Joe Moorhead’s move late last year from the mountains of Pennsylvania to become Mississippi State’s new head football coach brought him another example of his wife, Jennifer, always being right.
Through Moorhead’s many moves from job to job in his football coaching career, he and his wife have developed a bit of a battle in each move: Joe finds things to throw away, things that don’t need to be packed or unpacked and take up space in the moving trucks; Jennifer likes to keep it all.
One of the primary battles in this move was the snow sleds for their three children: Joe eventually got the sleds in the trash and justified it by telling Jennifer snow sledding requires snow and hills and their new home in Mississippi will have neither. Jennifer ultimately relented.
In Joe’s first day on the road recruiting, “a once every 20 years, once every 25 years,” snow hit the state. As he opened his hotel room window to see it accumulating on the ground, his phone rang. It was Jennifer.
“Even when they’re not right, they’re right,” Moorhead told Columbus Exchange Club members at Lion Hills Center Thursday.
This window into Moorhead’s personal life came as part of a presentation centered on preparing for the 2018 football season. That preparation, he said, comes with high expectations.
“What I want everyone to know: It’s OK for Mississippi State, our fans, our alumni, our students and our players to think about and talk about winning a SEC Championship. I promise you it’s OK, because that’s where our expectation level is,” Moorhead said. “Some people say under-promise and over-deliver. I believe no one rises to low expectations. I’m not going to insult this school, this team, this state or this city by saying ‘good enough’ is good enough.”
Moorhead knows his roster is primed to make that strike now, with quarterback Nick Fitzgerald expected to fully return from his ankle injury in the fall, capable backup Keytaon Thompson behind him and a local 1-2 punch at running back of West Point native Aeris Williams and Columbus native Kylin Hill.
On the other side of the ball, he said “a great amount of attention has been given to our front seven, for great reason.” A defensive line with Montez Sweat, Macon’s Jeffery Simmons, Braxton Hoyett, Gerri Green and a crew nearly 10-deep behind them is backed up by a linebacking corps with All-SEC Freshman Team selection Erroll Thompson, Leo Lewis and Starkville native Willie Gay.
Moorhead knew when he arrived he was inheriting a roster and team that didn’t have too many question marks, but that didn’t keep him from allowing players to introduce more.
“Guys that may have been buried down on the depth chart or may not have had an opportunity for one reason or the other, our kids know the depth chart is written in pencil, it ain’t written in pen,” Moorhead said. “If a kid comes out, no matter how much he’s played or how good he’s done, if someone behind him comes in and does a better job, he’s going to take his place.”
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