Mississippi State football: Worst head coach hires in program history
By Josh Yourish
Zac Selmon, Mississippi State’s new athletic director, moved on from Zach Arnett before the end of his first season. Arnett was fired following the 51-10 Week 11 loss to Texas A&M, so the Bulldogs are looking for their next head coach.
In the 119-season history of Mississippi State football, there have been just three years with 10 wins and only one this century. Selmon needs to nail this next hire to reinvigorate the program, especially with the SEC getting even tougher in 2024.
Arnett was in a tough situation following the death of Mike Leach and led the team to 4-6 in his 10 games at the helm. The difficult circumstance means Arnett did not make this list of the worst head coach hires in Mississippi State history. However, another recent head coach did.
As the offensive coordinator at Penn State, Joe Moorhead became one of the hottest names in the 2018 coaching cycle. He eventually landed at Mississippi State and had some early success, following a 9-4 record in Dan Mullen’s last season, Moorhead went 8-5 in 2018.
Then, things went south in 2019. Moorhead led the team to a 5-6 start and a report surfaced that if Moorhead lost the Egg Bowl, he would be fired. Well, Moorhead and the Bulldogs beat Ole Miss 21-20 in the final week of the regular season, but after a 38-28 loss to Louisville in the Music City Bowl, Moorhead was fired anyway.
It wasn’t just the loss that led to his firing. The administration was angered by a fight in practice that led to an eye injury for quarterback Garrett Shrader. Moorhead, who is from Pittsburgh, was not a fit in the SEC and after a stop as offensive coordinator at Oregon is the current head coach of Akron.