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Before uniting on Mississippi State’s new coaching staff, Bob Shoop and Joe Moorhead had crossed paths several times in the past. In fact, the two Pittsburgh natives go back as far as childhood and the way Shoop tells it, he’s partly responsible for getting Moorhead on at Penn State.
They nearly joined forces on James Franklin’s Penn State staff in 2016, but Shoop left the Nittany Lions for Tennessee that offseason. Now the union has finally happened thanks to Moorhead returning the favor to Shoop and extending him an offer to coach the defense in Starkville in 2018.
Here’s how Shoop explained the former Fordham head coach Moorhead landing on Franklin’s radar back in 2016.
“When Coach Franklin made a change at the offensive coordinator at Penn State, I went to him and said you remember when we met Joe Moorhead. He’s a guy who is the head coach at Fordham. He’s a guy we maybe ought to think about,” Shoop revealed during his Wednesday media availability in Starkville. “I am very, very proud that worked out for Joe, and Joe really did a great job the last two years with that offense at Penn State.”
Now that they are finally on the same coaching staff, Shoop is in the critical position of running the Mississippi State defense for the offensive-minded Moorhead. While the head coach will still have his hands on his entire program, Shoop’s role in the immediate success or failure of Moorhead’s MSU tenure can’t be overstated.
The program’s new lead defensive mind detailed his thought process serving as MSU’s fifth defensive coordinator in as many seasons in 2018. Wisely, Shoop claims he will not force his players to fit his scheme but will mend his teachings to the talented players he inherits in Starkville.
“What we are striving to have is more personnel-driven rather than scheme-driven,” Shoop said. “The unique thing here, there has been so much stability with this team with Coach (Dan) Mullen but also instability in regard to the defensive staff. The guys who are fifth-year players on this team, I am their fifth defensive coordinator, which is kind of strange. The guys who are fourth-year players, I’m their fourth defensive coordinator. Between Manny Diaz, Geoff Collins, Peter Sirmon and Coach (Todd) Grantham, it’s kind of unusual. They have seen a lot of different schemes and a lot of different identities. Rather than recruit players to fit a scheme, you try to tailor your scheme to what your players can do.”
The SEC veteran defensive coordinator then shared his thoughts on the type of unit he envisions running at Mississippi State.
“What is non-negotiable, is we are going to be in your face. I truly believe in that. That is something that is important to me. We are built on relentless pursuit and never-ending pressure. That’s what we talk about all the time. We fell short at times to that style of play at Tennessee. I don’t think we were as consistent as I liked us to be.
“The things that are important to me are having the ability to stop the run and having the ability to eliminate chunk plays and having the ability to create takeaways. Be disruptive. Tackles for loss and sacks are something that’s important to me. We must continuously be disruptive on the field. The phrase we have adopted on the defensive side of the ball is hunt. HTB – hunt the ball. We want to hunt the ball in everything we are doing.”
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
