ESPN reporter mentions former SEC head coach as 'name to keep in mind' for Mississippi State opening
Following a wild turn of events, Joe Moorhead is out at Mississippi State, the school confirmed on Friday after that news was first reported by Brett McMurphy of Stadium.
Now the big question in Starkville shifts away from Moorhead’s status with the program and on to the next coach of the program.
While the popular name being discussed to replace Moorhead is Louisiana head coach Billy Napier, who led his team to a 10-3 season and a Lending Tree Bowl appearance (that game is set to be played on Monday, Jan. 6), ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg is throwing out another interesting name to “keep in mind” for Mississippi State — Gene Chizik.
The current SEC Network analyst previously served as Auburn’s head coach when that program last won a national championship back in 2010. After being dismissed at Auburn, Chizik had a short but successful stint as North Carolina’s defensive coordinator before becoming a college football analyst.
Could you see Mississippi State hiring Chizik?
Warning: State fired Stansbury for team discipline reasons and not for on court play. It seems Moorhead was fired for discipline reasons and on field play. So, it’s similar, but different. My fear is they over correct like they did with Stansbury. State grabbed an unproven, discipline guy and he got worked in the SEC in basketball. I hope they don’t Rick Ray this position, because it will be much harder to work back from being down in football than basketball. I’m not for Chizik, but it’s kind of similar to hiring Howland. I would take a swing at Joe Brady (probably not possible), Ryan Silverfield (Memphis connections), or swing big for (Mike Norvell).
You realize Norvell is at FSU now, right? You’ve got better odds of luring Urban Meyer out of retirement than buying out JoMo and Norvell’s contracts at the same time.
I missed that. My bad.
How did you miss that yet act so knowledgeable at the rest?
cmooooooonnnnn man…..
I don’t know what to tell you. I knew Memphis competed well and had a great season. I know getting good recruits from Memphis is a positive for State head coaches and I thought the 2019 coach might take a position in the SEC over being at Memphis. So, I included him without looking up what happened. That’s the best explanation I can give you.
You’re gonna pay FSU 20+ million to buyout the guy they just hired?
How hilarious would it be if FSU couldn’t even keep the guy they just hired, though?
Mark Hudspeth. Coached under Mullen at Miss State, and he just led Austin Peay to an 11-4 record.
Charlie Strong > Hudspeth
If you’re looking for a coach with Mullen ties
Charlie Strong has already shown he can’t be a head coach in the Big 12 and AAC. Why do you think he’d be a good choice in the SEC?
He’s not, that’s what I feel about hudspeth too
LynnBobTX…Agreed…Charlie had a good thing going at Louisville, but all that Texas Oil Money was too tempting to turn down. But now he has not had success at two(2) different schools, so the ??? remain.
Third and long Charlie Strong? I wouldn’t hire him as HC and he was the DC at USC, There wasn’t a third down that Strong wouldn’t allow.
Go get Mark Hudspeth, bring in Jamar Chaney, Chad Bumphis and DJ Looney.
Anybody that wins 11 at Austin-Peay should be COY.
It’s important to remember that before Napier, Hud built the UL program and have several good years before an NCAA rules violation vacated many of those wins and derailed his progress. That fact may make it hard for an SEC program to consider him.
No to Chizik.
The madhatter would leave the glorious state of Kansas for the green green grass of MSU, literally (pun intended).
He’s at ku for a reason. If Miles really wanted to coach with the stress or expectation of winning he wouldn’t be at kansas. He’s basically retired and letting his old Michigan buddy (Jeff Long) pay him $3M/per year until he decides to retire for good.
This is partially true. At the same time, none of the major SEC programs even made a run at him. Kansas got him with no other competition for his services.
Yes, Les Miles was my immediate thought. He would be perfect.
Unless a younger, more energetic hire is made…why continue to “Recycle Head Coaches”…like the NFL. You’re gonna get more of then same. Hire a young coach…with the enthusiasm to spend the long hours on the recruiting trail to get some talent…and actually “coach em up”.
Seems to have worked out for LSU so far.
It did and I honestly never saw that coming.
Yes, at LSU it has worked…but Mississippi State is not LSU & will not sign the same talent level a they will in Baton Rouge.
