Mississippi State University announced today that Joe Moorhead, former offensive coordinator at Pennsylvania State University, will be MSU’s next 33rd football head coach.
The news that Athletic Director John Cohen had made the hire was first reported by Brett McMurphy, College Football Insider, on Tuesday night.
“Joe is a winner, a man of integrity with a blue-collar work ethic and an ability to motivate others that our student-athletes will gravitate to,” Cohen said in a statement released by MSU. “His innovative offensive philosophy is a perfect fit for our program and will keep us on a path to competing for championships. I was also impressed with his detailed defensive plan.”
Moorhead will be introduced at a press conference on Thursday at 10 a.m., The Reflector will have a live stream of the press conference on our Facebook page.
Moorhead, 44, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will fill the position after former head coach Dan Mullen left for the same job at the University of Florida on Sunday.
Cohen has been praised nationally for his handling of the coaching search, with reports surfacing the day after Mullen left that the University of Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt and Moorhead were candidates for the job.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be a Mississippi State Bulldog,” Moorhead said in the statement. “I am thrilled to take the reins of an SEC program that has been as successful as this one has the past decade.”
Moorhead served as Penn State’s offensive coordinator the 2016 season and this season. In 2016, his offense broke the school record for total offense and passing yards, as Penn State won the Big Ten title that season. This season Penn State’s offense ranks 28th in the country in total yards and seventh in points scored.
This season Penn State’s offense looks relatively balanced, as they have 3,430 passing yards and 2,009 rushing yards. They have 413 rushing attempts on the season and 417 passing attempts.
Moorhead also has previous head coaching experience. He served as the head coach at Fordham University, where he went 38-13, going 11-3 and 9-3 his last two seasons.
It was reported Cohen was looking for an offensive mind who was a hard worker and Moorhead checks both those boxes.
Moorhead will look to hold together a 2018 recruiting class ranked 15th in the country and also fill assistant coaching vacancies.
Florida announced it had hired former MSU co-offensive coordinators John Hevesy and Billy Gonzales. Hevesy and Gonzales will haves to be replaced along with others who may join Mullen in Florida.
