Mississippi State had incredible expectations heading into the first year of the Joe Moorhead era in Starkville and while the team did manage to win eight games and reach the Outback Bowl, some view the debut of the program’s new leader as a letdown.

It’s fair to say Moorhead vowed to raise the bar in Starkville and he intentionally created buzz when he challenged his players to find out what size ring they wore heading upon his arrival to Mississippi State. That optimism may have failed to generate the response Moorhead desired but while he made some bold moves early in his tenure, he also expressed many times after being hired his desire to build a sustainable, longlasting program in Starkville that could annually compete for championships.

That’s something he continued to stress to the Mississippi State fans that showed up at the latest Road Dawgs Tour and when you consider the fact Moorhead won eight games in his debut year — the most won by an MSU coach in his first season on the job dating back to Allyn McKeen back in 1939 — he’s well on his way to fulfilling that vow.

“I promise you this, we are going to get to where we want to go,” Moorhead says in the video below. “This isn’t about just one year, this isn’t about a team, it’s about a program and I promise you this — the coaching staff that we have in place, the resources that are available, the young men that we are bringing into this program and everything that we want to do is there. But I know that the true, true people that believe in the Maroon and White know what it takes to build a championship program, those are the people in this room, those are the people that I see around the state, those are the people that I’m in contact with. We had short-term success building for long-term success. I’m here for the long haul, I feel at home here.”

Check out the full video below, courtesy of Hail State Productions: