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The Mississippi St. Bulldogs have found their man. Per Brett McMurphy, the Bulldogs will hire Penn State Nittany Lions offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead as their newest head coach.
Sources: Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead will become next coach at Mississippi State. Deal expected to be completed in next few days. https://t.co/fcxi8GKyeI
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 29, 2017
Mississippi State acted quickly after the departure of Dan Mullen, who officially took over as the Florida Gators head coach on Sunday. Two days later, State already has tabbed their next man in line.
Moorhead has never been a head coach at the FBS level, but has served as an assistant at that level numerous times. From 2004-2008, he worked a variety of positions with the Akron Zips. He was wide receivers coach, passing game coordinator, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator over the course of his tenure there. Then from 2009-2011, he worked as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach with the UConn Huskies. The Huskies, of course, went to the Fiesta Bowl during that time period.
After a four-season stint as head coach of the Fordham Rams in the FCS, he was hired by James Franklin to be the offensive coordinator/QB coach at Penn State. He obviously had a variety of weapons to work with in State College, including Trace McSorley, Saquon Barkley and Mike Gesicki. PSU averaged 41.6 points per game in 2017 and 37.6 in 2016, while ranking 18th and 12th in Offensive S&P+ in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Needless to say, he’s earned himself a penchant on the offensive side of the ball. That’s something that Nick Fitzgerald and the rest of the offense should be happy to see.