Mississippi State football: 5 coaches primed for a rebuild
By Ethan Lee
Can Jamey Chadwell’s thrilling offense work in Starkville?
As Mississippi State embarks on finding a new leader to guide the Bulldogs forward, it shouldn’t shock anyone that Jamey Chadwell’s name has come up on a couple different occasions. The thrilling coach has a proven track record of thriving in less-than-ideal circumstances that the winning culture he built at Coastal Carolina deserves plenty of recognition.
Chadwell has spent 13 seasons coaching college football and boasts an impressive 108-57 record overall. But it’s his time at Coastal Carolina that generally should be discussed as we talk about difficult rebuilds.
When Chadwell took over with leading the Chanticleers, he stepped in as an interim head coach and then ultimately later became the permanent leader for the Coastal Carolina program.
He managed to go 3-9 in his interim season, but later managed to find a significant amount of success leading the Chanticleers. From 2019 to 2022, the four seasons Chadwell was the permanent head coach, he managed to go 31-6. That includes two 11-win campaigns and stellar rankings in the AP Poll as well as Sun Belt championships.
His offense is unique and innovative. If you haven’t been watching it, there’s a ton of thrilling triple option concepts being run with Liberty and previously at Coastal Carolina. Except it’s modernized, operated out of the spread, and actually involves a fair bit of throwing the ball around a lot.
It’d be a drastic difference from Leach’s famed Air Raid and even then still a bit different from the spread option offenses that Mullen utilized at MSU.
- Coastal Carolina’s record before Chadwell: FCS program
- Coastal Carolina’s record with Chadwell: 39-22
- Notable achievements: back-to-back 11-win seasons, 31 wins in three seasons, 9-0 start at Liberty
Chadwell is going to get a lot of attention and there are plenty of reasons to be intrigued by the head coach. While some will want MSU to stick with a sort of homegrown hire or someone who is familiar with the program, conventional MSU football involves a lot of losing.
It’s okay to think outside the box and be innovative. Chadwell is a great option for that sort of reason. He’s probably the best compromise between innovation, regional recruiting, and experience MSU could pursue.