With two games remaining in the season, the Mississippi State Bulldogs made the difficult decision to fire head coach Zach Arnett. The former defensive coordinator took over when Mike Leach passed away from a heart attack last season and led the Bulldogs to a bowl victory, but dropped to 4-6 after a 51-10 loss to Texas A&M. Now, Mississippi State will try its hand in the 2023 college football coaching carousel, where an SEC job is always an alluring opportunity.
However, the Bulldogs will have to compete for the best available college football coaches with a number of schools, including the Aggies. Texas A&M also fired its coach, Jimbo Fisher, after last week's game despite a whopping $76 million buyout and will be directly competing with their SEC West rivals for a head coach. Who will Mississippi State land to run their program and how long might the coaching search take? If you love the Bulldogs, or just want to know if your coach is the next target, be sure to see what the proven team of insiders are saying at Gene's Page, the 247Sports affiliate that covers Mississippi State.
The staff at Gene's Page is led by Steve Robertson, who has covered the Bulldogs for 25-plus years and has consistently been the leading insider covering Mississippi State football. Robertson has been a mainstay in the Mississippi State community -- breaking the news of both Mike Leach and Dan Mullen's hiring. He's written three books: Flim Flam, Stark Villains and Alpha Dawgs, which have all been on the Mississippi best seller's list.
Robertson and the Gene's Page staff have collectively put together a list of coaches to watch as the Bulldogs are in the thick of their search. According to Robertson's sources, Mississippi State has been working behind the scenes for a while knowing a change was imminent.
And right now, Gene's Page is offering 60% off annual subscriptions*, so now is the time to sign up.
The team at Gene's Page already has a list out of 18 potential candidates and there are some surprising names on the list. Head to Gene's Page now to see them all.
Top Mississippi State head coaching candidates
One name the staff has identified as a potential candidate is Dan Mullen. The Urban Meyer disciple is a familiar face in Starkville, having served as Mississippi State's head coach from 2009 to 2017, but ultimately left to become Florida's head coach prior to the 2018 season.
Mullen went 29-9 over his first three seasons at the helm of the Gators and Florida finished ranked in the top 15 each of those years. However, Mullen was fired near the end of his fourth season after the Gators started 5-6 and he's been an ESPN analyst in the two seasons since. He's 103-61 overall in his career as a head coach and after venturing out for a bigger job and striking out, he could be a long-term solution that can hit the ground running for the Bulldogs.
Another name on the list is Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell. He has won his first 10 games with Liberty after an outstanding stint at Coastal Carolina, giving him a 40-6 record since 2020. Chadwell turned quarterback Kaidon Salter into one of the top passers at the Group of Five level, so he can help turn around a sluggish Mississippi State offense.
He has some ties to the state of Mississippi, serving as the head coach at Delta State in 2012 before taking the Charleston Southern job. Chadwell made the leap to Coastal Carolina in an interim capacity in 2017 and then on a permanent basis from 2019 to 2022. His name has been tied to multiple coaching searches over the last few years, and this could be his chance to make the Power Five leap. See more candidates at Gene's Page.
How to get insider Mississippi State coaching search updates
The rest of the list of 18 names to know includes several other intriguing Group of 5 head coaches, and a shocking current SEC head coach "with deep roots at Mississippi State." See who it is at Gene's Page.
Who are the top names in the Mississippi State coaching search as the Bulldogs look to replace Zach Arnett, and what surprising current SEC coach could be on the move? Go to Gene's Page to see their hot board and more, all from a team of reporters with decades of experience covering the Bulldogs, and find out. And reminder, Gene's Page is offering 60% off an annual VIP membership as a coaching search special, so subscribe now before it's too late.
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