Mississippi State football officially filled all of their vacant coaching positions with the official announcement of Maurice Linguist taking over as safeties coach.  MSU  also filled their defensive coordinator vacancy with Peter Sirmon and their cornerbacks coach vacancy with Terrell Buckley.

Buckley played in the NFL for 13 years and won a Super Bowl with the 2001 New England Patriots. Buckley spent the last two seasons coaching defensive backs  at Louisville. Buckley is also a Pascagoula, Mississippi, native. 

Buckley mentioned his Mississippi roots multiple times to media Monday .

“I am a Mississippi guy, born and raised here,” he said. “It has been great, the coaches are awesome and the players have welcomed me with open arms. So, we are off to a great start.”

Maurice Linguist, also a former college player,  spent four years playing safety at Baylor. His last coaching stop was at Iowa State as the defensive pass game coordinator from 2014 to 2015. Linguist stressed the importance of his unit developing their own identity.

“There has been a culture of playing good defense here, but every year and every team is its own. So, what we are doing is creating our identity and our own brand for what we want the 2016 defense to be,”  Linguist said on building the defense. 

The biggest hire of the offseason was Peter Sirmon. He is an up and comer from Walla Walla, Washington. Sirmon played linebacker at Oregon for four years before moving on to play for the Tennessee Titans in the NFL for seven years. He is taking over for former defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, who left for the same position at the University of Miami (Fl).

His most recent stop was at USC as the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator. Although he came from USC, Sirmon is not without SEC coaching experience. His first full- time coaching job was as the linebackers coach at Tennessee in 2011. 

“I have spent a lot of time on the West Coast but have spent 10 years living in the state of Tennessee as well,” Sirmon said. “I have a good understanding of what the conference is about, what the expectations are and the passion of the fans.”

The trio of new coaches look to improve a defense that finished 55th in the country in total yards allowed last season. With losses of Chris Jones, Beniquez Brown, Will Redmond and Taveze Calhoun they will have to rely on some of the younger stars to fill the void. MSU will play their spring game on April 16 and will open up the 2016 football season on Sept. 3 against South Alabama.