When Joe Moorhead spoke at his first SEC Media Days a few months ago, he said Mississippi State’s goal was to be the best Power 5 team in the state, the best team in the SEC and ultimately, the best team in the country.

Two of those three goals were out the window heading into the Egg Bowl. As for the first goal — being the best Power 5 team in the state — that was still in play. Well, at least it was for the first few minutes of Thursday night’s clash.

Moorhead left no doubt about who Mississippi State’s finest was. His first Egg Bowl was a major statement.

It wasn’t just that the Bulldogs rolled to their most convincing over Ole Miss in a decade, or that they did so in Oxford. Revenge was all well and good after Nick Fitzgerald’s nasty ankle injury last year (he certainly played like there was some extra motivation).

Thursday was bigger than that. Rather, it was bigger than that for Moorhead.

The biggest question about the first-year MSU coach when he agreed to take over for Dan Mullen in Starkville was about his lack of roots in the region. He was, for lack of a better word, an outsider. The guy who said after is first few months on the job that his biggest adjustment to life in the south was the humidity and “everything being wrapped in bacon” has had to adjust to his new surroundings in a hurry. Like, when you lose multiple games in the SEC after starting as a top-25 team, fans create a website to get you fired.

Welcome to life in the SEC, Joe.

Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

Think about the timing of Moorhead’s first Egg Bowl. Winning — and winning it convincingly — was probably the best possible way for Moorhead to show his new fanbase that he’s not in over his head. Putting up 35 points at Ole Miss served as a nice reminder to MSU fans who feared the worst when the offense was stuck in neutral early in SEC play.

Moorhead spent all year hearing about how great the Ole Miss offense was. His team didn’t allow it to score a touchdown. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs looked like the high-powered juggernaut from start to finish, even when they were throwing the ball with 2 minutes left.

Yeah, that wasn’t by accident.

The goal was to look like the best Power 5 team in Mississippi, not just for the fans, but for the talent-rich recruiting state. Let’s not forget that with the Early Signing Period just a month away, neither team will play another game until the majority of their recruiting classes are signed.

Matt Luke spent the last few months saying that “the cloud was finally lifted” in regards to Ole Miss’ NCAA sanctions with bowl eligibility and scholarship limitations. Had Ole Miss dominated and given MSU another Egg Bowl loss, it would’ve felt like nothing but sunshine and rainbows for Luke.

Instead, a half-empty Vaught-Hemingway Stadium watched MSU pour on the points. It was the ideal final image for Moorhead to create before he and his staff hit the recruiting trail. Something tells me that game will be a popular topic of conversation for them in living rooms across Mississippi the next month.

In addition to Thursday’s blowout, a 3-1 mark to end SEC play — with the lone loss at No. 1 Alabama — was the kind of momentum Moorhead was hoping for after a slow start. His offense averaged 40 points per game in MSU’s final 4 wins of the regular season. If there were questions about Moorhead’s offensive prowess, they should’ve at least died down in the last month.

The same could be said about the notion that Moorhead can’t succeed as an outsider. He currently has the No. 19 class in America while Ole Miss is at No. 18. The two programs will continue to battle for Magnolia State recruits, some of whom won’t let the result of one game determine where they wind up.

But don’t undervalue what Thursday night meant for Moorhead. Public perception is huge in this business. That’s especially true for a first-year coach in a completely new region of the country. If there was an education process to what the Egg Bowl means, Moorhead got a full lesson on Saturday night. It’s bragging rights. It’s hostile. It’s often times wild. It’s usually not a game that ends between the lines.

Speaking of that, tell us how you really felt about Thursday night’s second-half brawl, Joe.

Moorhead is going to continue to coach with a chip on his shoulder. He’ll continue to do whatever he can to try and get the upper hand on Ole Miss on and off the field. His predecessor was never afraid of that.

There are bigger goals on Moorhead’s mind. He’s not shy about that. He’s still not afraid to talk about them…or how his predecessor only had 1 winning season the SEC. Moorhead didn’t get that winning record in conference play. At least not yet.

But on Thursday night, he got something pretty important, too.

That egg is worth its weight in gold.