Welcome to the solid verbo. I'm that for me.
I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well I want to be happy. You want to be happy for dake Edo State?
Is that? Whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye welcome back to the Solid Verbal boys and girls. My name is ty Hildenbrand, joining me as always over there in New York City, Dan Rubinstein and once again, scheme theme Scheme theme rolls on here on the podcast. Dan, how are you boo boo boo?
I don't know why there's like an old school computer sound that I'm making because scheme doesn't have anything to do with that. I'm great, Ty, I am. I'm pretty juiced for everybody to hear this show.
I am.
I'm very excited.
Last week we talked to Seth Latrelle from the North Texas Mean Green. People were really excited about that interview. Today we've got another great one. He is the new head football code for Mississippi State. His name is Joe Moorehead. You may know him from some of his previous stops. He's been at Penn State the last two years, coordinating an incredible offense that was so much fun to watch. Before that he was at Fordham, He's had stints elsewhere
like Connecticut, so on and so forth with ja Ackron. Yeah, Acker, And we're going to get into all that in much much more. But we are so excited to have coach Morehead with us tonight.
Yeah.
Absolutely no excited to talk to him about the sort of I mean, he has become known as somebody who perhaps has mastered the RPO more than any other coach and has succeeded wildly in that system for penn State.
And you know, sa Quon Barkley is now a household name, Trace McSorley, you know all these You know, Micah Sickis has turned stars into megastars whatever, just putting up a ton of yards and crazy excited to see what he is able to do at Mississippi State with a different I wouldn't say a different sort of athlete, but going to a region that perhaps is even crazier about football than Central PA, which Pennsylvania is super underrated in terms
of the talent and the passion for football. But to see what he's able to do on arguably and even bigger stage in the SEC West, I think is pretty exciting as just a general college football fan.
I admire the innovation and we can link it up as part of this show. But Bruce Felman put together an incredible oral history of the Joe Morehead offense that we saw at Penn State the last two years, and of course it stems back to Morehead's time with Randy Etzel at Yukon and some of his other stops, but you really get a nice picture of how he cobbled this thing together and really you get a portal into how he was able to innovate in a sport that it's just you wonder to yourself, how our coach is
going to continue innovating. It's because Joe Morehead thought about things a little bit differently. So whether it's the way he approaches the passing game, whether it's some of the RPOs he installs in the running game, just so many creative things that he's brought to the four that I'm excited to have him as part of scheme theme.
One of the sort of huge success stories of like the basketball on grass mentality, especially with the options that a quarterback has, you know, adding something on at the last second. It's almost like backdoor passes, reading somebody coming out to guard the three point line and suddenly there's an aalupe available that's wide open. That kind of thing. It sort of flows really nicely when you break down and watch some of these offenses over and over again.
And fun fact, Ty and I'll ask him about this in the interview, is he overlapped at Yukon as first an offensive coordinator, then a quarterbacks coach, the coordinators on defense while he was there Todd Orlando and Don Brown. Wow, pretty nice, pretty good brains to pick. Wow, So sort of fortuitous, and that coaching staff and staffs were pretty ridiculous and it shows with you know, Jordan Toddman and the success that they were able to have in like
twenty ten, twenty eleven in there. So just a ridiculously interesting story and a fun offense to watch throughout the year. It's very exciting for US.
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Mississippi State. New Mississippi State head coach Joe Morehead, Joe, how's life in Starkville? I assume basically the same as the Bronx.
It's going great and hailman of fordhamn in Hale State. I believe that's appropriate at this time.
Fair fair, So when you're talking to Mississippi State, I think this is November. How familiar at that point are you with just basic things personnel, previous scheme and even like the potential of building your vision in Starkville.
From the initial conversations, I had very little familiarity. Obviously knew they played in the SEC West, Coach main had done a very good job here building a solid foundation, and you know, had known about Nick Fitzgerald from just you know, catching games here and there, but but really didn't have too much of an in depth knowledge of the team.
So even knowing the South for instance, obviously that's a big thing that that people are going to talk about that you know, you're you're from the Northeast. You've coached in the Midwest and the Northeast. Is that Did you get any initial pushback about recruiting and scheme and sort of even language of football down there or are you confident that you know that those are things that can be transcended.
