Is Moorhead gonna work out?
- Thread starter triton28
- Start date
Personally I've never been so split down the middle about a coach in my life. I have no idea how to feel about Moorhead. One minute I feel like his offensive scheme is one of those "good things come to those who wait" deals and that the decision making at QB was the main problem last year....then I worry that, as an "offensive guru", he should've been able to simplify the offense and tailor things to our players.
He was awful in year 1. I'll still give him another year before I formulate a final opinion. From the stands, it was difficult to tell sometimes whether it was the coach or the QB
He hasn’t lost to South Alabama at home and 3 out of 4 to Ole Miss yet..... he lost 3 assistant coaches one to Bama, one to the Packers and a third for a head coaching job. He has retained Shoop and Baker on the defensive side...Saban has had around 20 assistants leave over the last 3 seasons. We have one of the better signing classes we have had in a while coming in since 2009...all of this while having one of the lowest paid staffs in the SEC.
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Off the field, hes been everything Mullen wasnt....better recruiting, able to retain a DC, better from a PR standpoint. On the field? Meh. The jury is still out but early results are underwhelming.
I was very excited about the hire. I bought into Moorhead much quicker than I did Mullen. I was particularly sold when he kept being described as extremely confident but not cocky. People who have genuine confidence but can stay humble are rare and tend to be very successful.
I will admit to having concerns about the offensive transition based on watching the YouTube videos of Moorhead analyzing his own offense. He repeatedly said that there wrong reads and difficulties in the first year. I figured that there was going to be a winnable game or two that might slip away due to issues in offensive execution. That said, I was in no way prepared by how bad we would be against good defenses.
I am still a Moorhead fan, but l saw enough this year to give me concerns about his offense in the SEC.
Some quick thoughts on Year 1:
My expectations for year 2;
If we average 4 pts per game in SEC losses again, then the Moorhead era might be very short.
Succeed or not? I don’t know but I do like the offense when its rolling. I hope we get in Year 2 what we expected in Year 1.
I will admit to having concerns about the offensive transition based on watching the YouTube videos of Moorhead analyzing his own offense. He repeatedly said that there wrong reads and difficulties in the first year. I figured that there was going to be a winnable game or two that might slip away due to issues in offensive execution. That said, I was in no way prepared by how bad we would be against good defenses.
I am still a Moorhead fan, but l saw enough this year to give me concerns about his offense in the SEC.
Some quick thoughts on Year 1:
- Lack of discipline - too many penalties, both player conduct penalties and pre-snap penalties. Coaching has to prevent those types mental errors.
- Against the good defenses, it looked to me like the Defense was able to dictate the offensive reads. There was no deception, the defenses knew where the offense was going
- Too many reads – the goal-line stand from Iowa and also by LSU were prime examples. The plays took too long to develop and the defense appeared to know exactly where the ball was going. Sometimes you have just make a decision and run the play – no delay.
- Under-utilized Running Backs – baffled all of us. Again I think the defenses dictated reads and kept the ball out of the RBs hands. The offense has get the ball into the hands of the playmakers!
- Force fitting the offense on the personnel. Say what you will about Mullen, but he is a master at fitting the offense around the personnel, especially the QB. See: Relf, Dak, Nick, and Franks this year. He made them confident and decisive in what they do best. Moorhead didn't do this in year 1, Nick didn’t look confident or decisive much of this year.
My expectations for year 2;
- Moorhead adjusts the offense better to the strength of personnel
- Year 2 jump in understanding and execution by the offense
- More discipline!
- Feed Kylin!
- Improved WR & QB play
If we average 4 pts per game in SEC losses again, then the Moorhead era might be very short.
Succeed or not? I don’t know but I do like the offense when its rolling. I hope we get in Year 2 what we expected in Year 1.
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Better recruiting? We’re about where we always were under Mullen. We are currently 23 in the nation and 10th in the SEC. Here are the last few years.
2018 Nation: 27 SEC: 9 (Can’t give Mullen or JoMo credit for this class)
2017 Nation: 25 SEC : 9
2016 Nation: 28 SEC: 11
2015 Nation: 18 SEC: 8
2014 Nation: 36 SEC: 12
2013 Nation: 24 SEC: 10
We still have time to move up or down, but you can’t say better recruiting when it’s basically the same.
