Zac Selmon explains firing Zach Arnett in-season

Mississippi State cut the stint of Zach Arnett very short as the Bulldogs relieved him of his duties as head coach on Monday.

With two games to go, some may wonder why the program pulled the trigger now rather than the end of the team’s season. As AD Zac Selmon put it, though, it’s because they felt like this decision would energize their players to finish the campaign well, especially since bowl eligibility is still up for grabs in Starkville.

“There’s a lot of stuff, a lot of games to play for,” explained Selmon. “We thought, at this point in the season, we needed just a jolt of energy, a jolt of juice.”

Selmon also said that their staff also gave them solace in making this decision now. With Greg Knox ready to step in, they felt like they could make this call and not miss a step.

“It’s also comforting when you know you have somebody like Coach Knox that has had the experience before,” said Selmon. “You talk about somebody that’s a connector, somebody that builds people up. Somebody that has got over three decades of experience coaching the game of football.”

Arnett found himself in a difficult position in taking over at Mississippi State after the tragic passing of Mike Leach. While he won the ReliaQuest Bowl in Leach’s honor, his first, and now only, season as head coach did not go well as the Bulldogs sit at just 4-6. They’ve lost six of their last eight and have dropped their last three by 14 at Auburn, 21 against Kentucky, and a season-worst margin of 41 this past weekend at Texas A&M.

This wasn’t the way that anyone around the program wanted this past year to go or unfold. However, with items that they need to tend to in the near future, Selmon felt as though this was the right, although not necessarily ideal, time to move in this direction.

“We thought this was best,” said Selmon. “We’ve got a lot of recruiting, we’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to do. I know Coach Knox will really help us get that done.”

Selmon shares when Mississippi State decided to fire Arnett

Following Mississippi State‘s loss to Texas A&M, the school fired Zach Arnett. That came before he finished his first full season as the head coach of the Bulldogs.

The timing seemed strange to many people. However, AD Zac Selmon explained that it was part of a season-long process.

“In this role, you’re constantly looking at the health of a sport program,” Selmon said. “Throughout the season, you want to see progression and progression in certain areas. I don’t think we met the standard on the field.”

In his first full season as the head coach at Mississippi State, Arnett put together a 4-6 record. That included losing his final three games by a combined score of 102-26.

“As far as point of decision? After discussion with Dr. Keenum on Sunday afternoon, it was pretty clear that this was a decision we needed to make to solidify our path forward into the future,” said Selmon.