Mississippi State was on track to sign a top 25 recruiting class this offseason in Starkville and with 21 prospects already signed by the school during the Early Signing Period, the bulk of the class has already been finalized by Joe Moorhead and his Bulldog staff.

Now the status of those players is up in the air in some sense as schools in this situation previously have given signed prospects an opportunity to get out of their letter of intent following a head coaching change immediately after a signing period.

It’s unclear if Mississippi State plans to do the same but if any of the program’s recent signees don’t wish to play for the new coach, it may be tough for the program to force them to do it.

During his Friday press conference, program AD John Cohen was asked about Mississippi State’s 21 signees. While he didn’t offer much specifics, he did note that all 21 players have been contacted by the school and suggested no action would be taken until they at least met with the program’s new head coach.

“We have now contacted every one of our signees,” Cohen said. “We know that this was a little bit of a bombshell to those guys. They, you don’t sign with one coach, you sign with Mississippi State University, and we’re willing to help those folks any way that we possibly can and we look forward to our head coach I’m an opportunity to sit down and have a great conversation with every one of those young men.”

When it comes to these recent signees, we likely won’t have a resolution here until Mississippi State has made an official hire.