Joe Moorhead is now the bright spotlight of the SEC.
Three years ago as the head coach at Fordham, Joe Moorhead addressed a small smattering of reporters at Patriot League Media Days at the Green Pond County Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Wednesday, however, was a much different story as Moorhead stood on stage at the College Football Hall of Fame in front of hundreds of media personalities and millions watching live on television as the new head coach for Mississippi State at SEC Media Days.
“Certainly this is a little larger in scope and significance,” Moorhead said.
Moorhead, who is the son of a steel mill worker from Pittsburgh, intends to bring that same blue-collar work ethic and integrity he was raised with and instill it into his program with the ultimate goal of returning to Atlanta at the end of the regular season to play for the SEC Championship.
Moorhead inherited an experienced and talented roster from Dan Mullen and believes the pieces are in place to win right away. But instead of bragging about what all can be accomplished during the preseason, Moorhead is content with letting the season's results speak for itself.
“We want our actions to reflect our goals,” Moorhead said. “So it's not about what I say we're going to do. It's about what we're going to do because well done is better than well said.”
Moorhead is one of six head coaches featured in new role within the conference this year and may have the most potential to attain immediate success.
“The opportunity we have here at Mississippi State is one that we're expected to play very well this season,” Moorhead said. “I can't speak for the other coaches, but I know the opportunity we have here is one that's very exciting.”
So Moorhead and his staff went to work in the spring installing a new offensive and defensive playbook. The offense will involve the tight end more and include more of a vertical passing element while the defense is converting back to a 4-3 base after running out of a 3-4 look the past two years.
“I felt very, very good where we were coming out of spring ball,” Moorhead said. “As the saying goes, you can't expect a harvest in the fall if you haven't planted in the spring. I think we definitely planted seeds for success during spring ball.”
Moorhead will field a Bulldog team that finished 9-4 last season and brings back 17 starters and 49 letterwinners. MSU's wealth of experience has a handful of experts picking the Bulldogs as a potential darkhorse candidate to contend for the SEC West title this season.
“Certainly you look at the preseason polls and what people said about our team, because we have a lot of starters returning and a lot of production coming back, it's probably elevated the level of expectation for us, which is fine, because no one is going to have higher expectations than us,” Moorhead said.
