JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The job would have been a difficult one, but that was not a factor in the decision. This boils down to a matter of respect for Joe Moorhead.
Mississippi State’s new football coach was not involved in the preparation and will not be involved in gameday operations when No. 24 MSU (8-4) battles Louisville (8-4) in the TaxSlayer Bowl 11 a.m. Saturday (ESPN) at EverBank Field. He has left that entirely to interim staff, led by interim head coach Greg Knox, to show his respect to the team finishing its season — a move that’s not uncommon among coaches in his situation.
“For the most part, I’m trying to be very respectful of the seniors and very respectful of this team because I wasn’t a part of this journey and this is the culmination of their season,” Moorhead said. “I’ve tried to sit in the back, make my observations and make my notes.”
In the bowl seasons that followed the 2014, 2015 and 2016 teams, a total of 13 teams have done what MSU did: selected an interim coach from the preexisting staff for the bowl game before settling on an outside hire as the new coach. Each of those incoming coaches did not coach in the bowl game their new team played in. The same status quo is holding this season: Knox is one of four interim coaches taking over for bowl games with outside successors already in place and all of those successors have not inserted themselves into bowl preparations.
The one exception to that norm is Sonny Dykes at SMU: when Chad Morris left SMU to become Arkansas’ new coach, SMU hired Dykes and immediately announced he would coach the team in the Frisco Bowl. Dykes knew the move was a rare one.
“This is a reward for the seniors and this football team. This team deserves the very best experience we can give them,” Dykes said in his introductory press conference. “The only thing that matters at the end of it all is if you win or lose.”
Dykes’ plan for the job was to learn system the 2017 Mustangs ran and coach the Frisco Bowl with it — all while recruiting a class to the new early signing period and hiring his own staff. He even joked in his introductory press conference that sophomore quarterback Ben Hicks was the only player-coach in the country, given Hicks was going to teach Dykes the system.
Dykes found out just how hard that job is to execute: SMU turned the ball over six times and lost 51-10 to Louisiana Tech as a four-point favorite.
Knox has taken a liking to the way Moorhead has done it.
“He’s visited with some guys because some are hosting recruits, so he’s visited with some of them. He enjoyed just coming out and watching practice, just getting away from everything and being out on the field with them,” Knox said. “It’s been good to have him out there, have him around the staff.”
Moorhead is not alone in that approach: new Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher is not coaching the Aggies in the Belk Bowl, but said he will be an, “observer,” while he balances the recruiting and other duties of taking over the program.
Knox said he and Moorhead have crossed paths a time or two in the office while the team was in Starkville; he expects to speak with Moorhead about the events of bowl game preparation before he leaves.
Knox said Moorhead and some of his new assistant coach hires saw roughly four practices before the team left Starkville and will be in Jacksonville to watch the bowl game. Last week, Moorhead said he wasn’t sure where he was going to watch the game but does not want to be on the sideline to make sure he isn’t in the way.
There must be a part of Moorhead that would love nothing more than to be coaching football right now, but it’s easy to keep a distance when he sees what he will be taking over.
“Sometimes you take a job over and it’s in a state of disrepair and sometimes you take a job over and it’s in pretty good shape. This wasn’t a job where we had to take over, bulldoze the dang house, dig up the foundation, pour the foundation and put the walls back up,” Moorhead said.
“The foundation is down and the walls are up, we just have to make sure we add to it.”
– Report: Moorhead will hire Packers assistant coach: Moorhead’s first offensive staff at MSU could be completed in a few days.
FootballScoop reported Moorhead is saving the title of offensive coordinator for Green Bay Packers receivers coach Luke Getsy. Moorhead already has a quarterbacks coach (Andrew Breiner), running backs coach (Charles Huff), tight ends coach (Mark Hudspeth), and an offensive line coach (Marcus Johnson).
Getsy has been with the Packers since 2014. He started as a quality control coach. He has spent the last two seasons as the team’s wide receivers coach. Getsy has one year of Football Bowl Subdivision coaching experience as Western Michigan’s wide receivers coach in 2013. He also was a graduate assistant for Akron and Pittsburgh.
Getsy played for Moorhead at Akron in 2005. Akron won the Mid-American Conference championship game and Getsy was the MVP.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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