Mississippi State fires head coach Zach Arnett after just 11 games
Mississippi State has decided to move on from head coach Zach Arnett before the conclusion of his first season on the job.
The school announced Monday morning that Arnett has been fired. The Bulldogs fell to 4-6 following a 51-10 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday. It marked the team’s third consecutive loss as MSU is just 1-6 in SEC play this season.
Arnett, 37, was MSU’s defensive coordinator for three seasons and was promoted to head coach following the sudden death of Mike Leach. Following Leach’s death, Arnett led the Bulldogs to a victory over Illinois in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Less than a month after Arnett’s promotion, Zac Selmon was hired as athletic director. Not even a year later, Selmon decided to make a change and dismissed Arnett after only 10 games of his first full-time season as head coach. Greg Knox, a senior offensive analyst for the Bulldogs, will serve as interim coach for the remainder of the season.
Mississippi State has been playing without longtime starting quarterback Will Rogers for the past month. MSU won its first game without him to improve to 4-3 on the year, but has since lost three straight — all by double-digit margins.
In a statement, Selmon said that the “progress and on-field results” have not met “the standard required for Mississippi State to achieve the level of success we need and expect.”
Arnett became the third FBS head coach fired in the last two days with his dismissal coming a day after Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher and Boise State let go Andy Avalos.
Who could be next in Starkville? Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger pointed to several sitting head coaches as potential targets in the school’s upcoming coaching search.
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