Despite all of the changes the Mississippi State University football team has experienced, it has one more game to play this season.
MSu began practicing for its bowl game today.
Dan Mullen left MSU for the University of Florida, taking half of the coaching staff with him, like co-offensive coordinators John Hevesy and Bill Gonzales, along with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. MSU is left with a skeleton crew of coaches and graduate assistants to lead them. 
Greg Knox, who served under Mullen as the running backs coach, is the interim head coach. Quarterbacks coach Brett Elliott will join Knox as offensive coordinator coach, and safeties coach Ron English will be the defensive coordinator for the game. 
Even with all the change, Knox said MSU is doing things the same way.
“We got some reps for some young guys today and got them involved a little bit more, and took some of the older guys out, trying to help them get healthy, and still get them reps so that they can continue to work on their technique and fundamentals,” Knox said.
Having finished finals, the players said they are focusing on football and their date with the University of Louisville in the TaxSlayer Bowl on Dec. 30.
“It went great,” Knox said. “I thought we came out with a lot of juice and a lot of energy. They came to work today. We were back in our element, back on the field. For a week now, (the team) has been in finals. So they were excited to get back out there, and that was finally done. They were excited to be back on that field.”
The players said they are tuning out all the noise about coaching changes. Defensive end Montez Sweat, a junior from Stone Mountain, Georgia, with potential future NFL plans, said his only priority is the up-coming game.
“We are focusing on the bowl game right now,” Sweat said. “That is something to think about afterwards.”
Sweat and fellow defensive lineman Jeffrey Simmons, a sophomore from Macon, have both grabbed headlines recently, as they have received All-SEC first team honors.
“My teammates and my coaches, all honor goes to them,” Simmons said. “If it weren’t for them pushing me everyday, bringing the leadership out of me, everything would not be the way it is today.”
Louisville QB Lamar Jackson has garnered a lot of attention, who won the Heisman last season, is a finalist for the award again this season.
“There is a lot of excitement, I am ready for it,” Simmons said. “It is a challenge for us, especially on the defensive line. This game is going to be won in the trenches.”
MSU has filled holes in their staff, as new MSU head coach Joe Moorhead worked quickly.
Charles Huff, who spent the past three seasons at Pennsylvania State University as their running backs coach, will join Moorhead in the same position, and be co-offensive coordinator. Huff served two of his three years under Moorhead, who was the offensive coordinator.
The other co-offensive coordinator will be Andrew Breiner, who recently served as head coach at Fordham University. He took over as head coach after Moorhead left two years ago to take the offensive coordinator job at Penn State. He will also be MSU’s new quarterbacks coach.
True freshman Keytaon Thompson of New Orleans said he got a phone call from Breiner after he was hired.
“We had a great conversation, and I am looking forward to him,” Thompson said. “We just kind of talked general stuff, general football, that he was coming, who he was and I told him a little about myself.”
MSU has also filled three other jobs, according to reports which surfaced today. Mark Hudspeath will return to MSU, where he served as the wide receivers coach for two years before spending the last seven seasons as the head coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Reportedly, he is to serve as MSU’s new tight ends coach.
Marcus Johnson, from Coffeeville, will be MSU’s new offensive line coach, according to a Bruce Feldman report. He is a former NFL offensive lineman and was the offensive line coach at Duke University
Bob Shoop will be MSU’s new defensive coordinator. Shoop spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee. Before then, he served the same position at Penn State and Vanderbilt University. At Penn State, his defenses were ranked No. 14 and No. 2 in the nation in total defense.