Joe Moorhead
Joe Moorhead went 66–66 on the field as a head coach, 2012–2026, at Fordham, Mississippi State and Akron; 58–66 officially, after the NCAA vacated eight wins (2018). Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 1–5); by them his record is 58–65. Share
Four seasons our game records don’t credit to him come from the coach’s Wikipedia article: 2012–15 at Fordham. They’re marked in the table.
- Record
- 58–66 official; 66–66 on the field
- Seasons
- 11
- Schools
- 3
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Nov 2, 1973
- Alma mater
- Fordham 1996
- Best season
- 2018 8–5
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Fordham * | 6–5 | ||||
| 2013 | Fordham * | 12–2 | NCAA Division I Second Round L | 10 | ||
| 2014 | Fordham * | 11–3 | 1st | NCAA Division I Second Round L | 14 | |
| 2015 | Fordham * | 9–3 | 2nd | NCAA Division I First Round L | 19 | |
| 2016–17: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2018 | Mississippi State | 8–5 (0–5 official) | 4th (Western) | Outback Bowl L | 25 | |
| 2019 | Mississippi State | 6–7 | 5th (Western) | Music City Bowl L | ||
| 2020–21: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2022 | Akron | 2–10 | 6th (East) | |||
| 2023 | Akron | 2–10 | 5th (East) | |||
| 2024 | Akron | 4–8 | 8th | |||
| 2025 | Akron | 5–7 | T–6th | |||
| 2026 | Akron | 1–6 (Wikipedia: 1–5) | ||||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table. * A season our game records don’t credit to him; its record is the article’s.
Players he coached
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 10 | 2–8 | 20% |
| Against top-10 teams | 7 | 1–6 | 14% |
| Against rivals | 10 | 4–6 | 40% |
| Conference games | 51 | 16–35 | 31% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 26 | 9–17 | 35% |
| At home | 38 | 20–18 | 53% |
| On the road | 40 | 7–33 | 18% |
| At neutral sites | 3 | 1–2 | 33% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 30 | 20–10 | 67% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 51 | 8–43 | 16% |
His own 81 games on file, 2018–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Creighton 2022–2026 | 1–3 | Eastern Michigan | 4 | |
| Chuck Martin 2022–2026 | 0–4 | Miami (OH) | 4 | |
| Mark Stoops 2018–2023 | 1–2 | Kentucky | 3 | |
| Thomas Hammock 2022–2024 | 1–2 | Northern Illinois | 3 | |
| Scot Loeffler 2022–2024 | 0–3 | Bowling Green | 3 | |
| Tim Albin 2022–2024 | 0–3 | Ohio | 3 |
Joe Moorhead’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Kent Stateseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Bowling Greenseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| Buffaloseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| Central Michiganseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| Eastern Michiganseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| Miami (OH)series | 4 | 0–4 |
| Kentuckyseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Northern Illinoisseries | 3 | 1–2 |
How he was hired
- Hired by Mississippi State for the 2018 season from Penn State, where he was offensive coordinator.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998–99 | Pittsburgh | Graduate assistant | |
| 2000 | Georgetown | Running backs coach | |
| 2001–02 | Georgetown | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 2003 | Georgetown | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2004 | Akron | Wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2005 | Akron | Assistant head coach, passing game coordinator, wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2006–08 | Akron | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2009–10 | Connecticut | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2011 | Connecticut | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 2012–15 | Fordham | Head coach | |
| 2016–17 | Penn State | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2018–19 | Mississippi State | Head coach | |
| 2020–21 | Oregon | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2022–present | Akron | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Walt HarrisPittsburgh
- Bob BensonGeorgetown
- J.D. BrookhartAkron
- Randy EdsallUConn
- Paul PasqualoniUConn
- James FranklinPenn State
- Mario CristobalOregon