Don’t be a damn moron. You can say Mullen is better than Moorhead in certain areas so far but recruiting isn’t one of them. Moorhead has already shown himself to be a much better recruiter than Mullen. Only a stupid *** would think otherwise
Normal response for you. Data was presented, and you gave nothing to refute it, but insults.
Requiem could've noted the number of miss 4-stars in each year he presented that shows this year is probably worse that it looks...
Miss 4-stars...
2019 - 16
2018 - 4
2017 - 7
2016 - 11
2015 - 7
2014 - 8
2013 - 5
He could've also pointed out that 2013-2016 were years OM was recruiting at their absolute height of bending the rules... this isn't the case anymore
I'm still positive on Moorhead but I do share some of the concerns voiced here.
I believe most of our offensive issues centered around Fitz being a bad fit and frankly being too selfish at times and it really hurt us. Full disclosure, I'm
still a big Fitz fan but he really hurt us in games when he tried to do too much and not let the RB's do what they do. I was also concerned that we didn't utilize Williams the way Mullen did, frankly last year Williams was a better all around back than Hill and could have really helped us win some games if used correctly.
I was very please with how Moorhead let Shoop do his job and I think Moorhead is a great guy and a players coach but this is a big year for Joe.
I believe most of our offensive issues centered around Fitz being a bad fit and frankly being too selfish at times and it really hurt us. Full disclosure, I'm
still a big Fitz fan but he really hurt us in games when he tried to do too much and not let the RB's do what they do. I was also concerned that we didn't utilize Williams the way Mullen did, frankly last year Williams was a better all around back than Hill and could have really helped us win some games if used correctly.
I was very please with how Moorhead let Shoop do his job and I think Moorhead is a great guy and a players coach but this is a big year for Joe.
People keep pounding chest about recruiting class. Hays not in barn yet like most of the big schools who can now target the few they want. Also, this is the best, deepest, in state talent in a long time (possibly ever).
I want to see what next year brings but I think there will be struggles. We take a step back defensively. Depth on dline may be an issue (unless we can flip Young). Can Moorheads offense be consistent and actually produce points against a top defense? Hasn't yet.
I want to see what next year brings but I think there will be struggles. We take a step back defensively. Depth on dline may be an issue (unless we can flip Young). Can Moorheads offense be consistent and actually produce points against a top defense? Hasn't yet.
Not sure but whatever he does...I hope he does it quick. I'd hate for him to do just enough to "hang on" for 6 or 8 years without really accomplishing anything other than becoming a millionaire.
One additional disappointing thing was lack of in game adjustments. I'm still more on the bandwagon than off but only because Moorhead has been successful at every stop he has been at either as a HC (Fordham) or as an assistant (PSU, UConn, etc.). I'll definitely be supportive for at least another season to see where things are headed with the offense. We will still have a very good defense even if not up to this year's level. But if we have another year of a QB whose only read inside the opponent's 5 yard line is a 2 second hesitation followed by a keeper up the gut then I am off the bandwagon. Right now I'm willing to put that on Fitz but no more if it happens again next year. At least with Mullen when we ran the QB he just took the snap and went. This hesitation in the backfield before running, which allows all kinds of defensive penetration, is asinine.
I think a Mullen offense beats a Moorhead offense. You can argue that Moorhead is trying to do his thing with Mullen recruits, but don't forget Mullen was able to take Chris Relf and throttle Michigan. I doubt Moorhead would have been able to do that. Plus I think Mullen would have beaten Iowa in the Outback.
If Moorhead can consistently have us in a bowl, keep OM in their place, and find a way to get us to Atlanta then I'll be satisfied.
If Moorhead can consistently have us in a bowl, keep OM in their place, and find a way to get us to Atlanta then I'll be satisfied.
I think he will be fine if we don't abandon him. He had to run something that was a hybrid on offense this year because we could not make his system work with our personnel. There are going to be more growing pains for sure. MSU people are notoriously negative with growing pains. We tend to make a coach's position untenable pretty quick. We are already doing it with Moorhead and we haven't even seen what he really wants to do yet.
Agree. Unfortunately, on the field is what counts. And, considering what he inherited, he underperformed. Hopefully, he'll learn from his mistakes and get better.
