CL Article on How Moorhead's First Staff Came Together

Good read. I think we've definitely upgraded in both coaching and energy.

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“In the two years there, we obviously worked hand-in-hand on the offensive side of the ball along with recruiting,” Moorhead said. “You just get a great feel for people, and Charles is incredibly intelligent. He’s a hard worker, he’s diligent on the recruiting trail. You just know from a personality standpoint and a culture standpoint when a guy is going to be a good fit.”

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“Luke was always a guy I knew if we had the opportunity, he was going to be on the staff,” Moorhead said. “With Andrew, it was the same thing.”

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Like Huff, Breiner (formerly Fordham’s head coach) and Getsy (formerly the Green Bay Packers wide receivers coach) both left attractive gigs to join Moorhead. Moorhead said he didn’t have to do much convincing, either.

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Moorhead gushed over Lukabu’s defensive acumen, teaching skills and how he was molded under Greg Schiano at Tampa Bay. Lukabu is the perfect example of Moorhead hiring someone he has a strong familiarity with and who he clearly thinks highly of in terms of coaching ability, but who has no recruiting connections to the fertile grounds of the SEC.

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“It wasn’t as much of a sales pitch or an interview with him per se, as it was, ‘OK, I know what you’re capable of doing, I know what you’ve done in the past and this is our philosophy and culture moving forward at Mississippi State," Moorhead said. "I talked to him about his time at Tennessee and some of the things that were involved in that two-year span and just hearing how and why he wanted to be a part of this thing.”

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“Brad wasn’t pressing anybody, for lack of a better term,” Moorhead said. “Brad has a tremendous amount of passion for the state of Mississippi and our program. I think he felt that Hud, coming off of being let go there, would be an excellent opportunity for him to get back here and it would be an asset for our program.”

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Moorhead first learned about Johnson when the Duke offensive coaching staff visited Penn State last March for three days during spring football to exchange ideas. At one point after spending time one-on-one with Johnson, Penn State offensive line coach Matt Limegrover told Moorhead, “Man, Marcus Johnson, for being a younger coach, is incredibly impressive.”

From there, Moorhead noticed when the staffs were together the way Johnson was discussing technique.

“After that point,” Moorhead said, “you’re like, man this is a guy, if you have an opportunity, you’d love to communicate with.”

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Huff, who coached special teams while leading the running backs at Penn State, helped Moorhead sort through résumés once names started to roll in. Moorhead had no prior relationship with Scott Fountain, but received a recommendation from someone outside of MSU about him. This was during the first week of December.

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Moorhead met with all of MSU’s assistant coaches that were kept for bowl preparation individually soon after he was hired. Defensive line coach Brian Baker quickly stood out even though Moorhead didn’t know him and didn’t know anybody who knew him, either.

“Like anything in life, you get a certain feeling about your interactions with people,” Moorhead said.

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But a happenstance meeting during bowl preparation helped change that. Buckley and Shoop had a lengthy conversation one day after Shoop arrived in Starkville. The two didn’t talk about the job opening and instead just organically chatted football, cornerbacks and defensive philosophies. Shoop then called Moorhead with a question: “Hey, do you think we need to talk to Terrell again?”

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