Mississippi State fires Moorhead
School says it is about more than wins, losses
Mississippi State fired Joe Moorhead Friday after just two seasons, making the unusual decision to dismiss a coach after a bowl game.
The Bulldogs went 14-12 under Moorhead, a Pittsburgh native who was previously the offensive coordinator at Penn State. He was hired after the 2017 season when Dan Mullen left Mississippi State for Florida.
This season, Mississippi State (6-7) made it to the postseason with a onepoint victory against rival Mississippi in the regular-season finale. The Bulldogs then lost, 38-28, to Louisville in the Music City Bowl.
“In this case, it goes a little bit beyond just wins and losses, although I want to state for sure that wins and losses matter,” athletic director John Cohen said. “There were some other issues at stake that we had to consider.”
The firing comes four days after the Music City Bowl loss. Leading up to that game, there were reports of a postpractice fight between freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader and starting linebacker Willie Gay that left Shrader injured.
Moorhead didn’t confirm a fight or details of Shrader’s injury, but did say before the bowl game that the two players had spoken to each other and the issue was addressed internally. Shrader had been slated to start, but did not play against Louisville.
Penn State
Coach James Franklin announced that he hired Phil Trautwein to replace Matt Limegrover as his team’s offensive line coach. Trautwein hails from Voorhees, N.J., and spent the past two seasons as the offensive line coach at Boston College.
Ohio State
Record-setting defensive end Chase Young is leaving Ohio State early to enter the NFL draft. The junior Heisman Trophy finalist made the announcement on Twitter. Young led the nation in sacks with 16.5, also the best in school history.
Wisconsin
Junior running back Jonathan Taylor is headed to the NFL. The two-time Doak
Walker Award winner and two-time unanimous first-team All-American finished his college career with 6,174 yards rushing, the most by any player in FBS history through their junior season. Taylor also had 55 total touchdowns in his three seasons.
California
Longtime NFL assistant Bill Musgrave was hired to become the new offensive coordinator at California. Musgrave has more than two decades of coaching experience in college and the pros and has spent 13 seasons as an offensive coordinator. His only college coaching job came in 2001-02 when he was offensive coordinator at Virginia.
Kentucky
Houston Hogg, one of four African-American players at Kentucky who helped break the Southeastern Conference color line in the late 1960s, died. He was 71.
Elsewhere
Ohio quarterback Nathan Rourke (from Ontario) who is projected to be the top quarterback taken in the Canadian Football League draft this spring, accounted for 231 yards of offense and ran for a touchdown to help Ohio beat Nevada (7-6), 30-21, in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, Idaho. Ohio (7-6) rebounded from a 1-3 start for its fifth consecutive winning season under coach Frank Solich. The 75-year-old former Nebraska coach received a twoyear contract extension this week . ... Georgia running back D’Andre Swift, the team’s leading rusher for two seasons, is entering the NFL draft, as is Michigan center Cesar Ruiz. Ruiz was named to the watch list for the 2019 Rimington Trophy and Outland Trophy. Washington running back Salvon Ahmed, who ran for 1,020 yards and 11 touchdowns this season, also is headed for the draft.