Mississippi State likely to have quick timeline on hiring next head coach

Mississippi State made a less-than-surprising coaching move on Monday, firing head coach Zach Arnett after less than a season coaching the Bulldogs. And the goal will likely be to move quickly to fill the void.

That’s what Maroon and White Daily’s Paul Jones thinks is likely to happen, and for one big reason: Recruiting. He explained the situation to On3’s Andy Staples on Tuesday.

“If I had to throw a timeline on it, Andy, I would probably say by the first of December at the latest. You’ve got official visitors still scheduled to come in here the first weekend of December. I don’t think, in this day and age, you can forfeit a weekend of official visitors. Especially since you only have a couple weekends in December before the signing period comes,” Jones said.

Mississippi State currently has the No. 29 overall class for the 2024 signing class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. Currently, the Bulldogs have pledges from 14 three-star prospects and a pair of four-star players.

The good news for whoever is hired is that much of the recruiting staff — which will likely not be entirely turned over — has deep roots and longstanding ties in the area and at the school. That will be a big benefit to whoever is eventually hired, Jones said.

“The interesting thing to, Andy, and this — you’ve got guys on this recruiting staff here that have been here since Mullen was here originally. That part don’t always change. It’s kind of different than college basketball where everybody’s completely different. Some of these recruiting staff members stayed through coaching changes. So they’re going to be doing all of that. But you’ve got to get those certain people in,” Jones said.

Plus, there’s another complicating factor: The Mississippi-Alabama high school football all-star game is on a later weekend in December. That makes the first weekend in December, when Mississippi State has visits lined up, all the more important, as there won’t be many further opportunities for players in that footprint to get on campus.

And thus it will behoove the Bulldogs to have a new head football coach in place well before that big weekend of official visits rolls around.

“And the problem with Mississippi is we have the Mississippi-Alabama all-star game the third weekend of December. So that takes out a lot of kids in your recruiting footprint that can’t come that weekend,” Jones said.