Is Moorhead gonna work out?

[Indndawg]

No its a horrible hire.

I’m not sure how to do a poll. Just curious where the board is. Yes or no. I’m a firm no.

We better have some new candidates on the rolladex

 

[DawgAmerica]

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.

We are in lockstep in our evaluations of the Moorhead offense year one. I had heard that in-game adjustments were a Moorhead strength but I didnt see evidence of that this year. I also agree about his track record, he has proven he can be successful at a high level. I hope he pulls this together.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

I’m not sure how to do a poll. Just curious where the board is. Yes or no. I’m a firm no.

At this point, camps are already made on the Moorhead situation. One camp is not going to win over the camp on Moorhead. The only thing that will change people's minds now is the next season. It's obvious he isn't going anywhere this off season. If the offense is still terrible next season, a lot more people will be in the he's a dud camp. If the offense looks more capable next year, more people will come around to him. Some will still stay skeptical if the offense doesn't fire on all cylinders. Some will say he still needs more time and more of his players if the offense still looks like garbage next year. Some will blame it blame it all on Thompson or Mayden not being the right QB or Schrader being a freshmen. I'm not sold on Moorhead, he might could prove me wrong next year and I hope he does. I surely don't want this to be rebuild. But right now, that's what it looks like, and so far, It doesn't look promising with on the field offensive results from an offensive genius. recruiting is on par with Mullen. which ever one said he couldn't recruit. so there is that. discipline improvement still an issue. So, he isn't off to a great start. it could have been much worse, but it was less than average. Hopefully it will get better, but just don't think it will based on multiple things this year.

 

[MSUDawgFan86]

Iowa was not a sorry team. They were better than us on offense and not that far behind us in defense. Overall we were about equal.

Iowa wasn’t a good team either. They were a team filled with a bunch of Bum 2 stars. One Of Their best offensive playmakers also sat out. Fitz, Moorhead and the rest of the offense **** down both legs. The defense held them to 199 yards of offense and negative rushing. It’s takes a special kind of **** show on offense to lose a game when your defense does that. We were also favored by 7. Pretty inexcusable loss to a mediocre big 10 team.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

people can make excuses for that game all they want and call Iowa a good team, but we should have blown them out of the water. It's anomaly they beat us have less than 200 yards of offense. You hold someone that low, you should blow them out. Our inability to stick to find an offensive identity all season hampered that from happening.

 

[MSUDawgFan86]

Mullen was 20-15 in one-possession games, but he had a bad stretch in 2016 where we went 0-4 in one-score games.

A few of those became one possession games because he would do stupid **** like take his foot off the gas. 2014 LSU still kinda pisses me off. We could have beat them 41-14 but he had to make sure every backup bum on the team played and almost got us beat.

 

[TNT.sixpack]

I’m not sure how to do a poll. Just curious where the board is. Yes or no. I’m a firm no.

I'm still hung up over his refusal to not once, line Nick up under center. It bit us in the *** at LSU and yet it kept happening. I mean with a 1st and goal (on more than one occasion last year), we went backwards. Each time by running Nick out of the shut gun with a read option where Nick kept the ball. I simply can't get past that. If he can't see a needed adjustment there that would help, then I just can't get on board with anything else. I can't. I know Nick was in control of who got the carry, but everyone in the damn stadium knew he'd keep the ball. I knew it, our team knew it, the opposition knew it. It's been like that for 2 years. Nick ALWAYS keeps the ball. So why not just line him up behind center and have lean forward for the go ahead first down or touch down?

 

[Drebin]

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.

Check his OL recruiting and get back to me. That is a huge improvement.