No. It will be a long 3 years watching him throw faux alley oops while we get unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
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He completely lost me against Iowa. I was sorta back in his boat at the end of the season but that inexplicable **** show against a Bum *** Iowa team broke me. I heap about 50% of the blame on Fitzgerald for the season and the other 50% on Moorhead. Him not using the running backs more pissed me off. If you know Fitz is a **** decision maker don’t have him making advanced decisions.
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I think this is the one thing we know at this point is that he's not going to make in game adjustments. That's bad but not necessarily fatal. If his system is good enough, and they do a better job of prepping before hand, they can avoid things like UK, where we let one guy just completely disrupt our offense. If they had done a good job ahead of time, they would have known to have some help ready.
But it does mean we are going to have some inexplicable losses each year where we get surprised by something the defense does and we just watch it destroy us all game. Maybe this can be minimized by getting the right assistant on the offensive side of the ball that can help on that.
No question we should have won that game.
But it's things like having 1st and goal at the one yard line and choosing not to play Grown *** Man football and pound it in there that has me question just how much of an offensive genius Moorhead truly is. It all looks great on the drawing board, and sounds great in theory. Just didn't see it in practice during the season.
Let this sink in: We had the #1 defense in the country last year and finished the season unranked.
But it's things like having 1st and goal at the one yard line and choosing not to play Grown *** Man football and pound it in there that has me question just how much of an offensive genius Moorhead truly is. It all looks great on the drawing board, and sounds great in theory. Just didn't see it in practice during the season.
Let this sink in: We had the #1 defense in the country last year and finished the season unranked.
I'm starting to lean no.
I try to convince myself that he just needs to get his players in place. And our offense generally looked ok in the games we won. But the way we lost those 5 games give me a lot of doubt that he can be successful long term.
In our losses we had the lowest ypg, lowest yards per play, and by far the lowest points per game than any other SEC team did in their losses. We scored 2 redzone TDs in the 5 games we lost. When our offense didn't work, it wasn't that we simply struggled --- we looked completely inept. Some of those losses were still competitive thanks to having the #1 defense in the nation. But we're not going to have two 1st round draft picks to boost our defense every year. And I don't see Moorhead recruiting well enough to overcome the problems we had this year on offense.
Hope I'm wrong and we can figure out how to compete against good defenses next year.
I try to convince myself that he just needs to get his players in place. And our offense generally looked ok in the games we won. But the way we lost those 5 games give me a lot of doubt that he can be successful long term.
In our losses we had the lowest ypg, lowest yards per play, and by far the lowest points per game than any other SEC team did in their losses. We scored 2 redzone TDs in the 5 games we lost. When our offense didn't work, it wasn't that we simply struggled --- we looked completely inept. Some of those losses were still competitive thanks to having the #1 defense in the nation. But we're not going to have two 1st round draft picks to boost our defense every year. And I don't see Moorhead recruiting well enough to overcome the problems we had this year on offense.
Hope I'm wrong and we can figure out how to compete against good defenses next year.
Well hell we need to fire his *** right now and see if Hud still has his place here*****
I want Joe to be the most successful coach we've ever had but I don't see it working out. He looks lost at times and his inability to make adjustments is a major issue. I have no confidence in him engineering a comeback or winning a close game. Regarding recruiting, its great that he might be a better recruiter than Dan but I don't care about recruiting championships, I'd rather win games. If Joe doesn't work out I don't have much faith in Cohen making the next hire, the real mistake may have been promoting a baseball coach to AD.
I don’t think he’s a better recruiter. I’m starting to think he may be a worse recruiter. The most in state talent in the history of our state with an in state rival that is in the worst shape it’s been in for quite a while and he is staring a normal Mullen class right in the face.
Two things really irk me about Moorhead:
1. Takes way too long to get the play in.
2. Will not let the QB get under center for a QB sneak.
My concern is that we don't recruit all that well out of State and I believe, in MS, there are probably a lot more players that fit the Mullen offense (run based spread) than the Moorhead offense (RPO with more downfield passing). Way more MS HS are run based with not a lot of reads involved. I'm concerned that Joe is going to have to get a lot of his offensive players from other places to be successful and I'm not sure how well we can do that. Garret Schrader is a good start though.
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