Mississippi State 2018 Preview: New coach, new offense?
If you’re a fan of offense, then Mississippi State got one of the hires of the season when they brought in Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead to replace Dan Mullen as its new head coach.
When he was in Happy Valley, he made Saquon Barkley a top-five NFL draft pick, Trace McSorley one of the best quarterbacks in college football, and a juggernaut, lightning-quick offense that jumped from 42nd to 19th from 2016 to 2017, and ranked 12th against conference in touchdowns.
Moorhead immediately comes across as a pretty affable guy – something that we’ll find interesting how this translates to the cowbells and stress that comes with a SEC job. It might not be his first job (before he got the PSU job he was the head coach at Fordham).
Anyway, this season the SEC Media types project MSU to be the third-best team in the SEC West. But will they threaten the Auburns and Alabamas to be even better than that?
OFFENSE
As we may have mentioned a little bit, Joe Moorhead’s good at firing up his offense. And while last year his weapon was McSorley, this year’s weapon is as good on the ground as in the air too in Nick Fitzgerald. But while McSorley’s been nicknamed as a magician making plays from nothing, Fitzgerald’s your Ben Roethlisberger-type who can smash his way through defensive lines. Oh, and he’s got a cannon of an arm to boot, too. Before he was injured against Ole Miss, he passed for 1,782 yards, 15 TDs and 11 INTs and rushed for 984 yards and 14 more.
The great thing for Fitzgerald and Moorhead is that 9 offensive players and 8 defensive players will come back to Starkville. This will include RB Aeris Williams, who ran for 1,106 yards and 6 TDs. However, any idea Moorhead has of hitting big-time wide receivers seems to have fallen a little out of the way after Reggie Todd was suspended for the whole season after he was arrested for simple battery, although Jesse Jackson, Jordan Thomas and Deddrick Thomas will lead the way. But make no mistakes – this will be a run-first offense.
Helping the run-first offense will be an experienced O-Line, although there will be a huge gap to fill now that Martinas Rankin has gone to the NFL. 6-8 monster Greg Eiland will be expected to fill Rankin’s place.
DEFENSE
Last U star Chauncey Rivers has arrived on campus a monster JUCO DE and if he stays on the right side of ‘good’ academically eligible, then he’ll be another fascinating piece to a deep DE rotation that includes Marquiss Spencer, Kobe Jones and Fletcher Adams.
Secondary-wise, defensive backs Mark McLaurin and Jonathan Abram can both PLAY, but our question is this: If McLaurin is left alone, how will the rest of the secondary cope with the pressure? Cameron Dantzler will try to answer.
SCHEDULE
Sept. 1 Stephen F. Austin
Sept. 8 at Kansas State
Sept. 15 Louisiana-Lafayette
Sept. 22 at Kentucky
Sept. 29 Florida
Oct. 6 Auburn
Oct. 13 OPEN DATE
Oct. 20 at LSU
Oct. 27 Texas A&M
Nov. 3 Louisiana Tech
Nov. 10 at Alabama
Nov. 17 Arkansas
Nov. 22 at Ole Miss
It’s probable that Mississippi State will come out of the blocks with five straight wins over Stephen F Austin, Kansas State, Louisiaina-Lafayette, Kentucky and Florida. They’ll certainly be favoured. We think they’ll lose their next two games against Auburn and at LSU, and then beat Texas A&M to become bowl-eligible and then Louisiana Tech to continue the run. They will then lose at Alabama by two touchdowns before bouncing back for back-to-back wins over Arkansas and in the all-important Egg Bowl.
PREDICTION: 9-3. A strong start to Joe Moorhead’s first season.