Let's look at some of the major hires that year:

Scott Frost - 15-29 at Nebraska - BUST
Jimbo Fisher - 34-14 at A&M - good, but not for the $ he's getting
Chip Kelly - 17-25 at UCLA, finally got a winning record in year 4 - 7-4 - never would consider MSU
Mario Cristobal - 34-12 at Oregon - never would consider coming to MSU
Willie Taggert - 9-12 at FSU - disaster hire and fired in 2.
Chad Morris - 4-18 at Arkansas - disaster hire and fired in 2.
Kevin Sumlin - 9-20 at Arizona - disaster hire and fired in 3.
Jeremy Pruitt - 16-19 at Tenn - bad hire and fired in 3 years.
Steve Campbell - 9-26 at South Alabama - fired in 3 years.
Billy Napier - 38-12 at La La - would have been seen as a joke of a hire at the time.
Sonny Dykes - 30-17 at SMU - could make an argument that he would have been a good hire at State - but would have had a big adjustment to his offense just like Leach.
Josh Heupel - went 28-8 at UCF and 6-5 at UT - would he have worked at MSU?

Dykes and Heupel are really the only two who might of considered an MSU offer who turned out as strong hires. Moorhead was seen as an A hire by MSU amongst these moves. Hiring a coach is a crap shoot.