I don't think it all was scheme and with language scheme a little bit from from the recruiting standpoint, because there is a certain regional aspect to it. But ultimately, at the end of the day, if you can recruit, you can recruit. If you can't, you can't. It doesn't matter where you come from. And the things that that uh, you know, that have no bounds are hard work, the ability to communicate and build into personal relationships and the
ability to identify prospects. So if you could do it in the North, you can do it in the South.
So now that you've seen your team, you obviously know a lot more. You know, going into spring practice, you've had a chance to watch tape. Do you see this as a, you know, because of the success in these past couple of years, as sort of a turnkey operation, as you know, there are pieces, but there's a lot of work to be done. Or is it, you know, almost like a starting from scratch kind of thing.
Definitely not starting from scratch. You know, every day that I'm here, I become more and more confident of the opportunities presented to us. I think coach mon did a fantastic job, like I said, building the foundation, and our job now is to elevate it from good to great. And you know, the term that we're using around the building now is championship standard. Sure, I've been very fortunate at the last four places i've been Penn State, Ford, Them,
Yukon and Acron that we won a conference championship. And you know, Mississippi State's had one winning season in the last fifteen years in SEC play. Now we've been to eight or nine straight pulls, but not. My job is to make sure that you know we're competing for an SEC championship and have the ability to you know, to get in the national championship mix.
So in talking to coaches, you you consistently learn, and I speak saying you, I playbooks and systems and I love a good food analogy. They're sort of complicated stews of ingredients you like and see along the way. So I guess, walk me through your biggest ingredient influences as it stands in twenty eighteen.
Yeah, I've sometimes in clints referred to our offense as the Chipotle offense. Love it that there's not a ton of ingredients, but there's a lot of mixing and matching going on. You have a few things you can hang your hat on, and then through different tags and RPO aspects, you can change the presentation and make it look like you're doing a lot more than you actually are. So I love a good food reference too, particularly not on
here that they put thirty pounds on me. But you know, I think this offense was one you kind of saw the initial phases of an actor, and not so much at Yukon. But then when we got to Fordham and I became the head coach and had fifty one percent of the vote, you know, we really was the bones or the structure of what you see now.
Who are your biggest influences And obviously aside from your own brain and the staff, that are the staffs that you worked with when you looked outside of college football. I know there are stories talking about watching Oregon tape, even watching Eastern Illinois tape with Jimmy Garoppolo, where do you draw? Like what where did you see along the way? Like I really like what they're doing. I'm going to add blank.
You know, from an overall from a quarterback coaching perspective, I'd say Walt Harris at Pitt. From an overall coaching structure, Larry Corer was a guy that was a graduate assistant for a Pitt from coach Edsel and coach Franklin a lot of program management and things how to run an organization. But I'd say, you know, we've studied a bunch of different teams in every year. You know, we picked something different, you know, from from one offense or another. But I
think that's the beauty of our offense. And Coach Browner, who's our quarterbacks coach, referred to it as sophisticated simplicity. Simplicity that what we're doing from an overall context never really changes, but we could tweak a few things here and there to continue to make us better and make it harder for defenses to come out what we do.
What was the quarterback coaching lessons you took from Walt Harris and Pat.
Now Just attention to detail, throwing on footwork, throwing on timing, the ability to recover his pre and post snap, you know, and I just think he's one of the best.
You know.
Obviously it was a different style offense. You know, more under center, more pro style, but a lot of things he taught or you know, things we carry with us to this day.
What do you task with a quarterback? Obviously in your offense, a lot of quick decisions need to be made. So even first year installation, how does that that vary from second or third year? You know, what do you ask of your quarterback as soon as basically you start meeting with him?
Yeah, I mean the thing that we need from a quarterback is the ability, you know, to beat the defense with his brains, his arms, and his legs. I'm literally sitting here, you know, going through practice scripts now and it's amazing to me. In year one in the installation of the offense, you know how elementary it is relative to year two, year three, or some of the things we're doing at Penn State. But like anything, it's going
to be a whole part, whole installation process. We're going to give the information that they need to know to understand, you know, how how the offense runs and the base nuances of it, and then kind of the subtleties, you know, we'll continue to add that on through the process of springball, throughout fall camp, and then certainly into the season.
