'He's not leaving': What Mississippi State players said about Joe Moorhead, Rutgers rumors

STARKVILLE – Last week, Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead said plenty about the rumors of him being a candidate to fill the head coaching vacancy at Rutgers. 

This week, his players took their turns.

True freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader and junior running back Kylin Hill opened up about the situation. They both seemed adamant that Moorhead is serious about what he said on the set of The Paul Finebaum Show last week. 

"My focus is here at Mississippi State," Moorhead told Finebaum on a live telecast from The Junction in the middle of Mississippi State's campus in Starkville. 

Shrader and Hill had similar statements. 

"It's funnier to him than anything," Shrader said. "He's not leaving an SEC West program. He's told me that multiple times." 

"There's always going to be outside noise," Hill added. "That's the world we live in today. I'm not too focused on it. Nobody's focused on it. Everybody loves the man." 

Moorhead has been connected to the Rutgers job in the media since the hours after Chris Ash was fired on Sept. 29. NJ.com posted an article the very next day that listed Moorhead as one of 13 "early candidates." 

The Clarion Ledger asked Moorhead about his reaction to the report on Oct. 1. Mississippi State was in the middle of its bye week at the time, so Moorhead said he was focused on recruiting that weekend and that he would be committed to devising a plan for the Tennessee game in the following week. 

Mississippi State, of course, went up to Knoxville and lost to the Volunteers. That caused the Rutgers rumors to intensify, and NJ.com came out with another report. This time, the outlet called Moorhead a "top candidate" and reported that university officials and prominent donors have had conversations with Rutgers athletic director Pat Hobbs about Moorhead. 

Moorhead brushed off Finebaum's questions days after that report surfaced. His team lost to LSU, 36-13, the day after. Moorhead was again asked about Rutgers in his post-game press conference. 

"I answered that three times on the show the other day and said it the same way three times," Moorhead said. "I didn't know any other way." 

"He's our coach. He's been the same guy," Shrader added. "He's passionate about this team. He's very vocal about that. He's not going anywhere." 

Moorhead said the hysteria is "not a distraction" because his players are not focused on it at all. He thought despite the intensification of the rumors over the last week, Mississippi State played much better against LSU than it did against Tennessee. 

MSU players have the same mindset as Moorhead. They want to turn Mississippi State into a program that contends for championships. And though it's certainly not going to happen this year, Moorhead has apparently been steadfast in his belief that it will sometime soon. 

"We're going to win an SEC championship here," Shrader said. "That's his message to me." 

Contact Tyler Horka at thorka@gannett.com. Follow @tbhorka on Twitter. To read more of Tyler's work, subscribe to the Clarion Ledger today!