- Bryan McClendonOregon
Assistants who became head coaches
- Andrew BreinerFordham
- David BlackwellEast Carolina
- Vincent WhiteSaint Mary’s (CA)
- Bob ShoopColumbia
- Charles HuffMarshall, Southern Miss, Memphis
- Joey JonesSouth Alabama, Birmingham-Southern
- Mark HudspethLouisiana, North Alabama, Austin Peay
- Van MaloneHampton
- J.D. BrookhartAkron
Worked under (8)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walt Harris | Pittsburgh | 1998–99 | Graduate assistant | |
| Bob Benson | Georgetown | 2000–03 | 2000: running backs coach; 2001–02: quarterbacks coach; 2003: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| J.D. Brookhart | Akron | 2004–08 | 2004: wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator; 2005: assistant head coach, passing game coordinator, wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator; 2006–08: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Randy Edsall | UConn | 2009–10 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Paul Pasqualoni | UConn | 2011 | Quarterbacks coach | |
| James Franklin | Penn State | 2016–17 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Mario Cristobal | Oregon | 2020–21 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Bryan McClendon | Oregon | 2021 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (9)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Breiner | Fordham, 2012–15: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; Mississippi State, 2018–19: passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Fordham | |
| David Blackwell | Fordham, 2012–13: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | East Carolina | |
| Vincent White | Fordham, 2012: assistant head coach and wide receivers coach | Saint Mary’s (CA) | |
| Bob Shoop | Mississippi State, 2018–19: defensive coordinator and safeties coach | Columbia | |
| Charles Huff | Mississippi State, 2018: running backs coach | Marshall, Southern Miss, Memphis | |
| Joey Jones | Mississippi State, 2018–19: special teams coach | South Alabama, Birmingham-Southern | |
| Mark Hudspeth | Mississippi State, 2018: assistant head coach and tight ends coach | Louisiana, North Alabama, Austin Peay | |
| Van Malone | Mississippi State, 2018: defensive assistant | Hampton | |
| J.D. Brookhart | Akron, 2024–26: wide receivers coach | Akron |
Other assistants under him (9)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Tyler Bowen | Fordham, 2015: offensive line coach | |
| Brian Baker | Mississippi State, 2018: defensive line coach | |
| Luke Getsy | Mississippi State, 2018: offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Tem Lukabu | Mississippi State, 2018: linebackers coach | |
| Billy Fessler | Mississippi State, 2019: graduate assistant; Akron, 2022: quarterbacks coach; 2023: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Chris Marve | Mississippi State, 2019: DRC and linebackers coach | |
| Mike Johnson | Mississippi State, 2019: wide receivers coach | |
| Taylor Housewright | Mississippi State, 2019: offensive quality control coach | |
| Tim Tibesar | Akron, 2022–26: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | State payroll | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | UConn | offensive coordinator | $193,119 |
Connecticut’s state payroll (Open Data Portal): what the state actually paid in the calendar year, salary and special payments together.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Moorhead’s teams went for it on 20% of fourth downs and on 36% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 53% of plays and took 26.8 seconds a play, 2018–2026.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 13 g | Mississippi State | 17 of 86 20% | 35% | 42% | 28.3 | +0.07 | |
| 2019 13 g | Mississippi State | 18 of 83 22% | 40% | 41% | 28.9 | +0.09 | |
| 2022 10 g | Akron | 20 of 96 21% | 33% | 65% | 24.0 | −0.03 | |
| 2023 12 g | Akron | 22 of 102 22% | 39% | 62% | 27.4 | −0.11 | |
| 2024 12 g | Akron | 15 of 100 15% | 28% | 59% | 26.4 | −0.07 | |
| 2025 12 g | Akron | 22 of 106 21% | 45% | 53% | 24.9 | −0.03 | |
| 2026 7 g | Akron | 8 of 50 16% | 29% | 54% | 26.6 | −0.06 | |
| All 79 g | 122 of 623 20% | 36% | 53% | 26.8 | −0.02 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.