As a head coach, you're going to be tasked with finding guys who can absorb information, top learners, guys who can make quick to decisions. But you're also looking at them play against high school defenses, and you're asking them to do things against talent and speed and size that is so unfamiliar to them.
What do you look for?
How do you look for, you know, a really good quarterback brain when you just have for a lot of the time just tape.
Yeah, that's that's a very that's a great observation. And at every level, recruiting or player selection is an inexact science. And you know what we look for obviously at the quarterback position or the measurables. You know, how tall the guys, how much is he weigh? How does he run? You know, from a decision making process, I like to look at a completion percentage and touchdown to interception ratio. I think that's something that's vertically important. Uh and and it really
is he a winner? I mean you see a guy that's put the team on his back and led them to great records and led them to state championships and then really trying to get a feel from the game film and the highlights of how the guy competes and how his teammates rally around him.
Are you seeing more and more kids in high school quarterbacks and high school running things obviously not exactly what you do, but similar, having similar concepts, similar tags, stuff like that. Is it becoming more and more mainstream when you're watching these kids?
I think it's more similar than less similar. I'd say, I hate to put a number on it or a percentage, but an overwhelming majority of the quarterbacks at in the high school level that we see on tape or operating out of a you know, out of a shotgun offense.
Sure, and when you obviously you've been you call them tags. Obviously, Now they're sort of more commonly known as RPOs and adding passing concepts to to running formations and running plays. Where where did you sort of start doing that? When did you start doing that? Why did you start doing that?
No, we did a little bit of it heat Acron and a little bit at Ukon, but we really got you know, both beating the boat and kind of made it a full fledged deal at Ford them and really, you know, people kind of assume that it has something to do with throwing the ball, and in a way it does. But to me, the run pass option or adding tags is a way to neutralize defensive numbers because to me, the run game comes down to three things. Numbers, angles,
and grass. We're the best numbers, we're the best angles for your blockers, and how do you get your speed into open space? And I think the thing with the tags and the RPOs and post snapperings second and third level defenders, it allows you to throw the ball if the seventh or eighth defender is able to tackle the ball care if you hand them off, and if he isn't, you're able to hand the ball off and you're blocking six for six or five for five. So I think
one of the that's one of the reasons. You know, Sequah and Chase of Edmonds before that Fordham and even going back to Jordan Todd and Denis Kennedy at Actor and that we've had running backs we've either led the league or been in the top two and rushing because we don't hand the ball off to our backs when there's people with the line of scrimmage we can't block.
What's the most difficult part of installing.
Installing?
Yeah, just getting everybody on the same page with tags, with you know, timing, with you know, overall understanding.
Well, for the offensive line, it's really not that big of a deal because they hear the run play and they block the run play. They could pair less with the tag is you know, they have no idea what's
going on in the outside. I think probably the most I wouldn't say difficult, but time consuming aspect is the quarterback known who's pre and post snap reeds are and allowing him, you know, the leeway to differentiate that the guy he's reading is playing to run, playing the past, and whether he should hand it off or actually throw the ball. I think that's one that comes with a
lot of repetition. But once it's installed, we keep doing the same things over and over and over again, So there's a lot of repetition that that AIGs in that process.
Roughly, what percentage of the quarterbacks reads will he have installed in year one?
In year one, I'd say he's going to have In spring one, he won't have all of them. By the time that we hit the season, through spring ball and fall camp, he'll have he'll have all of them. Now, I won't say it's to the sophistication or to the degree that you know that we allow Trace to do in year two with you know, Penn State because the offense has grown. But you know, we're going to give them the necessary information for spring, see how we do with that, and then build on that in fall camp.
With all the quarterbacks, is there any particular position that you have to recruit differently on offense or our numbers that are different for what you want to run than than might be for different other systems or schemes or packages.
We don't recruit a fullback, so that'd probably be the one. The one thing that's a little bit different. I mean, we use our tight end in and off the ball capacity and he kind of, you know, does some of the job that inline tight end would do or some of the things you know, because he's off the ball, he can split flow and do things like that. But from just a purely quarterback, running back, tight end, wide receiver, O line, you know, I don't think you're recruiting anybody differently.
You know, with Michael Gisiki and some of the things that are tight end, does you know you want that guy to be kind of a hybrid, you know, tight end slash big receiver, because because you asked them to do both things. So I'd say that's the one position that's probably you know, a little bit more unique than others.
