Will Moorehead Continue to Coach at Msu
Timeline: What led to Joe Moorhead's undoing at MSU?
In just two short years, Mississippi State's nationally celebrated hire of Penn State's offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead came crashing down as the coach was relieved of his duties on Friday officially.
Moorhead leaves Starkville with a 14-11 record, two bowl games and two Egg Bowl trophies in as many tries, but the decision was made by John Cohen and the MSU administration weighing much more than wins. The Bulldogs regressed on both sides of the ball this year, a season after winning just eight games with the nation's No. 1 defense and the SEC's all-time leading quarterback rusher.
Along with that were multiple instances of disciplinary issues in the football program, some of which were beyond Moorhead's initial control. There was also a major disconnect between the coach and the Bulldog fanbase which perhaps escalated the decision-making process.
With that said, this is how it all fell apart for the first-time SEC coach in timeline form.
Like without Dan Mullen was going just fine for the Bulldogs and they had that September 29th date circled on their calendar when the former coach would return to Starkville to get these hands. MSU put up 150 points in its first three games against Stephen F. Austin, Kansas State and Louisiana and Kentucky was next in line for a hungry Bulldog football team looking to compete for an SEC West title.
The brakes were slammed on that dream season as State came out as flat as they had been in years. It started during the week when MSU players began engaging in trash talking on Twitter with Kentucky. There was a scuffle before the game and that carried over into play where State committed 16 penalties, most of which were false starts, delay of games and other mental errors.
MSU put up 201 yards of offense that night and gave up two fourth quarter touchdowns to lose 28-7 to a Kentucky team that they handled routinely under Mullen. It was the first time that MSU fans began to question the discipline under Moorhead and the offense's effectiveness.
That continued the very next week when Mullen came back to town. Excitement picked back up for the matchup and the stadium was packed and loud. The players were hyped up for the game as well and State looked to put the Kentucky game behind them as a fluke.
The defense came to play as they would most games that season. Florida had 357 yards of offense but just scored one touchdown although that was all they would need. MSU kicked a couple of field goals in the first half and dropped a wide open touchdown after a turnover that would have changed the game. Florida would ultimately steal a 13-6 victory and Mullen went on to be the coach that would win double digit games and play in a New Year's Six bowl game.
It wasn't all bad the rest of the regular season. State beat Auburn the following week at home to get things back on track and they won five of the last seven games in the regular season including a blowout in the Egg Bowl and a victory over Texas A&M.
Fans were back on the Moorhead train after he showed fire in the postgame Egg Bowl fracas in Oxford, but that faded in Tampa. Against an Iowa team that the Bulldogs were favored to beat, MSU squandered some early opportunities and would drop a touchdown pass that was intercepted in the final minutes to lose 27-22 and end the season on a sour note.
The victory kept MSU from winning nine games which would have been a springboard into the next season winning six of eight to finish off year one. Instead, it will always be viewed as a wasted opportunity for a team that was filled with NFL talent. Three of the players on the starting defense were drafted in the first round last season.
Moorhead was in the market for a graduate transfer quarterback due to MSU's lack of extensive experience and, quite frankly, a lack of faith in Keytaon Thompson to run his offense effectively.
After pursuing Kelly Bryant among other options, Moorhead had a natural fit fall in his lap in the form of his former Penn State backup Tommy Stevens. After a visit to Starkville, Stevens was on board and MSU looked like it had its quarterback.
Just prior to the season opener, Moorhead announced that Stevens would be the starter for the season opener. Shortly after, news came through that Thompson had entered the transfer portal. Though Thompson would eventually come back to the team the next week, Moorhead didn't put him on the field until the final regular season game against Ole Miss when he played wide receiver for a few snaps.
Moorhead first told media that Thompson was injured and it was affecting his availability but later said that the plan was for Thompson to redshirt this season. The waters were muddied quite a bit when, in week two against Southern Miss Stevens went down with an injury and Moorhead was forced to play true freshman Garrett Shrader.
Shrader would ultimately become MSU's starting quarterback but he and Stevens traded out spots a couple of times due to injury. Meanwhile, Thompson stayed on the sidelines calling out signals. The future at quarterback remains uncertain, but the issues at the position this year kept the Bulldogs' offense grounded.
The tutor scandal at MSU was beyond Moorhead's control but add it to the list of reasons why Moorhead won't be coaching the Bulldogs in the future.
Rumors had swirled for months that this was coming for the Bulldogs and it had already been known that basketball player Nick Weatherspoon was being punished as part of an academic misconduct charge that also involved several football players. The NCAA released the news in August and it was discovered that 10 players were involved though no names were used.
There was an eight game suspension for the MSU players implicated and we now know that starters linebacker Willie Gay, defensive tackle Lee Autry and safety Marcus Murphy were among those that missed eight games this season. Without those players, MSU's already inexperienced and depleted defense was beyond limited.
In games this season that those three players were able to play in, they made a difference. Having them out for well over half of the season contributed to a 6-6 regular season and, ultimately, contributed to the firing of Moorhead.
