Zach Arnett
Zach Arnett went 5–6 as a head coach, 2022–2023, at Mississippi State. Share
- Record
- 5–6 career
- Seasons
- 2
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Sep 10, 1986
- Alma mater
- New Mexico 2009
- Best season
- 2022 9–4, No. 20
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Mississippi State bowl game | 1–0 | ReliaQuest Bowl W | 20 | ||
| 2023 | Mississippi State coached 10 of 12 games | 4–6 |
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.
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 | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Conference games | 7 | 1–6 | 14% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 1 | 1–0 | 100% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 3 | 2–1 | 67% |
| At home | 6 | 3–3 | 50% |
| On the road | 4 | 1–3 | 25% |
| At neutral sites | 1 | 1–0 | 100% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 7 | 4–3 | 57% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 4 | 1–3 | 25% |
His own 11 games on file, 2022–2023, 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.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Arkansasseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Arizonaseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Illinoisseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| SE Louisianaseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Western Michiganseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Auburnseries | 1 | 0–1 |
| Kentuckyseries | 1 | 0–1 |
| LSUseries | 1 | 0–1 |
How he was hired
- Hired by Mississippi State for the 2022 season from Mississippi State, where he was defensive coordinator. He had a prior connection to the school.
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.
Also a player: Zach Arnett’s playing career.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011–13 | San Diego State | Graduate assistant | |
| 2014–17 | San Diego State | Linebackers coach | |
| 2018–19 | San Diego State | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2020 | Mississippi State | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2021–22 | Mississippi State | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2022 | Mississippi State | Head coach | |
| 2023 | Mississippi State | Head coach | |
| 2024 | Ole Miss | Analyst | |
| 2025 | Florida State | Analyst | |
| 2026–present | Mississippi State | Defensive coordinator |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included. Head-coaching seasons the infobox leaves out come from our records.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Rocky LongSan Diego State
- Mike LeachMississippi State
- Lane KiffinOle Miss
- Mike NorvellFlorida State
- Jeff LebbyMississippi State
Assistants who became head coaches
- Jay HopsonSouthern Miss, Alcorn State
- Greg KnoxMississippi State, Florida
Worked under (5)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Long | San Diego State | 2011–19 | 2011–13: graduate assistant; 2014–17: linebackers coach; 2018–19: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Mike Leach | Mississippi State | 2020–22 | 2020: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; 2021–22: defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Lane Kiffin | Ole Miss | 2024 | Analyst | |
| Mike Norvell | Florida State | 2025 | Analyst | |
| Jeff Lebby | Mississippi State | 2026 | Defensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (2)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jay Hopson | Mississippi State, 2022: defensive assistant and DHSR | Southern Miss, Alcorn State | |
| Greg Knox | Mississippi State, 2023: SOA | Mississippi State, Florida |
Other assistants under him (6)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Darcel McBath | Mississippi State, 2022–23: cornerbacks coach | |
| Jason Washington | Mississippi State, 2022: running backs coach | |
| Matt Brock | Mississippi State, 2022: linebackers coach; 2023: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Ryan Lindley | Mississippi State, 2022: defensive analyst | |
| Steve Spurrier Jr. | Mississippi State, 2022: outside wide receivers | |
| Kevin Barbay | Mississippi State, 2023: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks 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.
How he coached
Arnett’s teams went for it on 23% of fourth downs and on 39% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 50% of plays and took 26.8 seconds a play, in 2023.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 12 g | 24 of 104 23% | 39% | 50% | 26.8 | −0.04 |
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.