You mentioned some of the the RPO stuff evolved while you were at Yukon, and I believe you overlapped with both Todd Orlando and Don Brown. Is that correct?
Yeah, Todd I went to the same high school. So Todd and I were there for our first two years with with coach Edzel, and then I was with Donnie our last year there.
So that's that's a hell of a duo, a defensive duo to be on a staff with in terms of, you know, picking their brain and sort of seeing their defenses and their minds as they are, you know, guys who are maybe not used to seeing on the other side of the field, you know, tags and RPO stuff. How did sort of overlapping help you in developing your offense?
No, those guys are two of the best in the business. And Todd of Textas and Don at Michigan. You know, they're guys that I have an immense amount of respect for. And you know, I guess they say iron sharpends iron and when you're going against those two guys every day in practice for Carls bringing a fall camp, it certainly prepares you for the rigors of the season because you know those those are two of the best in the business.
Do you consult with them like I'm thinking about doing this? Does this make sense? Could there be a defense that would be ready for X, Y or Z.
Not so much with Donnie for the last two years since they put it on us.
I mean, I mean at ukon you.
Yeah, we certainly you know, you step in this the defensive staff room, we're all the way around and say, hey, we're running this how how would you attempt to defend it? Or vice versa. We're going to run this flitz? How would you guys try to pick it up? In the six man protection? So those things go on in staffords all across the country, you know, with you know, guys that work well together, and ultimately it's about pulling a rope in the same direction.
What have you seen from as you and you our offenses have evolved and succeeded. What have you seen from you know, really smart defensive coordinators, smart defenses in the way that defenses have tried to evolve with you.
And that's what I love most about, you know, coordinating offense and calling plays is the is the chess match. You know, the chess match during the week is your game plan and then it's certainly on game day and as offenses evolved, defenses continue to evolve. You know, some people start to try to play more man to man because that takes the air out of the zone and takes defenders out of conflict. Then offensively, you got to
have your answer for that. So I think it's it's uh, it's just a it's a it's a great back and forth. And you know it's like uh, you know, having a h a vaccine to fight a virus. As offensively, we want our streen to continue to mutate and stay one step ahead of the defenses as they're trying to neutralize it.
Sure, and how much end game do you see that uh able to happen? How much are you able to say, okay, this is what they're doing. What if we tweak this or is it a you know, at a certain point, the game plan is the game plan, and you know, the play is installed for that week, are what you have.
That's really what our offense is all about. And I think the simplicity of it allows us to enter a game with a contingency plan of we're making this call if they play this defense is this is what we go to. So we kind of have that mapped out,
you know, during the week entering the game. Now, if a defense presents something that we haven't seen at all, or you know, there's a play based on a certain technique or or a defensive look that's being presented, we can you know, go back to what we call our library and pick something maybe that we haven't you know
run during the week. And that happened a bunch of times at Penn State and Foredom, But I think most of that heavy lifting is done during the week where we're running play X and if they do something else and you know, we're checking the you know, WI or Z.
Do you have a favorite contingency play that you've called over these past few years?
The wheel route to Sequan in the Big Ten Championship game was was one that uh, you know, I look back on and comes to mind immediately. That was a play that wasn't in the original game plan and one that we kind of just caught off the cuff and got him matched on. You know, their outside linebacker, a defensive end and a trace did a good job, you know,
putting the ball where I think it was one. I think it was a wat kid where just he was you know, kind of put it right there in the back corner the end and that was what it kind of sticks up?
Am I crazy for thinking the wheel route has a one hundred percent success?
Right?
What is it about the wheel route that makes it the most perfect thing to watch as an outside observer.
That the kid that runs for three nine is running it? So that's that kind of helps fair.
And now as you prepared to oversee the installation in Starkville, have you have you discovered a specific learning curve like a time it really takes things to click for kids, like with you know, Penn State's offense almost flipping a switch, things seemed to completely click. I think it was during the twenty sixteen Minnesota game.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll, it'll. I think we'll have a good gauge on it through these fifteen spring opportunities. Uh, you know, we take a week off here for spring break, then we come back on the nineteenth. You know, we'll have position meetings on the twenty four position meetings and get out there and start practicing. And uh, you know, our assistant coaches have had time, have had meeting time with our players CERNCA rule. You know, throughout the past
two months. We're able to get with them and talk a little bit of scheme. So it's good that we're able to kind of get them some of that formation information. So they're not hearing it the first time in our first spring meeting, so I think they've digested it very well. I think there's a good understanding this style of football. So I think we're going to hit the ground running on the twentieth.