We lost out on in state talent mostly to Bama and Georgia, not Ole Miss. That's going to happen most years unfortunately unless we get over the hump and start competing for championships.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

may have trade off's in other areas he doesn't recruit as well. right now i'm seeing a trade off in cb's, linebackers, running backs. It's really about fitting the needs. it is nice to see us signing in state offensive talent. Looks like we got lucky Florida State was terrible, but i'm glad we picked him up rather than Florida or Ole Miss.

recruiting does make a big difference in the talent level you have to work with; however, i'm more interested in what he can do with the recruits when they get on campus. Doesn't mean **** to get them on campus if you can't develop them in to better players. see our neighbors to the north that like recruiting championships. many of them are the exact same players when they left campus that they were when they got on campus.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

yep, that's my thought also on this. hard to believe it can be sustained without either cheating or being a program like bama.

 

[sandwolf.sixpack]

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.

This. Except for the part about blaming Fitz....that **** was completely on Moorhead. Those calls on the goal line killed any hope that I had left about him being successful.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I’m not sure how to do a poll. Just curious where the board is. Yes or no. I’m a firm no.

View attachment 12160

 

[QuadrupleOption]

Iowa wasn’t a good team either. They were a team filled with a bunch of Bum 2 stars. One Of Their best offensive playmakers also sat out. Fitz, Moorhead and the rest of the offense **** down both legs. The defense held them to 199 yards of offense and negative rushing. It’s takes a special kind of **** show on offense to lose a game when your defense does that. We were also favored by 7. Pretty inexcusable loss to a mediocre big 10 team.

We managed to do it in 2012 against Northwestern. I don't know that Moorhead is the answer but it's not like we haven't **** the bed against a lot of opponents over the years.

 

[o_dawgnabit]

He's an offensive guru that can't field an offense against an average to good defense. I have doubts....

 

[Sam Adams Dog]

He’ll be fine, especially if he doesnt get anywhere near the doom and gloom freaks on this thread. Geeez.

 

[GhostOfJackie]

I'm not bashing you for asking the question. I have been, and still struggle with the answer to this question.

The answer is "I don't know and ask me after next season".

 

[Go Budaw]

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.

Agree about him having to reach out further to get his QB’s, but think about this...how many QB’s did Mullen bring in that he was successful with? In 9 years, he brought in a grand total of TWO guys. Dak and Fitz. That’s it. Lee, Relf, and Russell were all Croom holdovers. Favre and Williams were a couple of in-state QB’s we signed that didn’t pan out. Sandberg never made it. Tiano and Staley never panned out. But landing Dak and Fitz were where he made his money and cemented his legacy as QB guru. And guess what? Both of the actual successful guys were out of state guys too....so Mullen’s offense that he made hay with had the same inherent recruiting risks as what Moorhead’s does for recruiting QB’s. I don’t think Moorhead has some Herculean task....just needs to be able to hit on a couple of QB’s that fit his system and he’ll be able to have a successful 7-10 years here.

As far as the reads are concerned, QB is the one that has the most difficulty (obviously).. The WR’s and RB’s know what route they are running simply based on alignment with each play call. Two options on most calls for each, maybe 3 for some. Not that difficult. The QB has to know what all 5 positions are doing with each call based on the alignment. That’s a lot to process. Moorhead just has to do as good of a job of finding guys that can process the play assignments as Mullen did with finding QB’s who could run. Shrader seems to fit the bill. The thing is that EVERYTHING about this offense depends on how well a QB can manage things between his ears. That was a relatively unimportant factor of our previous offense.

 

[campshelbydog842003]

Check his OL recruiting and get back to me. That is a huge improvement.

We lost out on in state talent mostly to Bama and Georgia, not Ole Miss. That's going to happen most years unfortunately unless we get over the hump and start competing for championships.

Check his overall recruiting and get back to me. He's going to finish with a class similarly ranked to a decent Mullen year in a year where we have more in state talent to chose from than ever. He works harder than Mullen at recruiting, but so far the results are not any better. That's a fact. Cherry pick a position group if you want to, but overall, it's the same.

 

[HumpDawgy]

If you remember back to after he was hired, he didn't come in and coach the team for the bowl game. This bothered me. His reason was because he didn't earn the bowl game and it was the player's reward for a good season. That all sounds good, but this team needed leadership and direction after most of the staff abandoned them (thank you Coach Knox, many 17s to the rest of them). I didn't see an issue with Moorhead coming in and helping direct this team at that time. That was the first Moorhead decision that bothered me.

