New Coach Option

[BIGRUBIGDBIGredmachine]

I posted this on the paid board, but was curious to reach out to more people and hear their thoughts.

Amid the endless Greg Schiano threads, I notice many people who say they don't want Greg, but want somebody else. When challenged on other viable options, they simply fail to come up with a realistic answer. While I wouldn't be upset if Greg came back to Rutgers in any way, or if a guy like Butch Jones was hired, I wouldn't mind. Names like Lance Leipold and Phil Longo just don't do it for me. I know that everyone wants a proven, successful P5 head coach, and everyone wants someone who is a dynamic recruiter and runs an electric offense.
The only person to me that checks off all of those boxes is Joe Moorhead from Mississippi State. Joe is the best option for Rutgers football.

Joe Moorhead started off his coaching career at Fordham, turning their program around from a 1-10 season, to 6-5 the next year. In the 4 years he coached at Fordham, he compiled a record of 38-13, and went to the FCS Playoffs 3 times.

Fast forward to his next stop, Penn State. Joe was the OC/QB coach at Penn State for the 2016 and 2017 season. During James Franklin's first two years as head coach (and prior to Moorhead's arrival), the Penn State offense averaged 335.3 yards per game in 2014 and 348.4 yards per game in 2015. While learning Moorhead's offensive system during 2016, offensive output at Penn State improved to 432.6 yards per game.

On August 24, 2017, Moorhead was named the No. 1 rising assistant in college football by Sports Illustrated and Yahoo.

At Penn State, Moorhead had a hand in raking in the 20th ranked recruiting class in 2016, the 15th best class in 2017, and the 6th best class in 2018.

Moorhead is known as helping his offenses thrive with the personnel that he is handed, and is known for being more player oriented than system oriented.

Following his successful tenure as the Penn State OC, Moorhead was hired as the head coach of Mississippi State in 2018 after Dan Mullens left to go to Florida. In his first season as Bulldogs' head coach, Moorhead lead the team to an 8-5 record (bowl loss to Iowa), with signature wins over No. 8 Auburn, No. 16 Texas A&M, and at Ole Miss. Mississippi State currently has a 2-1 record in 2019.

The best part about hiring Joe Moorhead is that, HE HAS NO BUYOUT! That's right, $0. He just recently got a contract extension with the school, paying him a salary of $3.05 million a year, which is a number that Rutgers should at the very least match for their next head coach. If we offer $3.5m-4m, I think we would have a serious shot at getting him to leave Starkville.

Moorhead has all of the tools to be successful at Rutgers, and I think his offense combined with his recruiting would be dynamite for this school. Would like to hear your thoughts.

Where do I sign?

 

[Knightmoves]

I like Greg and wouldn't be opposed to him being hired.
But give me a choice between Moorhead and Schiano and I'd take Joe ASAP.
Moorhead was a winner at a lower level and has
coached in the Tri State area making connections with HS programs that will be vital in bringing in the recruits like I feel Schiano could.
The difference is Joe probably is a better gameday coach and has a good chance to
be a builder of programs because of his are connections, HC experience and knowing what it takes to succeed by coaching in strong SEC conference .
He also probably understands what it takes to rebuild a program from being at Penn St, even if he wasn't part of that rebuild.
Discussions about what BOB and Franklin did to move on from the sanctions had to come up, giving him a good idea what he would need to do to make RU FB into a winning team from being a program that's going nowhere but down.

Schiano should be on the list of the better candidates that would come to Rutgers.
But Moorhead would be on the list of who would best if Rutgers could get him.
Schiano , no matter how much I respect what he did, doesn't deserve to be on that one , even if he did a magnificent job the first time in building a winning team at Rutgers

Good post.

The only way that RU has a chance for Moorhead is if we 1) pay the going rate, 2) Joe wants to come back to NY area and 3) he wants to take on the rebuilding job at RU. And 4) he wants to do that with a lack of administrative support at RU and a very tough B1G schedule.

 

[zappaa]

Where do I sign?