So you're you're called a head coach, but in reality, it seems you're you're sort of a head teacher. You know, you're teaching your your staff, you're teaching players, and really you're learning yourself as as things evolve. How how have you evolved as a teacher over the years.
Yeah, I think, you know, I think, well it was really beneficial to you know, in my time at Penn State to leave the head coaches chair and get back to being an assistant and it kind of gives you a fresh perspective of the things, and you know, the saying I've heard is you know, assistant coaches make suggestions. Head coaches make decisions. So I went from decision maker
to suggestion maker. Now that I'm back in the seat, and you know, between coach Shoot on defense and his staff, they're gonna do a great job Coach Jones with our special teams. I've hired a bunch of guys in our offensive staff from Coach Gets he's the coordinator, coach Brianers, the quarterbacks coach, Coach Haugh who was with me at Penn State as the running backs coach, and guys who are familiar with our scheme that you know you have to give a certain level of autonomy to all three
phases in your coordinators. You know when you're gonna spend a bunch of time with one side of the ball. So I think I think I'm very excited about the staff to put together.
You tend to see that coaches who have had a a lot of success on offense have very strong thoughts when running a defense when given the opportunity to hire defensive coordinator and to run a specific style of defense. I guess is that true for you? And what are your strong thoughts if they exist?
I mean, I've been familiar with Coach Shoot, you know, since his time that you know, William Marriott, Manderbilt, Penn State, and then we grew up kind of in the same general area, but Coach Shoots a little bit older. But what I want is all three phases of the game to mirror each other from a philosophical standpoint, that we're going to attack on offense, we're going to attack on defense,
and we're going to attack on special teams. In this day and age, I think you have to be multiple, whether it's four down, three down, where you're blitzing from you know, second, third level, mixing up the coverages. You can't just leave the picture of the same because, as you mentioned earlier, the sophistication level of these offenses and the ability to make a decision based on how the defense reacts, it's created a lot of challenges for defenses.
So I think what Coach Shup was doing fantastic because you know, it's not just you know, staying static, lining up for one thing and playing one defense. There's a lot of pre and posts that movement. There's a lot of mixing of coverages and pressures, and I think that's what makes it challenging on an offense. And that's one thing I look for, you know, in hiring a defensive coordinator is what he does something that would give me problems on a weekly basis in season?
What is the thing about coach Shup that you think is the most problematic for offenses?
I think he's an one. I think he's a great teacher, and I think we have a bunch bunch of great assistance on that side of the ball to motivate our kids and get them going. But I think that the multiplicity that what I would say is the uh, you know, the biggest thing.
Do you ever and as you're mentioning, and we've mentioned a few defensive coordinators and offenses that have been successful around college football, do you ever come across in what must be a pretty small community, do you ever come across defensive coordinators who you've played and succeeded against who have just been like.
What the hell?
Many who are just like left asking for answers and just feel defeated.
I think that goes for both sides. I mean the past. You talk about going out of the frying pan and into the fire, I mean leaving the Big ten East and heading into the SEC West, You're talking about some of the best defensive coordinators and best teams in the country. So I think that's one thing where I've been very fortunate the last two years. He talked about, you know, Don bron Coach Allen and Indiana obviously coach Ciano, the coach D'Antonio and his staff. I mean, that's the best
of the best right there. And you know, I think we were fortunate to have a little bit of success and you know, going to be able to hopefully carry that over into the SEC.
Is there a defensive coordinator you've coached against who you found, you know, maybe somebody you haven't worked with, but somebody who has been particularly unpredictable and how they approach defense that you just sort of admire from afar because of how good they are at either disguising or just being creative with their defenses.
I think, you know, Todd and Donnie Brown are too. You know that we've mentioned already, but you know, in the past, you know, two years, I think you know, coach Allen in Indiana and Coachiano at Ohio State have been to have done a really good job with us. Uh, you know, it's been a great chess match. And you know, going back to the FCS stays there. I mean, there are a bunch of you know, obviously it's it's a
different level when there's not as much publicity. But there's a lot of you know, a lot of great coaches at that level. I mean, guys that really give you a hard time with what they do.
