Mississippi State needs a new coach. The school fired Zach Arnett on Monday, with a 4-6 record in his first season as head coach. Arnett took over after the sudden death of Mike Leach last year.
“The progress and on-field results have not been of the standard required for Mississippi State to achieve the level of success we need and expect,” athletic director Zac Selmon said in a statement. “Zach took on an unprecedented and challenging situation last December. He provided the football program much-needed leadership and stability during a tragic time.
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“There is no question that he has made a positive impact on the lives of our student-athletes during his time here. We are grateful for his contributions to Mississippi State and wish him the very best both personally and professionally.”
This is a Mississippi State program that has gotten used to success over the last decade-plus, reaching 13 consecutive bowl games, and this hire comes at a big time for the program. Arnett rallied everyone amid tragedy late last year and signed a school-friendly contract, but the university clearly regrets not doing a full search last year. Now it will.
This will be Mississippi State’s third full coaching search since the end of 2017. Joe Moorhead replaced Dan Mullen after Mullen’s departure for Florida, and Leach came in after Moorhead was fired after two seasons.
So how good is the Mississippi State job? What names could get in the mix? Here are the factors to keep in mind.
The SEC is about to change
Mississippi State has long faced the difficult position of sharing a division with Alabama, LSU and Auburn, three programs that have recently won a national championship. Along with Arkansas and Ole Miss, the SEC West was a gauntlet. Divisions will finally go away next year, but only because Texas and Oklahoma will be joining the conference.
In terms of job quality, Mississippi State has long been near the bottom of the league. That’s not to say a coach can’t win here. Several have done so, especially recently. But the challenges are mighty. Now, two blue-blood programs are coming in and knocking jobs like Mississippi State down another peg. Next year’s schedule loses Alabama and LSU but adds Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and Florida. Mississippi State will always have a difficult schedule.
Still, it’s an SEC job, and there are only so many of those. That will always be a high selling point for coaches who want to compete at the highest level.
Jon Sumrall is 20-4 in less than two seasons at Troy. (Justin Ford / Getty Images)Will Mississippi State prioritize head coaching experience this time around?
In promoting Arnett, Mississippi State had a coach learning on the job. There’s no time to learn on the job in the SEC these days, like Dan Mullen did back in 2009. It’s why Arnett didn’t even get a full season. Mullen went 5-7 in his first season. Leach went 4-7. But the school clearly felt it wasn’t on the same path fast enough with Arnett.
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There are plenty of sitting head coaches or those with head coaching experience who will be available for this job, including at the Group of 5 level. But even with that, will high-level recruiting experience be needed? Some G5 head coaches haven’t been at the SEC level. These are the factors Selmon will need to weigh and consider.
Will Mississippi State go back to an offensive head coach?
Whenever the Bulldogs have been successful, they’ve done things a bit differently. Mullen and Leach were offensive head coaches who called plays and overachieved. Neither was an elite recruiter, but they got the most out of their players. Moorhead was fired, but he was still 14-12 with two bowl games as another offensive head coach.
Arnett, promoted from defensive coordinator, bucked the trend MSU had found successful. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Bulldogs go back the other way.
The program has a lot of support
The stadium is always packed. The game-day environment is special and unique. The school partnered with The Bulldog Initiative in August to serve as its official collective. While Mississippi State has done work in the NIL space, it’s behind some of the heavy hitters in the conference.
The program consistently recruits classes ranked right around the top 25 nationally, not higher, not lower. However, more than half of the players signed from 2018 through 2020 have transferred out. It’s led the program to lean more on the portal to fill positions as well. The next coach will need to fill out the depth of the roster, but this isn’t a place that expects to land top-15 recruiting classes.
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Feldman's Mississippi State coaching candidates to watch
So what names could get in the mix?
Based on conversations with industry sources, these are some names to keep an eye on.
Troy head coach Jon Sumrall immediately turned the Trojans into one of the best Group of 5 teams. He’s 20-4 in less than two seasons, winning the Sun Belt last year with a 12-2 season and top-20 finish, and Troy will play in the conference championship again this year. The Trojans have been led by one of the best defenses in the country. Before Troy, Sumrall was a Kentucky defensive assistant from 2019 through 2021 and an Ole Miss assistant before that, so he has SEC experience. The 41-year-old Alabama native and Kentucky graduate seems destined for an SEC job at some point.