In fantasy land

 

[RUdude]

maybe moving back to the NE hood is appealing. .what about the opportunity to play PSU every year?

 

[read option]

Leave Mississippi State for a beat up program with no depth... keep waiting

I wouldn’t leave Miss St for RU. 6-8 wins in the SEC, consistent fan and donor support, great gameday atmosphere, fertile Recruiting territory. RU could be that way but isn’t, therefore I’d stay at Miss St

 

[vkj91]

One, you Guys make it like P5 coaches jump to tower P5 programs on a regular basis. It rarely ever happens.
Second, he’s very happy at MSU and in Mississippi

 

[BoogieKnight]

Where do I sign?

In fantasy land

I respectfully disagree. Urban Meyer is fantasy land. Bob Stoops is fantasy land. Even Mike Leach is fantasy land.

With Moorehead, there is a minuscule amount of precedent. Dan Mullen was a northeast guy (Pennsylvania) coaching at Mississippi State who despite having success there was rumored to be interested in the RU job at one point, depending upon who and what you believe of course. True, RU is more down now than when Mullen allegedly had interest, but Moorehead has a longer and more recent tenure of actually coaching CFB in the northeast than Mullen had. And Mullen allegedly had interest despite Barchi being president and despite our ath dept being run by dumpster fire Julie Hermann. Barchi is now on his way out AND Pat Hobbs has at least shown in a very short time the ability to raise money for multiple modern facilities to be built, several of those specifically for football.

It just comes down to RU’s level of financial commitment to football. Schiano is going to ask for $4M per year. He may accept less in the end, but he’s going to ask for it. Why not go a little above that and try to bring home a successful coach with very strong ties to not just the northeast but northeast college football? If the school is not committed to football success, it won’t make rats *** bit of difference who the head coach is anyway. And sorry to say that includes Saint Greg of Piscataway. He was able to have success relative to RU on a shoestring budget in the “new Big East.” I and many others sincerely doubt he can accomplish that feat in the B1G East. If we are hiring on the cheap again one could argue that either Monken or Leipold is better for the job..

 

[BoogieKnight]

One, you Guys make it like P5 coaches jump to tower P5 programs on a regular basis. It rarely ever happens.
Second, he’s very happy at MSU and in Mississippi

I agree but money and quality of life still talks. He can say all he wants how happy he and his wife are about getting to throw away their snow shovels. I’m not buying it. That place is nothing more than a fun little college town smack dab in the middle of podunk country.

 

[vkj91]

I agree but money and quality of life still talks. He can say all he wants how happy he and his wife are about getting to throw away their snow shovels. I’m not buying it. That place is nothing more than a fun little college town smack dab in the middle of podunk country.

This isn’t me spitballing. By buddy is friends with him. He’s very happy there. Now, I’m not gonna say he doesn’t move for the right price but he isn’t liking or hoping for an out

 

[Knight Shift]

One, you Guys make it like P5 coaches jump to tower P5 programs on a regular basis. It rarely ever happens.
Second, he’s very happy at MSU and in Mississippi

Nobody ever said P5 coaches jump to P5 programs on a regular basis. But it happens. Bret Bielema jumped from Wisconsin to go Arkansas, which was a rebuilding job (that worked out well for him). Willie Taggart jumped from Oregon to go to FSU to be back in Florida (that's not working out very well so far either). Jimbo Fisher left FSU for Texas A&M, but that was for a lot of $$$. If we pony up $7.5 million/year, Moorhead would be all over Rutgers.














That was a joke. . . .

 

[RU4Real]

I agree but money and quality of life still talks. He can say all he wants how happy he and his wife are about getting to throw away their snow shovels. I’m not buying it. That place is nothing more than a fun little college town smack dab in the middle of podunk country.

I would love to get Moor head. But your comments about "podunk country" are baseless. It's actually a pretty nice place, not a whole lot different from central / southern NJ. Not everyone goes into shock if they're not a traffic-choked hour from Manhattan.