There was no more humiliating game in Moorhead's tenure than this one earlier this year in Auburn.
MSU came out on the field at Jordan-Hare completely overwhelmed and unprepared. They made mistakes on both sides of the ball early and often and trailed 21-0 midway through the first quarter with a 42-9 halftime disadvantage.
It got to the point that Moorhead had to pull quarterback Stevens from the game and let Shrader show what he had to try and change things up. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. The lack of preparedness and discipline shown in this game would be a common theme.
It continued the very next week in Knoxville against a team who, at the time, had its own major issues with head coach Jeremy Pruitt. The Volunteers' coach was one of the final candidates for the job that Moorhead got and UT settled on him after missing on Dan Mullen, Greg Schiano and others in what was a rough coaching search.
Turns out, the fortunes of the two programs flipped quickly.
The 2-3 Vols had lost to BYU and Georgia Southern at home earlier in the year and State was going to be able to get back on track with a win over a fractured program and a coach who was losing his team. Instead, they helped UT turn the thing around.
MSU scored 10 points the entire game and couldn't keep the Vols out of the end zone on what was a march right down the field to win the game in the fourth quarter as they fell 20-10. State put up 267 yards of offense, another bad look for Moorhead.
It was one of Moorhead's worst decisions of his brief career to come into the Egg Bowl press conference after the game and release his frustrations on the fan base. Rumors swirled all week about Moorhead's job security in Starkville as many believed that he was coaching his final game at the school against Ole Miss.
As MSU was able to squeak out a 21-20 win after a personal foul celebration penalty on the potential game-tying touchdown, Moorhead celebrated jubilantly with the team and then let loose on the microphone impromptu style.
"I'm proud of this team. I loved the way that our coaches handled adversity. I know there were some ups and downs and some bellyaching, but just understand one thing: this is my school, this is my team, this is my program," Moorhead stated. "If anybody asks, I'm not interested in anybody's validation except for people in that locker room. You'll have to drag my Yankee ass out of here."
He continued on to diminish the expectations that the fanbase had built for the program during Mullen's tenure and when Moorhead took over the 2018 team.
"This narrative gets created by people that aren't in the decision-making process. I understand at times this year that we didn't play like we needed to play. Every team that we lost to is bowl eligible," Moorhead said. "This mythology that the team I inherited is the (1985 Chicago Bears) and three years ago we got in a bowl at 5-7 because of the APR… I have a sense of logic and reason and understand that great things take time and we want to be like the 1998 and 1999 teams. The only people I care about are the ones in the locker room. Everyone else can kick rocks."
Following a statement from earlier in the year where Moorhead said he wasn't interested in thoughts from "Bob of Bogue Chitto", this didn't sit well with State fans. The Ole Miss win stayed fresh on their hearts only momentarily.
In any form of organized sports, things get heated. Even among teammates it can get out of hand. It happened for the Bulldogs during bowl came and the fallout wasn't good for Moorhead.
The coach had just established a bit of momentum with his recruiting class. Moorhead signed his second-straight top 25 class in as many years that he recruited start to finish and pulled in every player he was expected to get in the early signing period. It was an impressive feat and one that showed just how good the coach was at building relationships with players and their families to keep them all in-tact.
Then this news began to surface around Christmas Eve that Gay and Shrader had been in an altercation at practice that left the quarterback injured from a punch to the face. All accounts from practice suggested that it wasn't as big of a deal as it was made out to be, but the result of the fight and the publicity that it would get was a big enough issue.
The punch from Gay knocked Shrader out of the bowl game with a fractured orbital bone. His longterm future is not in danger, but MSU lost its starting quarterback for the bowl and the offense never took off without him. It fell under more issues with discipline and a concern by many outsiders that there could be some control problems for the head coach.
Though it was reported that Moorhead would have an extended contract and return for next season after his win against Ole Miss, the last month changed things finishing up with a poor performance in the Music City Bowl.
The Bulldog defense gave up over 500 yards in a 38-28 loss, but fans weren't as upset about that due to starters Cam Dantzler, Brian Cole II and Erroll Thompson all being out. It was again the offense that bothered Bulldog faithful everywhere as the two garbage time touchdowns in the fourth quarter masked the fact that MSU couldn't move the ball for most of the game.
Against one of the worst run defenses in the country, State spent more plays than not behind the line of scrimmage or stuffed right there. Star running back Kylin Hill had seven carries for 13 yards and couldn't break the single-season rushing record that was within reach. Stevens was sacked for 36 negative yards, negating a 100-yard rushing performance that he would have had. He did throw for 221 yards and two scores, but a lot of his production came late in the game.
It was simply a recollection of everything that the Bulldogs have done the last two years and it led to a losing season. It wasn't this one game that did Moorhead in, but a culmination of all of these things. The coach and MSU just didn't work out and it's back to the drawing board for John Cohen.
Source: https://247sports.com/college/mississippi-state/LongFormArticle/Joe-Moorhead-fired-Mississippi-State-141541921/
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