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Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell would fit the background of an offensive head coach who does things differently. He’s 41-6 over the last four seasons, with three seasons of at least 10 wins, including a 10-0 start at Liberty this year. His spread option offense turned Grayson McCall into one of the best quarterbacks in the country at Coastal Carolina, setting an FBS record for pass efficiency in 2021. Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter is fourth nationally in pass efficiency and has 35 total touchdowns with four interceptions. The 46-year-old Tennessee native also seems destined for a bigger job, but his lack of Power 5 coaching experience has hurt his candidacy for other jobs. Still, the man has won big at four different head coaching jobs, including Delta State in Mississippi.
Tulane head coach Willie Fritz nearly took the Georgia Tech job last year amid an AAC championship and Cotton Bowl-winning season but stuck with the Green Wave. He’s followed up last year’s 12-2 season with a 9-1 start this season, Tulane’s two best seasons in the last 25 years. But the athletic director who hired him, Troy Dannen, recently left for Washington, and quarterback Michael Pratt may be gone soon. The 63-year-old Fritz has indicated that this might be his last job, but the opportunity to coach at the Power 5 level is the last thing missing on his resume. Like Chadwell, he’s won everywhere, from junior college to Division II, FCS and the Group of 5.
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee is 15-8 in two seasons, including an 8-2 start this year. He’s an offensive head coach who runs one of the fastest up-tempo offenses in the country. But the 40-year-old Arkansas native also dramatically elevated the defense through recruiting and the transfer portal, improving the Mustangs’ Stop Rate from 114th last year to the top 10 this year. The longtime Gus Malzahn assistant has also coached at Auburn, Arkansas and Miami, among other stops. SMU is moving into the ACC, has a top-notch NIL program and has more resources coming in, but would an SEC job be enough to pull him away?
Could former Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen be an option to return? He’s the second-winningest coach in school history and is currently an analyst at ESPN. Under Mullen from 2009 through 2017, the Bulldogs reached No. 1 in the country in the very first College Football Playoff rankings in 2014. They were a consistent winning program and a tough out before he left for Florida, where he reached three New Year’s Six games with three top-15 finishes but was fired in Year 4 amid diminishing results and poor recruiting. Does Mullen want to get back into coaching, and does Mississippi State offer enough for what he wants to accomplish? The history of coaches going back to their old jobs is mixed. It worked for Bill Snyder (Kansas State) and Mike Riley (Oregon State). Not so much for Brady Hoke (San Diego State) and Randy Edsall (UConn).
“It’s always a great honor once your name gets mentioned with stuff, and I know the people of Mississippi are so special and hold a special place in my heart,” Mullen told SiriusXM. “As I would say, you never say never when those things go on. I haven’t spoken to anybody administratively with Mississippi State. … You never say never going back, but I don’t know if this is the time.”
New England Patriots assistant head coach Joe Judge was a finalist for this job the last time around, before taking the New York Giants head coaching job. The 41-year-old is a former Mississippi State player and graduate assistant and also worked under Nick Saban at Alabama from 2009 through 2011. He’s been in the NFL ever since, spending most of that time under Bill Belichick with the Patriots. His 10-23 stint with the Giants was forgettable, and he would also need to get up to speed on the modern college game.
Jacksonville State head coach Rich Rodriguez knows the area and keeps winning, currently 7-3 leading the Gamecocks’ first FBS season and playing South Carolina in a battle. The 60-year-old was Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator in 2019 after head coaching jobs at West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona. He nearly took WVU to the national championship game, flamed out at Michigan and had been successful at Arizona (including a Fiesta Bowl) before getting fired over personal conduct issues. Could he get back into the SEC?
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Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby has a connection with Selmon — who came to Mississippi State from Oklahoma — and Lebby spent two years in the state as Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator from 2020 through 2021. The Sooners are fourth nationally in scoring offense this year.
Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann is all SEC. The 33-year-old Alabama grad has spent his entire career at Alabama and Georgia, working up from student assistant to co-DC for the two-time national champion Bulldogs. He’s long been Kirby Smart’s right-hand man and knows how the best programs in college football are run. Does that translate at a place like Mississippi State that needs to overachieve?
(Top photo: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
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