Mississippi State hires Joe Moorhead to be new head coach

Mississippi State has hired Penn State’s offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead to be the school’s new head coach, after Dan Mullen left for Florida a few days ago.

Moorhead was an exceptional OC for Penn State, helping the school win the Big Ten Championship as well as a 10-2 season with an explosive, high-paced offense that starred QB Tracy McSorley and more’s the case, RB Saquon Barkley. He’s well-known for a run-pass-option offense, and it produces points. A ton of them. Penn State averaged 453 yards per game and 6.6 yards per play. He was 5th in the country for TDs, and 5th in the country for points per game with 41.6 – up from 37.6 last year.

While Penn State fans are going to mourn Moorhead’s loss, it was hardly surprising. After all, Moorhead came to Happy Valley from a head coaching job at mighty Fordham, and with Penn State’s explosive offense the way it was, it was only going to be a matter of time before he left.

Mississippi State should be just the place for Moorhead. He’s not a big name coach like others in the SEC. Mississippi State is constantly expected not to be particularly competitive in the SEC West – apart from the must-win which is the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss. He has a QB in Nick Fitzgerald (if he stays), and very good running back in Aeris Williams (if the stays). And Dan Mullen set the program to keep rolling – although with his move to Florida he probably will take a number of his staff – including DC Todd Grantham, receivers coach Billy Gozales and offensive line coach John Hevesy. Apparently, Moorhead’s appealing to DC Todd Grantham to stay, but that seems unlikely, bearing in mind the size of the Florida job and the fact that Gainseville is in a SEC recruiting heartland.

Moorhead’s SEC line-up isn’t easy, with road trips to Alabama, LSU and Ole Miss and home games against Arkansas, Auburn and Texas A&M. There’s also a non-division home game against Florida, and a non-conference road trip to Kansas State.