The Mississippi State football team needs a new defensive line coach after Brian Baker decided to leave the Bulldogs to go to Alabama. This comes just days after he signed a contract extension with Mississippi State.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Mississippi State football team was able to get Brian Baker to sign a contract extension. The Bulldogs’ defensive line coach was set to stay in Starkville after reportedly agreeing to a new two-year deal.
But now, Brian Baker is leaving Mississippi State.
There was finally a sense of continuity and cohesion on the defensive side of things that the Mississippi State football team has been missing over the past few years. The back half of the Dan Mullen era of Mississippi State football was plagued by constant turnover at the defensive coordinator spot.
So when news broke that Bob Shoop (MSU’s current defensive coordinator) and Brian Baker (MSU’s former defensive line coach) were both signing new deals to stay with the Mississippi State football team, things seemed great!
And things were great, right up until Baker decided to leave and go roughly 90 miles east.
D-line coach Brian Baker has left Miss. State and is expected to coach DL at #Alabama. Have heard since December that Tide D-line coach Craig Kuligowski was expected to be moving on. This was the next domino in the Bama staff turnover story: https://t.co/tvAdiBkSZE
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 28, 2019
Brian Baker is leaving the Mississippi State Bulldogs and is headed over to Tuscaloosa to join a fellow former MSU coach in helping Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide:
Pretty big blow to the MSU staff. Just signed a new 2-year deal but Brian Baker is apparently joining former MSU running backs coach Charles Huff at Bama. https://t.co/nrNfP8dKiJ
— Joel Coleman (@JoelTColeman) January 27, 2019
What an absolute punch to the gut.
It really seemed as if the Mississippi State Bulldogs were going to be able to have some positive momentum going in their favor as the coaching staff seemed to be set. Yes, MSU lost Charles Huff and Luke Getsy, but keeping Shoop and Baker was probably more important than that.
Instead, Baker is on his way out the door to join Saban’s empire at Alabama. Given how Baker had been recruiting for MSU, that’s a tough loss for the Bulldogs.
Joe Moorhead will have opportunities to replace Baker and bring in someone new. Hopefully that new face can build up the Bulldogs and also recruit well. Replacing Baker will almost certainly be a very tough thing to do.