STARKVILLE — Two offensive line coaches? In this economy?
It might be unusual, but Mississippi State football coach Zach Arnett saw the chance to double up on the Bulldogs’ O-line and ran with it.
Arnett hired Will Friend from Auburn as MSU’s new offensive line coach, while Syracuse OL coach and run game coordinator Mike Schmidt comes to Starkville as the Bulldogs’ tight ends and tackles coach.
It’s a departure from what Mississippi State has typically done, but Arnett said Wednesday it’s part of “a growing trend.”
“I’ve always wondered, if you have five offensive linemen out there and a tight end, and one guy is coaching five of them and one guy is coaching one, that doesn’t seem like the most efficient use of manpower and knowledge,” Arnett said.
Instead, Schmidt will assist Friend by coaching the Bulldogs’ offensive tackles as well as a brand new position in tight ends, of which MSU had zero for the past three seasons under the late Mike Leach.
“I think there’s going to be the challenge on offense,” Schmidt said Feb. 1, hours after the Bulldogs signed Georgia transfer Ryland Goede. “We found one today, and we’re continuing to try to build that room throughout the guys on the roster. That’ll be probably a little fluid during the spring here, and obviously we’re going to keep our eyes open for our options on guys outside the program as well.”
Schmidt was plenty familiar to Arnett during the hiring process, as the Bulldogs’ new assistant spent 12 seasons on staff at San Diego State — from 2009-2011 as a graduate assistant and from 2012-2020 as offensive line coach.
Arnett was at SDSU from 2011-2019 before leaving for the defensive coordinator job at Syracuse after his ninth and final season with the Aztecs. He lasted just 11 days with the Orange before backing out and accepting the DC position on Leach’s MSU staff instead.
Schmidt said Arnett’s decision to renege played into a delay in announcing his hire on Arnett’s new staff until Jan. 20.
“The funny thing is, that’s probably the reason it took so long to get me out here — because of all the contractual stuff they put in there after that situation happened,” Schmidt said.
Eventually, Schmidt made it to Starkville. He’s still getting acclimated, but he’s ready to make an impact alongside Friend, who was officially hired two weeks prior.
A Mississippi native, Friend is no stranger to Starkville and MSU. He played high school football at Neshoba Central, where his father Chuck was the longtime coach, and came to plenty of camps at Davis Wade Stadium.
Recruiting — primarily in a state Friend knows well — has taken priority during his tenure so far, but Friend said he’s ready to start coaching up his new players soon.
“We’ve been on the road a little bit the first two weeks we’ve been here, but it’s been good,” he said. “To be able to get in a little bit over the next month and get the plan together how we’ll move forward, it’s exciting.”
Friend was the offensive play-caller for an Auburn team that hung 33 points on Mississippi State under interim head coach Cadillac Williams in November.
Arnett, then the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator, said Friend “made my life miserable” trying to game plan for — and it’s nothing new.
“I’ve been on the end of some whippings by his O-line units several times,” Arnett said.
Arnett said he was impressed by the ability of both Friend and Schmidt to identify good offensive linemen — not to mention develop them into NFL players.
While it might not be conventional just yet, the Bulldogs’ new head coach said he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to add both men to his staff.
“The ability to have two Power Five offensive line coaches who can run the ball as well as their units have over the last decade and more, we were going to jump at that opportunity,” Arnett said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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