Do you have a name that we will know in like three years, maybe he's still at the FCS level, but you sort of see him as as a rising star either an offense or defense, just as like an x's and o's mind.
Xes in those minds, I mean the one the one guy even though we have success from a statistical standpoint, Uh, the name is slip in my mind right now. But we played them two years in a row in the playoffs.
The defensive coordinator at Sacred Heart who was with coach no free there, okay, I mean he just he just did some unique stuff that that really, you know, was problematic and it was in a lot of ways, you know how You know it was against Indiana that it was either an explosive gain or a five yard loss that there really was no in between, just because you were never really quite sure what was coming on any given snap.
Have you watched tape from from SEC West coordinators? Obviously there's a host of really good ones. Do you have any early impressions of what you know these defenses are going to try to do?
Yeah? I haven't really delved into it with that level of uh, you know, detail going through the games. I was really watching our personnel more so, what went through all the Mississippi State offensive games and defensive games, and was really concentrating more on what our kids were doing than than kind of evaluating scheme. And you know we'll be able to get to that down the road. Sure.
Fair enough and final and most important question, So your Fordham grad a former Fordham head coach, what is this single best thing to eat on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.
I gotta go with dominics. I think that's the call there. I mean, if you're not going pizza or hog or something like that, if you're talking one sit down meal at one place on Arthur Avenue, you gotta go dominics.
What's your order?
It's no been, you know, prices, so it depends on what day you go in there. So, uh, just about anything that you get picked is going to be served up pretty good any other looking farm guys. So when all else fails, chicken palm boom, You're done. You can just go with that.
I love that.
See that's sophisticated simplicity right there.
Exactly.
It's sophisticated because you you get what you get. But at a certain point, you like, I just want chicken palm. I like what else?
Yeah, I mean there's something. Yeah, you go in, there's something piqued your interest, and you kind of want to go off the rails a little bit going ahead with that. But ultimately, at the end of the day, can't go wrong with chicken parm.
And the best thing you've eaten in Starkville is.
Is there's a place called Little Dewey Barbecue here that that kind of has been the best place of a bunch of Southern delicacies. But the Frog caf this year has really been wherever you get it, it's been great a I mean, it's been big time.
And you're ready to hit the road and start eating a ton at the Houses of recruits.
Oh, let me say this. I mean, I'm not exactly the most swelt person in the world, but you know, being an ext quarterback and now looking like a left tackle. I mean, we got to start getting on a treadmill or do something here because this food down here has really been getting me in a good way.
Fair enough, Joe Morehead, head coach Mississippi State, thank you very much for your time and good luck this year. Very excited to check out the Bulldogs.
Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Alrighty, Dan, there you go. Joe moorehead on the podcast. Big thanks to him, best of luck to him in his new role down there at Mississippi State coaches new coaches have traditionally gotten a soliverbal bump in there first.
That is true. That is very true. So what is your You are obviously completely unresearched and unprofessional at this point. Opinion of the higher and your questions your confidences. I have the schedule in front of me, so you don't have to guess about any of those things.
Yeah, sure, But.
What is your general sense now that it's been he was hired in late November, so it's been what almost four months since it was made official. What do you think?
I think I like it in the same manner that I liked the Dan Mullen higher, and we talked about it a little bit on the podcast, but Dan Mullen was regarded as someone who was brilliant, at least offensively in terms of x's and o's, and aside of the fact that he was a big name and an up and coming coordinator, I think Mississippi State's mentality was that we need to we need to look for an edge however we can get it, and if we can bring in a bright offensive mind who will stay here a while,
that could presumably lift the p and to some degree, I think he did that. I do think he succeeded there. Morehead is a similar hire in that respect. He's an innovative guy. He's a very bright offensive mind, as you could just hear from the interview.
I would argue, still a really or at least pretty good defensive coordinator, promising defensive coordinator Bob Shoop despite the uneven time in Knoxville.
