KJ Wright has his thoughts for who Mississippi State’s next head coach should be following Zach Arnett’s firing on Monday.

Wright, a former Mississippi State linebacker who went on to be a Super Bowl champion in the NFL, believes Mississippi State needs to bring in someone who knows the program well. His suggestion is Joe Judge, who has played and coached at Mississippi State before.

“My first call would go to Joe Judge,” Wright said on College Sports on SiriusXM. “He’s a coach for the New England Patriots, we all know that he played at Mississippi State. He was my coach my freshman year when I was at Mississippi State. The guy has 3 Super Bowls, national champion, he’s been under Saban then under Bill Belichick.”

Wright believes that Judge would bring the right culture, something he thinks Mississippi State has lacked, back to campus.

“You talk about understanding culture, understanding what winning looks like, I’m sure that Joe Judge can really get it done,” Wright. “He’s gonna be hard-nosed, he’s gonna be tough, but you better believe when we step on the football field we’re gonna be prepared, we’re gonna be sound, we’re gonna be physical. That’s something that I want to be able to hang our hat on. Let’s hang our hat on something, we’re just all over the place with the people that we’re bringing in.”

Judge served as a graduate assistant from 2005 to 2007 and has gone on to coach under Nick Saban at Alabama. He’s held several different positions for the Patriots since 2012 and also was the head coach of the New York Giants for 2 seasons in 2020 and 2021.