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.”
I have to give it Coach Moorhead he is so consistent that his messages smells like rotten eggs and his platitudes are about as empty as Stevens winning the QB job this past summer and fall. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me AND Fool me three times, rinse and repeat!
What Chittwood said after Ole Miss pissed away the Egg Bowl to JoMo’s Bulldogs last Thanksgiving and Cohen kept him:
“I repeat what I said yesterday: this is likely to be the most costly “win” in Miss. State Football history. We won a small battle and it’s cost us the war.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong but I have no reason to believe I am. Welcome to a continuance of 6-6 and/or 5-7 seasons, fellow Bulldogs. (And that’s probably the upside!)”
Correct
By continuance of 6-6 and 5-7, you must be referring to Miss State’s history for the 60 years prior to Mullen’s arrival. This year was not a regression , it was a return to normalcy.
More like a continuation of normalcy. Finishing 3-5 in the SEC at fifth in the west and an appearance in a minor bowl game is not atypical of a Mullen year. He finished fifth in the SEC west more than half of his seasons at State A fifth place finish in the SEC west is very typical of the Mullen years.
By your “logic” we shouldn’t even try to improve. We should be thankful we’re allowed to remain in the SEC to serve as doormats for a**holes like you.
Please take your arrogant cracker ass out of here.
Where in my factual statement about Miss St mediocre history did I suggest not trying to improve? Just stating that past history suggests those improvement efforts will fail.
Ps 1/ Im not arrogant. Im a Ga fan for God’s sake. so arrogance is not possible 2/ Im not an ass 3/ i will admit to being a proud cracker. Y’all.
insults coming from people that shake cowbells at their games really just dont hit very hard. #sorrynotsorry
Yes, we return to the cellar while UGA returns to choking. Just like old times.
State has had, unlike our “normal” history, very talented teams under Moorhead, but there’s no production to show for it on the field. That’s why it’s a regression, and the blame goes to the top.
State doesn’t have any special history. Glad to see UGA fans can remember that when they need a safe place to vent.
After looking at the 2020 schedule, really not sure 6-6 is realistic. We play NC St, Bama, LSU, UK, & TSUN on the road…and we know what that usually means. Winable games NM, Arky, AL A&M, & Tulane. Maybe 50/50 A&M, Mizzou, and AU. So shaping up for a 4-8 to maybe a 5-7 season.
I agree that Moorhead is awful and looks especially bad compared to Mullen. But the more valid comparison is Moorhead vs all other Miss St coaches. Since Darrel Royal left in 1955, no MSU coach besides Mullen has had a winning record.(Sherrill was 75-75). 65 years without a winning coach except for Mullen and even his success was relative . Averaged less than 8 wins a year, won no championships and while he was there ,no one ever considered MSU among SEC elite. Still, even with that modest success there, he was by far the exception, not the norm, in MSU history.
Regardless of who is the coach, is it realistic for MSU fans to expect to maintain Mullen-like results in the future when that had never come close to happening before? They can hope to find another Mullen and continue their moderate success ,but can they expect it given the program history?
Just shut up. If history controlled the future, there would be no Clemson dynasty, and no team would ever best bama. Why in God’s name would you come here just to spew negativity and misinformation. Bob Tyler had a >.600 record over six seasons. History books can lie, our record was “adjusted” for three seasons after we took the NCAA to court AND WON. Mullen was a good coach, but what he did was made possible by Sherrill, and his own limitations cost us often. Mullen gets more than enough credit, and I would like to see us hire someone who can be better. Go learn things before you pipe up again.
What are YOU smoking? The immortal Bob Tyler was 21-44 at State. To deny that Miss St is historically a bottom feeder is delusional and to give Sherrill credit for anything Mullen did is ludicrous. Just ask Sylvester Croom.
Sorry i dont count Tyler’s wins taken away by cheating.
You don’t know anything.
Moorhead has retained very Mullen-like results.
More talent, same results. Either state is cursed or we made a bad hire….
A lack of discipline from the players might be a clue…
Using your own logic as posted above, Mark Richt should still be the UGA HC. After all you don’t believe in trying to make any team better and wanting to win titles.
