Mississippi State football: Joe Moorhead must win his first Egg Bowl
By Ethan Lee
The head coach of the Mississippi State football team can’t afford to lose the very first Egg Bowl that he’s involved with. This is especially true when you consider how MSU has performed this season.
The first year of the Joe Moorhead era of Mississippi State football was supposed to be better than this, but ending the season with an Egg Bowl victory would make things seem a bit brighter.
However, a loss to Ole Miss would certainly cause the head coach of the Bulldogs to lose favor with the vast majority Mississippi State football fans.
First, let’s focus on the positives. Should MSU win, it would have an 8-4 record. That’s respectable for the Bulldogs. Sure, MSU had everything they needed to have won a few more games this season, but it’s not like 8-4 is a bad season by any means. Let’s not pretend that it is.
And second, a win in the Egg Bowl would give MSU a shot at an even better bowl game that should still be winnable. If State is able to end the season with 9 wins, things would ease up for Moorhead a bit. MSU would have matched its win total from a season ago and would have won at least 9 games for the fourth time in five years.
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But should the Bulldogs lose the Egg Bowl tomorrow, then there’s going to be a new level of anger for MSU’s head coach from fans. Many have been critical all year of Moorhead for how inept State’s offense has been and rightfully so.
A loss to Mississippi State’s rival would just give stakeholders another thing to criticize.
Moorhead’s apparent stubbornness and seeming inability to adapt his scheme to the personnel on the roster is worthy of criticism. He arrived in Starkville talking to players about winning championships and then started discussing that possibility as if it were a certainty with fans. He made it clear that he wanted to win the SEC and to compete at the national level.
Mississippi State didn’t do that this season, clearly. This team has struggled to score on the road and has had issues putting up points against SEC teams.
A win in the Egg Bowl might help mitigate that some.
If Joe Moorhead is looking for a way to rally fans around him and gain momentum with the Mississippi State football program going forward, a win in this rivalry game would do that. It would help reinforce the narrative that MSU is a program that is improving while Ole Miss is a team that will be mired in mediocrity for a while.
However, a loss to Ole Miss would obviously do the opposite of that. A loss to Ole Miss would create a narrative that Matt Luke is able to find ways to win games despite the cards being stacked against him. That would drive many Mississippi State football fans away. Moorhead can’t have that happen to him this season. He needs to win this game. He needs to do something to earn trust back from the Bulldog faithful.
One thing that Moorhead’s predecessor did well early on in his tenure was defeating Ole Miss regularly. Dan Mullen had no issue winning the Egg Bowl four times in his first five seasons, but he lost three of the last four he competed in. The man that built this program and touted its ability to defeat Ole Miss ended his time in Starkville with a 5-4 record against the Rebels.
Next. What does MSU need to do to beat Ole Miss?. dark
If Moorhead could routinely beat Ole Miss, starting with this season, then he’ll be able to bring fans in to support him. He’ll have something else to boast about when recruiting in Mississippi and might be able to propel the program forward a bit. But, should Moorhead lose, he’ll find many MSU fans calling for him to be fired.