STARKVILLE — While the rumors regarding Mississippi State football coach Joe Moorhead and the vacant head coaching job at Rutgers have begun to heat up of late, those within the walls of the Bulldog program are not concerned.
Speaking with the media Tuesday, a number of players were asked about Moorhead’s status with MSU and what he has said regarding the rumors.
“It’s funny to him if anything,” freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader said. “He’s not leaving an SEC West program, and he’s told me that multiple times. ‘We’re going to win an SEC championship here’ — that’s his message to me.”
“There’s always going to be outside noise — that’s just the world we live in these days,” junior running back Kylin Hill added. “I’m not too focused on that; nobody is too focused on that. He’s coaching while he’s still here. Everybody loves the man; nobody is worried about it at all.”
Shrader and Hill’s comments come just days after both Moorhead and MSU athletic director John Cohen were pressed on the rumors while appearing on The Paul Finebaum Show on Friday.
Finebaum asked Moorhead and Cohen about a New Jersey Advance Media report that named MSU’s head coach as a top candidate for the job according to folks familiar with the process.
“It’s not something that is under consideration,” Moorhead said Friday. “My focus is here at Mississippi State. This is where we want to be and what we want to do.”
Cohen was more combative with Finebaum during the latter stages of the show when questioned on the Moorhead-to-Rutgers saga.
“Let me get this right, Paul, you’re saying because something is getting reported, something is going on?” Cohen said. “We live in different worlds, Paul. I hear things from all over the place.”
While Moorhead is still under contract for the next three seasons, the Rutgers opening does make some geographic sense for the Pittsburgh native.
After spending four years as the head coach at Fordham — his alma mater — he served as the offensive coordinator at Penn State for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Prior to Fordham, Moorhead worked as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UConn from 2009-2011. He was also a graduate assistant at Pitt during the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
That said, MSU now shifts gears to a Saturday road contest against 4-3 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. The Bulldogs have won three straight meetings with the Aggies, including last season’s 28-13 win in Starkville. Kickoff at Kyle Field is scheduled for 11 a.m. Central.
“The team is excited; the coaching staff is excited,” Moorhead said Monday during his weekly press conference. “This is a chance to go on the road to a place that I have never been and work to get our second SEC win and get this thing rolling in the right direction.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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