Absolutely so, I think there is a lot of symmetry with this hire as the last one with Dan Mullen. My question is how he uses Nick Fitzgerald, because you'll remember it wasn't until that Minnesota game of Morehead's first year in State College that things really started to turn around. And I have gone back time and time again and talked about how it correlates pretty closely to how they used Trace McSorley, and he got a little bit moreactive with his legs and maybe he saw some more of
that RPO stuff coming into effect. Nick Fitzgerald will be the engine that runs this whole thing. He's a senior, he's an upper class and he's clearly the leader of that team. He got hurt this year, but Nick Fitzgerald now coming back running a Joe moorehead system. I expect everything to run through Fitzgerald and for Morehead to really
come up with something that suits his skill set. So my prediction, if I can make one now, they will knock off somebody just because they're going to have such a bright mind running the offense where they're going to create mismatches just based on Nick Fitzgerald alone.
Correct, there's a lot of good news about Mississippi State football and this mixing of Joe moorehead. They should score points, which if you're going to take over in an extremely tough division, which the SEC West at least will be in the next couple of years, Obviously there's some turnover at Arkansas, Texas A and m Ole Miss. You know, turning Matt Luke into the full time guy and taking the interim tag off certainly is a change, but not
as much of a change as the other places. But last year they didn't lose any dumb games, which is I mean, it speaks the job Dan Mullen did and speaks to the job that the players did last year. But you know, they get demolished by Georgia and Auburn, which turns out pretty much everybody did. Those teams were great and both of playoff quality. They almost knock off Alabama if not for some questionable decision making near the end of that game and being not as aggressive perhaps
as they should have been. But at home, almost knocking off the national champion and almost coming back without their starting quarterback in the Egg Bowl is enormous and beating, you know, and scoring more than a talented Louisville team led by Lamar Jackson is significant. Winning nine games in
Starkville is a big deal. Sustaining success like Dan Mullen did in Starkville near the end of his tenure is an enormous deal and shows that with good coaching and with buy in, Mississippi State will beat good teams, not just not lose to bad ones, but they will knock off and put themselves in position to beat great teams,
and they themselves be a really good team. So I think culturally it will be a change for Joe Morehead in terms of recruiting, like he said, in terms of just speaking the language and sort of understanding the rhythms of the SEC and Starkville. But beyond that, I think he's a smart dude who gets by in I like the hires he made. I think they'll continue the success of evaluating three star types relatively locally well and sprinkling it in with some blue chips like they've done in
years past. So I am bullish on sustaining that eight seven, nine an occasional maybe everybody's a senior and they have a transcending quarterback like Dak situation. I don't think there's any reason to say they're going back to sometimes Bowl sometimes not.
Yeah, And the other thing that I think really needs to be mentioned here, we can underscore it again, he was a head coach previously. True, he was a head coach at forty.
In college football's most important conference.
Absolutely, so he's had a lot of those experiences that first time head coaches need to try and learn on the job. Joe moorehead's been there before, asked very organically through the coaching ranks, took a bit of an unconventional route to get there, and you can read his story again on the internet. It's incredible. But after he found a way to get into the college game, really made the rounds through you know the acrons, the Yukon's Fordham ended up at Penn State and now a Mississippi State.
So he's a guy with a lot of good coaching experience that he brings to the table here and I think it'll serve him very well. Now, different situation, the SEC is certainly no picnic, but I'm excited to see what kind of innovation he can now bring to Starkville. Should be cool.
So it's a rough middle of the season Florida Auburn a bye week before they go to LSU, and then the week after coming to Starkville is Texas A and M and then Louisiana Tech not a walkover, and then they go to Tuscaloosa. So I can't see how this team does better in the regular season than they did last year with the new staff and installing new systems and back coming off of a pretty significant injury. But
I think they'll be fun ty. I think they will be in a position to win more often or much more often than not.
There you have it, Okay. Scheme theme again presented by our good friends over at Oliver's Apparel. Oliver's Apparel fifteen percent off when you use the code solid at checkout. Please go check them out. They've been so supportive of what we're doing here all throughout the month of March. Thank you again to everyone who tuned in two shows this week. A little bit extra on the verbal menu. Thank you so much for sticking with us. We will
catch you all next week. Scheme theme rolls on, More Friends, more Football. We're excited to present it again all throughout the month of March. For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Ty Hildebrant, thanks again for tuning into the show. At you all in week. Stay solid peace, Chiens