Todd4State
11-29-2017, 05:14 AM
I go to the games and travel several hours when I do so- which means that a lot of times I'm not as in tune with what's going on around the rest of the country in football. So, I had not heard of Joe Moorehead literally until yesterday. But after I heard that he was a candidate I looked him up and was to my surprise completely blown away. As you saw in my post last night- the guy is very obviously a genius when it comes to football. There were a lot of good candidates and I didn't really have my heart set on anyone in particular- but after reading about Moorehead he became my favorite right away. On the offensive side of the ball, I think he will be an upgrade to Dan. And Dan was good. I like the fact that his passing system is based off of the Bill Walsh West Coast Offense. Now, I know West Coast Offense is a bad word around MSU for obvious reasons- but the truth of the matter is most passing systems are based off of either Bill Walsh or Don Coryell's passing systems- even Dan's. Basically with Bill Walsh's system it is based off of short high percentage throws to stretch the field horizontally. Having heard Moorehead speak, he stressed that he wanted to not only stretch the field horizontally but also vertically as well- which made me VERY happy and excited to hear. We are going to attack defenses vertically- some.
Now that I have scarred everyone for life, the rest of his offense is spread oriented. But based on what I've seen it's a balanced spread. Even though the pass routes may be West Coast, our QB is going to be in the gun and we're going to see a lot of 4-5 WR sets and our running game is going to be the spread option running attack we all are familiar with. There are going to be RPO's. And we'll probably be a little more up tempo than we were under Dan as well. At the end of the day we're going to see a nice balanced attack- but one that is maybe a little different than what people in the SEC are used to seeing. I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch.
I like the fact that he has actual head coaching experience at the collegiate level. It can't be easy to win at Fordham. Moorehead did. He even beat Army when he was there which was a huge win for the Fordham program. I would imagine that because of the level of talent that they typically get, he probably had to coach them up quite a bit. And he turned them into a 9-10 win program. I know some people are worried about him being from the North- but I'm not. If I told you that we just hired a coach that is a Christian and liked to hunt you would probably immediately say "Yeah- he'll fit". We'll that's the kind of guy we just hired. The other thing about having been a head coach is he has recruited before- so he has had to sell a program before. Hopefully he will continue to make Mississippi his focus and build his staff with people that know the area- Looney and Brad Peterson will help immensely with that and I imagine that they would stay. Dan's issue with recruiting wasn't the fact that he was from the North. It was the fact that he didn't like doing it. He didn't like all the drama. Dan wanted guys to show up to Big Dawg Camp, commit, not take anymore visits and be done with it. I think that's why Dan wanted so many guys to graduate early and was a big proponent of the early NSD- so that he didn't have to "babysit"- ie work- to keep guys. We'll see how Moorehead is with that, but I do know that Cohen liked to recruit as a baseball coach. So, Cohen certainly understands the importance of that and I'm sure it was touched on during interviews. But I am curious to hear what Moorehead's philosophy is on that. Dan was also pretty arrogant and he really needed Megan to smooth things over for him. Moorehead seems to be the opposite.
The other thing about recruiting that I think will help a lot is Ole Miss being down and also on probation. When Dan took over Ole Miss had just gone to the Cotton Bowl and a Network that was ready to spring into action. Without question Ole Miss is going to be down for awhile and with that they are going to have to behave or risk repeat violator status. And I don't know how long it will be for, but there is no doubt that they are going to have fewer scholarships to work with as well. Having a big year and winning 8-10 games (or more) is also going to help as well. What I think Ole Miss's probation will do is allow Moorehead time to make connections and learn the lay of the land without having to suffer through an Army AA Game debacle.
The other question I have is about defense and his philosophy on that. I prefer an aggressive defense like Todd Grantham's. I don't know if we will get Don Brown or not- but if Moorehead likes that kind of philosophy then I am good with that. But like recruiting that is something else I am curious to hear about. Special teams as well- I cringed when I heard that Dan was going to coach special teams back in the day. Thank God he finally gave it up. I do hope we also hire a legit special teams coach as well.
I want to hear what Moorehead has to say about recruiting and defense first- but unless a red flag pops up there, my initial reaction is we got a GREAT coach that I think is going to do really well here and I'm excited to see what he does. I'm optimstic that we upgraded at the very least on the offensive side of the ball.
Hail State!
Now that I have scarred everyone for life, the rest of his offense is spread oriented. But based on what I've seen it's a balanced spread. Even though the pass routes may be West Coast, our QB is going to be in the gun and we're going to see a lot of 4-5 WR sets and our running game is going to be the spread option running attack we all are familiar with. There are going to be RPO's. And we'll probably be a little more up tempo than we were under Dan as well. At the end of the day we're going to see a nice balanced attack- but one that is maybe a little different than what people in the SEC are used to seeing. I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch.
I like the fact that he has actual head coaching experience at the collegiate level. It can't be easy to win at Fordham. Moorehead did. He even beat Army when he was there which was a huge win for the Fordham program. I would imagine that because of the level of talent that they typically get, he probably had to coach them up quite a bit. And he turned them into a 9-10 win program. I know some people are worried about him being from the North- but I'm not. If I told you that we just hired a coach that is a Christian and liked to hunt you would probably immediately say "Yeah- he'll fit". We'll that's the kind of guy we just hired. The other thing about having been a head coach is he has recruited before- so he has had to sell a program before. Hopefully he will continue to make Mississippi his focus and build his staff with people that know the area- Looney and Brad Peterson will help immensely with that and I imagine that they would stay. Dan's issue with recruiting wasn't the fact that he was from the North. It was the fact that he didn't like doing it. He didn't like all the drama. Dan wanted guys to show up to Big Dawg Camp, commit, not take anymore visits and be done with it. I think that's why Dan wanted so many guys to graduate early and was a big proponent of the early NSD- so that he didn't have to "babysit"- ie work- to keep guys. We'll see how Moorehead is with that, but I do know that Cohen liked to recruit as a baseball coach. So, Cohen certainly understands the importance of that and I'm sure it was touched on during interviews. But I am curious to hear what Moorehead's philosophy is on that. Dan was also pretty arrogant and he really needed Megan to smooth things over for him. Moorehead seems to be the opposite.
The other thing about recruiting that I think will help a lot is Ole Miss being down and also on probation. When Dan took over Ole Miss had just gone to the Cotton Bowl and a Network that was ready to spring into action. Without question Ole Miss is going to be down for awhile and with that they are going to have to behave or risk repeat violator status. And I don't know how long it will be for, but there is no doubt that they are going to have fewer scholarships to work with as well. Having a big year and winning 8-10 games (or more) is also going to help as well. What I think Ole Miss's probation will do is allow Moorehead time to make connections and learn the lay of the land without having to suffer through an Army AA Game debacle.
The other question I have is about defense and his philosophy on that. I prefer an aggressive defense like Todd Grantham's. I don't know if we will get Don Brown or not- but if Moorehead likes that kind of philosophy then I am good with that. But like recruiting that is something else I am curious to hear about. Special teams as well- I cringed when I heard that Dan was going to coach special teams back in the day. Thank God he finally gave it up. I do hope we also hire a legit special teams coach as well.
I want to hear what Moorehead has to say about recruiting and defense first- but unless a red flag pops up there, my initial reaction is we got a GREAT coach that I think is going to do really well here and I'm excited to see what he does. I'm optimstic that we upgraded at the very least on the offensive side of the ball.
Hail State!