 

[Knight Shift]

I would love to get Moor head. But your comments about "podunk country" are baseless. It's actually a pretty nice place, not a whole lot different from central / southern NJ. Not everyone goes into shock if they're not a traffic-choked hour from Manhattan.

You mean one of the two utes did not have it correct?

One other consideration. No pork roll down there.

 

[vkj91]

You mean one of the two utes did not have it correct?

One other consideration. No pork roll down there.

Kind of OT but one of my buddies told me every time Brian Kelly comes to NJ to recruit he has the coaches bring him for Talyor Ham egg and cheese in am and for pizza at lunch

 

[Knight Shift]

Kind of OT but one of my buddies told me every time Brian Kelly comes to NJ to recruit he has the coaches bring him for Talyor Ham egg and cheese in am and for pizza at lunch

Well, then there we have it. Problem solved!!
Offer Brian Kelly whatever he is making now, and as part of his contract, he gets a Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese for breakfast and a pizza for lunch every day.

 

[BoogieKnight]

I agree but money and quality of life still talks. He can say all he wants how happy he and his wife are about getting to throw away their snow shovels. I’m not buying it. That place is nothing more than a fun little college town smack dab in the middle of podunk country.

I would love to get Moor head. But your comments about "podunk country" are baseless. It's actually a pretty nice place, not a whole lot different from central / southern NJ. Not everyone goes into shock if they're not a traffic-choked hour from Manhattan.

I agree. Trust me, I can’t wait to move out of this area (again) and head south. But when this thing was humming circa 2012 was Miss State really a better job than RU? You aren’t even top dog in your own state as Ole Miss gets more notoriety despite on the field results being pretty even historically. And I realize it’s no longer 2012 here and this job is once again a coach killer but we’ve seen the potential it has.

 

[hiwater]

What is that Mississippi $3m translate to in NJ $'s?....$6-7m

Exaggerate much? The overall comparison is not even close to those figures unless you are talking about him sinking his entire salary into a house. Outside of housing the only other cost of living difference is state and local taxes which may add another 5 to 10% to his cost of living. Food cost are similar to a little better here.

Fuel is the same. buying anything else is about the same, but everything that you want in the world is readily available around here where it is not so in Mississippi. I lived in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Mississippi was part of my work territory. Outside of the Gulf coast to 20 miles from the gulf, Mississippi is largely a run down dilapidated state with little amenities.

 

[RU4Real]

You mean one of the two utes did not have it correct?

One other consideration. No pork roll down there.

 

[OldManRiver1]

Exaggerate much? The overall comparison is not even close to those figures unless you are talking about him sinking his entire salary into a house. Outside of housing the only other cost of living difference is state and local taxes which may add another 5 to 10% to his cost of living. Food cost are similar to a little better here.

Fuel is the same. buying anything else is about the same, but everything that you want in the world is readily available around here where it is not so in Mississippi. I lived in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Mississippi was part of my work territory. Outside of the Gulf coast to 20 miles from the gulf, Mississippi is largely a run down dilapidated state with little amenities.

Not by much though...
The Federal Register has nationwide wage indices...
I compared NY @ 1.37 (Middlesex,NJ is 1.2 if you want that, but, we pretend to be NY's team :Sly and Madison, MS @ 0.84...that gave me a factor of 1.63....1.63 X $3M = ~$5M

 

[LevaosLectures]

I wanted him in 2015.

"
Yes Joe Morehead. ..

He was OC for UCONN when they went to the fiesta bowl.

He took a horrible Fordham team and made them one of the better squads in FCS.

Give him a call.

78 LevaosLectures, Sep 13, 2015
"

 

[APKnight]

I overheard at Subway that he hates cowbells.

 

[RU4Real]

Not by much though...
The Federal Register has nationwide wage indices...
I compared NY @ 1.37 (Middlesex,NJ is 1.2 if you want that, but, we pretend to be NY's team :Sly and Madison, MS @ 0.84...that gave me a factor of 1.63....1.63 X $3M = ~$5M

Comparative wages aren't the same thing as comparative cost of living.

People here have more disposable income.