Whatever the case, he needs to figure it out. His offense was a liability last year and with all those stud RBs, running QB, and road grading OL..........it should not have been. Good coaches adjust to their talent and he did not. He had a whole spring and whole season to figure it out and he rarely did.

I don't believe KT has the arm needed to make the throws down field with the necessary accuracy. He dang sure doesn't have the WRs to go up and catch them and until Cross gets some snaps under his belt, he will not have an OL that can hold off a pass rush long enough to throw deep. If KT wins the job this spring, Moorhead will need to adjust to KT's strengths until Shrader or whoever is ready. And get the ball to Kylin Hill as much as he can handle. I just don't have faith Moorhead will do this, so I don't expect much next season.

Defense should be solid next season and fun to watch.

 

[bocephus.sixpack]

yes, only if our own fanbase will stop shooting him in the back.

I’m not sure how to do a poll. Just curious where the board is. Yes or no. I’m a firm no.

the MSU fan base is so quick to judge all of our coaches, either head or assistant. And when they turn on you your next step as that person is to make sure your group or your team has a great game and then and only then will you be praised and accepted back in the fold. So, just watch and listen to the fan base and you will get your answer.

 

[Chris Mannix]

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.

Agree with most of what you said. All I kept hearing was this guy was an offensive guru. A guru doesn’t get overwhelmed. Moorehead looked lost at times, as a high school head coach I have never been that lost against any opponent. A guru does not force a system on his kids, he finds their strengths and plays to them.

The real question here, and the real point of this post should be to ask who is next? The question is no longer will Moorehead work out, because he won’t. The question is who will be the next coach at state?

I do not want another guru with limited heading coaching experience, Fordham. Find someone that has been a head coach before and can handle when teams make in game adjustments, as sec teams are known to do. Not just to be a dick, but I honestly believe my high school offensive staff could have handled adjustments and schemes better that Moorhead and the boys.

 

[patdog]

There are legitimate things to criticize Moorhead for, but not coaching the bowl game isn't one of them.

 

[msstate7]

There are legitimate things to criticize Moorhead for, but not coaching the bowl game isn't one of them.

Yep. I'm glad he didn't... I would've hated to lose to sirmon**

 

[maroonmania]

Agree about him having to reach out further to get his QB’s, but think about this...how many QB’s did Mullen bring in that he was successful with? In 9 years, he brought in a grand total of TWO guys. Dak and Fitz. That’s it. Lee, Relf, and Russell were all Croom holdovers. Favre and Williams were a couple of in-state QB’s we signed that didn’t pan out. Sandberg never made it. Tiano and Staley never panned out. But landing Dak and Fitz were where he made his money and cemented his legacy as QB guru. And guess what? Both of the actual successful guys were out of state guys too....so Mullen’s offense that he made hay with had the same inherent recruiting risks as what Moorhead’s does for recruiting QB’s. I don’t think Moorhead has some Herculean task....just needs to be able to hit on a couple of QB’s that fit his system and he’ll be able to have a successful 7-10 years here.

As far as the reads are concerned, QB is the one that has the most difficulty (obviously).. The WR’s and RB’s know what route they are running simply based on alignment with each play call. Two options on most calls for each, maybe 3 for some. Not that difficult. The QB has to know what all 5 positions are doing with each call based on the alignment. That’s a lot to process. Moorhead just has to do as good of a job of finding guys that can process the play assignments as Mullen did with finding QB’s who could run. Shrader seems to fit the bill. The thing is that EVERYTHING about this offense depends on how well a QB can manage things between his ears. That was a relatively unimportant factor of our previous offense.

Well, Relf, Russell, Prescott and Fitz basically span the entire Mullen tenure. You can only play one QB at a time. That said, Mullen did have a string of QBs signing and/or committing at the end of his time here including Thompson, Mayden, Maryland QB that decommitted?.