Despite not even lasting a full season, it was no surprise that Mississippi State released Zach Arnett on Monday. As we reported a week ago, new athletic director Zac Selmon wasn’t happy with the direction things were going and wanted his own man to run the football program. Mississippi State is obviously not as big a brand as Texas A&M, which fired Jimbo Fisher about 24 hours before Arnett was traded, but we think the Bulldogs will have some very good options and may be in a better position: They just can Hire a really good football coach instead of finding someone who has to lead them to a national title or bust.
Power 5 head coaches to watch
Lance Leipold is a factor in a number of open coaching searches this fall, and we’ve heard Mississippi State would also be interested. When he arrived in Lawrence, Kansas was the dismal program in college football, with no more than three wins in a season in the last 11 years, and by his second year in charge, Leipold had the Jayhawks ranked in the top 20. The 59th -year-old from Wisconsin won six Division III national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater and then took Buffalo to the top 25. Our guess is that if Leipold was willing to leave Kansas, he probably wouldn’t do so for another program, which is running the season in the bottom third of its league in terms of resources.
Group of 5 head coaches
Tulane’s Willie Fritz is a proven winner and did a great job not far away at Tulane. He has posted double-digit win seasons at all levels of college football, including 97-47 at Central Missouri, 40-15 at Sam Houston and 17-7 at Georgia Southern. Last year, the 63-year-old led the Green Wave to a 12-2 season that included a Cotton Bowl win over USC and a No. 9 ranking in the AP poll. This year they are 9-1, giving him a 21-3 record over the last two seasons. This would feel like a very secure and good job.
Troy’s Jon Sumrall is possibly the hottest name in the Group of 5. The 41-year-old Sumrall was great in Troy. He has a 20-4 record, including last year’s 12-2 debut and top-20 finish at a place that hadn’t won more than five games in the last three years. He is an excellent recruiter with a great ability to connect with people and an impressive presence. As mentioned in the Texas A&M coaching search story, we believe the former Ole Miss and Kentucky assistant will soon be a major SEC head coach.
One big thing we heard from coaches who spent time in Starkville is that you really have to be different if you want to be successful at Mississippi State. A candidate who could be an ideal fit in this regard is Jamey Chadwell of Liberty. He has a creative offense and helped Liberty go 10-0 in his debut season after signing on loan from Coastal Carolina. The 45-year-old former East Tennessee State QB has a 40-6 record over the last four years. He probably should have gotten a job in the SEC a few years ago, but was passed over because he and his staff had no Power 5 experience. He’s paid really well by Liberty, but we don’t think he could turn down a job with the SEC. Expect him to get a lot of attention for this.
Rhett Lashlee from SMU got off to a great start with the acquisition of Sonny Dykes; The Mustangs are now 8-2 in his second season. The 40-year-old from Arkansas has a good job in Dallas, but has extensive SEC coaching experience at Arkansas and Auburn and is a good offensive line coach.
Familiar faces
Patriots assistant Joe Judge, a former Mississippi State player, is well respected in the Bulldogs community. The 41-year-old has spent the last decade as an NFL coach, including two difficult seasons as head coach of the Giants, going 10-23. Before that, he served as a special teams assistant for Nick Saban at Alabama. If he’s interested in going back to college, we could imagine him applying for this vacancy.
The wild card candidate would be Mississippi State former Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen. There, he posted a 69-46 record and three top-25 finishes in nearly a decade before heading to Florida and failing in Gainesville within four years. Mullen has moved into television as an analyst for ESPN, and by all accounts he has fit in well. Would he want to get back into the grind of college coaching at 51?
(Photo: Brian Bishop / USA Today)