“This season was a book in and of itself.” — a frickin russian tragedy, maybe. I was all about Moor cowbell and all that, but after last season’s eerie semblance to 1999, this season’s tragic circus, and the increasingly absurdly stupid and arrogant comments my bsometer is redlining. We couldn’t pay for Cam, but I’m pretty certain the NCAA doesn’t care how much we pay a coach to go away. Fire him, move up Shoop, get Monken or Napier on the phone, pull Sherrill out of retirement, just get rid of this used car salesman. Doesn’t matter who you sign if you can’t coach them.
Shoop is definitely not the answer. His defense plays with zero discipline.
I disagee. This our least penalized team since 2016. Suspensions, departures (7), and injuries have got this defense hard. The ENTIRE team seems to lack focus and cohesion, but the defense continues to show more than the offense. I think Shoop would do far better than Moorhead and would at least be a decent interim.
You look on the roster and there’s still a bunch of talent, especially on defense. Moorhead just doesn’t look like he has a clue of what to do or how to control the players. Maybe it will change once he gets his guys in and a few years of experience…but will MSU be that patient? I can see them missing a bowl the next couple of seasons the way things are trending.
Tag, you’re it! WPS
What positive momentum is he talking about? Winning your bowl gets you positive momentum. Showing up unprepared, not being able to make adjustments, and then saying “I needed to be better today…” shows you haven’t paid attention to your and your staff’s weaknesses for 2 years.
Goodgodafreshman: This is what you posted…”Regardless of who is the coach, is it realistic for MSU fans to expect to maintain Mullen-like results in the future when that had never come close to happening before? They can hope to find another Mullen and continue their moderate success, but can they expect it given the program history?”
To me, and anyone else with a shred of honesty, your thoughts are crystal clear: “What makes you Miss. State people think you’ll ever be anything but a second or third-rate team in the SEC? Why should you expect to be anything better by hiring a new HC and staff?”
You’re a disingenuous jerk. THIS is clearly what you implied and you knew it when you posted this tripe.
I don’t go to the Georgia section and post insults about your school and team. Don’t come here to pee in our lemonade – it’s already sour enough!
How am I disingenuous when my message was very clear? It was clear enough for you to understand it and repeat it twice. That being MSU history does not support any expectation of sustained success in the future. Sure there will be outlier good years like 2014 .
I dont know why your panties are in such a wad. If you cant handle the truth, just stick to the MSU message board.
UGAs history being what it is, I guess you guys should have no reason to expect any better, either. 1980 was an outlier, moron.
You’re correct. You’re an arrogant, insulting little Georgia ass*ole. (Do you also kick little puppies?)
Why don’t you spend some time on the Arkansas and Vandy sections telling them they’re only a bunch of losers who are ridiculous for thinking they’ll ever be anything but losers? You’re very brave behind a keyboard, but two feet from me I’d bet you wouldn’t be so “brave”. Ass*ole.
ripov posted: “insults coming from people that shake cowbells at their games really just dont hit very hard. #sorrynotsorry”
Those cowbells sounded sweet to us two years ago when Fitz and company ran your Tigers off the field at Davis-Wade 37 to 7.
Everybody in the SEC from the Atlantic Ocean to College Station knows that LSU provides the biggest bunch of drunken, fight-picking fans from ANY SEC school. (At the aforementioned game LSU got so many penalties and committed so many personal fouls that people were asking if Orgeron recruited from Angola.)
Medice, cura te ipsum.
I saw where Moorehead is going to announce staff changes at the end of the week. I don’t see how any staff changes are really going to happen if Moorehead stays, but there it is from on-high. To say we are going to get different people and try harder is a tacit admission that people were inadequate and that they weren’t trying as hard as they could to begin with. In other words, BS. Cast some BS out onto the waters and hope no one notices nothing has really changed.
Meanwhile, Kiffin just hired 2 former national recruiters of the year for his staff. I had heard talk of folks leaving after the bowl game to take jobs at other programs (mentioned during several other bowl games)…so looks like it was forced change. Too bad Moorhead won’t fire himself and turn the offensive planning and game calling over to a real OC.