Mississippi State Football: 4 potential candidates to replace Joe Moorhead

Joe Moorhead has been fired as the head coach of Mississippi State football. These are three possible candidates for the job in Starkville.

According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg sometime after 9 a.m. ET on Friday, Mississippi State informed Joe Moorhead he was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Bulldogs.

In his two seasons in Starkville, Moorhead was 14-12 and 7-9 in conference play. University officials expressed concern with discipline and culture in the program. A huge point of contention was why freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader did not play in the team’s Music City Bowl loss. He had his orbital bone fractured in a fight with a teammate in practice before the bowl game.

At the end of the day, Moorhead — a native New Englander — did not acclimate himself to the culture of Starkville, the South or Mississippi State. Unlike Baylor head coach Matt Rhule who dove right into Texas culture all the way down the boots, Moorhead never immersed himself in southern culture. So who replaces Moorhead in “Starkvegas”?

When it comes to replacing Moorhead, the Bulldogs have three options.

First, the Bulldogs can seek out the hot Power Five coordinator who wants to be a head coach. Second, they can go with the hot Group of Five coach. Finally, they can hire a veteran former Power Five coach. Odds are whatever direction they go, they’ll try to find someone who has coached in the SEC.

They tried outside the box and it didn’t work. Here are four possible candidates from each category.