to fill in and get gray. With Scottie, he didn’t have any facial hair when I was with him in 2011. Scottie set the bar really high.”

There’s no telling how both coordinators will fare in their new roles under head coach Chris Klieman, but this much is already certain: their facial hair is among the strongest in the Big 12.

It helps define each of them.

The story behind Messingham’s mustache became the stuff of legend this summer when rumors began to swirl about it in the K-State locker room. Some say he has never shaved his upper lip. Can that be true?

Coaches posed that exact question to players at a team-building exercise earlier this month, and most answered no.

They were wrong.

“I have had the mustache, basically since I have been able to grow a mustache,” Messingham said. “It’s just a part of me and who I am.”

The mustache suits him and his offense. Unlike most offensive coordinators in the Big 12 that run the Air Raid or other up-tempo systems, Messingham prefers an old-school approach. He likes to run the ball, control clock and throw just enough to keep defenses off balance.

His offense was far from stellar the last time he called plays in the Big 12, at Iowa State in 2012 and 2013, but he seems ready for a second chance after helping Klieman win a pair of FCS championships at North Dakota State. The Bison averaged 7.37 yards per play last season.

The beard is much newer for Hazelton. You can find clean-shaven pictures of his face at most of his previous stops, including North Dakota State, USC, the Jacksonville Jaguars and most recently Wyoming.

But it’s here to stay now.

“I got lazy and I didn’t shave for a while. That’s really it,” Hazelton said. “There is no story. I shaved it off one time around Easter a year ago and my wife didn’t like it so I grew it back. It’s one of those things you have to get used to.”

That comes as no surprise to K-State players, who say Hazleton likes to walk barefoot through the football complex and talk trash to anyone who objects.

Opposing teams will fear the beard if K-State’s defense matches the production Hazelton achieved the past two seasons at Wyoming.

In 2017, the Cowboys ranked first nationally in turnovers forced (38), ninth in points allowed (17.5 per game), 13th in passing yards allowed (174.9) and 23rd in total defense (335.2).

Last season, the Cowboys boasted a top 30 defense and produced four all-conference players.

His 4-3 scheme should feel familiar to fans, but it will feature new blitz packages from linebackers and a more aggressive approach up front.

But that was to be expected.

K-State players knew they were in for a change the moment they saw his beard.

This story was originally published August 26, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "New coordinators bring unique style (and facial hair) to K-State football."