STARKVILLE — As Joe Moorhead walked into the press conference room in the underbelly of Davis Wade Stadium on Thursday, he carried with him the fruits of his labor.
With a black visor perched on his head and the shimmering Golden Egg trophy under his arm, Moorhead settled behind the podium and delivered his sermon.
“In 21 years of coaching and a bunch more as a player, I don’t know that I’ve entered a season and gone through a season with as much adversity as we’ve had to face,” he said. “From having 10 guys out to start the season — some of our best players — going through a quarterback rotation and having a ton of injures — we had some ups and downs but the kids just kept fighting.”
As rumors swirled that his tenure was in doubt regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s Egg Bowl against in-state rival Ole Miss, Moorhead was fiery and direct in his address toward the rumblings.
“Who was it, Bob from Bogue Chitto?” he said in reference to a crack he made regarding outside noise earlier this season.
“No one wants more success than me and no one wants a win as quickly to get to a championship — I get that part,” Moorhead added. “I also have a sense of logic and reason and that things take time and we want to be like the 1998 and 1999 teams because they were the last ones to win an SEC championship. And we’ll get there.”
With Thursday’s victory, the Bulldogs conclude the regular season 6-6 and 3-5 in SEC play. Moorhead also now sits at 14-11, is the second MSU head coach to win his first two Egg Bowls since World War II — joining current Florida head coach Dan Mullen — and became the second coach in program history to reach bowl eligibility in his first two seasons in Starkville.
And while the numbers stand among the elite in school history, detractors have long pointed to the ebbs and flows of the 2019 team as an indictment on Moorhead and his staff. In games against Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M and Auburn — the top four teams in the SEC West this season — the Bulldogs were outscored 179-73.
Further, MSU recorded just one win against a Power Five conference foe with a winning record through Thursday. Despite that, Moorhead remained optimistic of the state of his squad postgame.
“This narrative gets created by people who aren’t involved in the decision-making process,” Moorhead said. “And I understand at times this year we didn’t play like we needed to play. I mean I talked about the suspensions and the injuries and all those things that go into it and playing the third-toughest schedule in the country and every team that we’ve lost to is bowl-eligible.”
Moorhead’s players were also questioned on the swirling rumors and how they view their head coach — doubling down on the former Penn State offensive coordinator’s fit in Starkville.
“I feel like there’s no coach in the country who loves their players like coach Moorhead does,” junior running back and Columbus native Kylin Hill said. “… He’s the guy for the job.”
“Hats off to Joe Moorhead — he’s a great coach and he led us in the right direction,” senior defensive end Chauncey Rivers added. “He taught me how to be a leader, how to take control of this team, how to be a man. So at the end of the day, I respect coach Moorhead.”
With a gaggle of family members following him into the side door of the press conference room, Moorhead disappeared into the hallway one final time just before 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
As the Egg Bowl trophy sat glistening on the table at the front of the room, the night concluded. And whether it be Moorhead’s final time at Davis Wade Stadium or not, he made his case clear — he’s not going anywhere willingly.
“Everyone is coaching for their job every day,” he said. “That’s part of this profession. I get it. To me, that aspect of it didn’t faze me at all because there was no inclination outside of these rumors and innuendo that that was even the case. So it was business as usual this week.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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