Mississippi State's Joe Moorhead discusses Alabama's game-winning play over Georgia

Everyone has an opinion on Alabama’s National Championship win over Georgia.

New Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead recently sat down with PennLive.com to discuss Alabama, his new job and his former school, Penn State, among other things.

Nick Saban did the unthinkable and pulled his starting QB Jalen Hurts for freshman Tua Tagovailoa. Everyone knows the story. The move somewhat defied logic but turned out to be brilliant. Moorhead was asked about Saban’s brilliant move.

“First, it was a gutsy call by coach Saban,” Moorhead said. “Anytime you have the reigning SEC offensive player of the year and you make that change. And then he goes in and makes those throws in overtime, I thought it was very impressive overall.”

Moorhead then reflected on the two-play combination of Tagovailoa taking the massive sack and then throwing the perfect ball for the game-winning TD.

“That’s really the only spot that ball could be thrown,” MSU’s new coach said. “And I thought it was particularly impressive coming back off of the sack on first down. It was a 4-vertical concept and he went to the single receiver against the Cover Two with the dead area between the safety and corner and threw it to the outside shoulder. That’s really the only spot that ball could be thrown. That was an impressive throw.”

No doubt Moorhead is looking forward to seeing what’s in store for his first SEC season in 2018. His team will travel to Tuscaloosa November 10 when he’ll face Alabama for the first time.

Mississippi State, led by QB Nick Fitzgerald, should contend for the division this coming season.