Mississippi State Football: 3 trending candidates to replace Joe Moorhead

3. Mike Leach

Mike Leach checks all the boxes you’d want to have checked if you are a Mississippi State fan. You have to be unique in some way to coach at a place like Mississippi State.

The university’s most successful coaches, Jackie Sherrill and Dan Mullen, ran systems that few were running when they coached the Bulldogs. That gave them an identity. Sherrill brought a unique power/option running game, while Mullen brought the option-read and tempo to Starkville. Leach brings a similar pedigree with the “Air-Raid” offense he developed with Hal Mumme at Valdosta State in the early 1990s.

As a head coach, he’s been successful off the beaten path. Leach’s success as a head coach started in Lubbock as the head coach at Texas Tech. In his 10 seasons at Tech, he averaged eight wins a year, had a winning record every season, went to a bowl game nine of those 10 seasons, and finished in the top 25 in five seasons.

After leaving Lubbock, Leach went further off the beaten path to Pullman, Wash. At Washington State, he’s taken the Cougars to six bowl games in eight seasons and finished in the top 10 in the rankings for the first time in school history. He also has the third-most wins in school history.

You have to know what you get when you hire Leach. If you can take his lack of filter, stories about pirates, and a residence within walking distance to the football offices he might be the best hire for the Bulldogs.