What Joe Moorhead said following Mississippi State’s Music City Bowl loss to Louisville

Joe Moorhead couldn’t lead Mississippi State to its first bowl victory since he took over as coach on Monday.

The Bulldogs lost, 38-28, to Louisville in the Music City Bowl, falling to 6-7 to end the season. Mississippi State had won three of its previous four games — including an Egg Bowl victory in the regular-season finale — but it couldn’t carry that momentum over into its bowl matchup.

“Want to thank our fans for coming. We always have great support in bowl games,” Moorhead told the media in his postgame press conference. “Certainly 6-7 was not the season we desired, but we were able to battle through a lot of adversity this season. I needed to be better today, but I thought our kids played hard.”

Here’s more of what Moorhead said following the game:

• The TV broadcast showed a Louisville player holding a sign on the sideline that had a Moorhead quote stating, “Louisville is soft.” Moorhead said that wasn’t a real quote: “I have no comment, I never said it.”
• Moorhead said senior running back Nick Gibson was one of several players suspended for a quarter from an internal issue before the team arrived in Nashville.
• On moving forward: “I don’t want anything to get lost in the loss today of all the positive momentum we have going. We are recruiting well and our current classes are developing. The future is very bright.”
• Moorhead said junior linebacker Erroll Thompson didn’t play much because he aggravated a prior injury.
• On senior quarterback Tommy Stevens: “It’s like watching one of your own grow up.”
• On the season: “This season was a book in and of itself.”

Jake Rill

Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.