Hire a coach who can out recruit our division? Why not try a guy who can coach? Or a guy that can delegate coaching to his assistants and focus on development and discipline? We get good players, but we don’t get better players than the rest of the division. Age and energy are irrelevant.
Chizik had one memorable season. Thanks to a QB who should probably be on the Mount Rushmore of 21st Century college quarterbacks. Otherwise, success was elusive. I don’t see where his TV analyst gig is going to transform him into the second coming of Jackie Sherrill.
I met Jackie Sherrill years ago (I was actually still in college) in CoMo at a bar called Spanky’s a buddy of mine was a local coach and there were several people with us at the table. One thing I specifically remember is drinking a lot of beer and him quizzing us on a lot of oddball things. Asked, How in the game of Football can the defense score 1 pt? We were beating our brains, basically saying it’s not possible. The answer was a safety on an extra point attempt. I’m not sure that’s even ever happened but it’s legit. Sherrill was super nice and the football that guy talked about was incredible. Why he was in a bar in CoMo back in the early 1990’s I have no clue.
Cool story. And a few years later, when he was coaching at for State it was the most famous play from the snow bowl between A&M and State.
That’s actually funny, cause that exact scenario is how we won the snow bowl in shreveport. A lot of the stuff he said about the future of college football is slowly coming to fruition. Should have known anyone who could tinder so much hate from Paterno was a pretty good coach. The way he quit and just coasted his last two years still sticks in my craw but with the whole bogus investigation, maybe he was just sick of it. He’s not the first MSU coach to beat the NCAA in court. I think the NCAA owes MSU, not to mention USC, BAMA, and a few others fore all of Rich’s shenanigans.
Plus Malzahn was the O.C.
Take Gus lol Gus is way better than gene to me.
The discipline at Auburn under Chizik was a disaster.
I think you might want to leave that one alone.
So we all see the coaches that are already in the West, In order for State to even make a push . They have to get a Head Coach not a OC or DC. Someone that is the same caliber as a Fisher,Orgeron,Saban,Malzahn,or even Kiffin. We have to compete not just accept a 6-8 win season. You get what you pay for$$$$
Even assuming that MSU could come up with the money, there’s nobody left out there. All the “hot names” have taken jobs in this cycle.
If it were me, I’d give Charlie Strong a shot. You’re not gonna win the SEC West no matter who you hire. But Strong did a good job at Louisville and he can recruit.
We could do worse than Charlie Strong. Coaches like him, albeit ones with a bit better runs of success than Strong, would be a nice fit. “Older” head coach that can put together a young innovative staff.
I don’t really want to be a springboard for a young head coach at this point.
Jim McElwain, he’s a HC plus SEC HC experience. Or the Boise St. coach, but he seems to be waiting on a PAC job and stay out West.
If Mac’s name comes up…run. Run far, far away.
For goodness sake don’t mention Gene Chizik again. Nor Les Miles as those would be completely disastrous.
Maybe disastrous for the big 6 in the SEC, but I don’t think it would be disastrous for State.
Who do you think the “big 6” are?
More like the Big 5: LSU, Bama, and Aub from the West. UF and UGA from the East. UT hasn’t been on that level for 2 decades.
You guys should hire Chad Morris or John L Smith
Paying big money doesn’t always buy you a good coach. Think Taggert, Frost, Chip Kelly, etc. Even having previous HC experience doesn’t guarantee a good coach (Ed Orgeron) had two different stops that didn’t turnout until LSU bit the bullet on him. But you need to change team loyalty’s if McIlwain is hired, he’s out of his league in the SEC. Central Michigan (no expectations) is a good place for coaches like that. I couldn’t even watch games anymore when he was at UF.
What was the other stop that didn’t work out aside from Ole Miss? I recall him having success as the interim coach at USC before being unceremoniously let go in favor of hiring Steve Sarkisian.
At this juncture I think any choice is going to merely be a footnote in history ten years from now. The timing is, well, odd. I would really like to know what led Cohen to cut Moorhead loose. Right now the bottom tier of the SEC West is looking like a race to the bottom. Arky vs MSU. MSU vs Arky.
I bet he was told from the higher ups to fire him. I’d bet money that Cohen didn’t want to let him go.
I think Chizik can be a great head coach, but he has to find a great Offensive coordinator to be successful. When Malzahn left Auburn for Arkansas St. in 2012 things fell apart for him at Auburn.