Mississippi State fires head football coach after 10 months

Mississippi State announced on Monday that it has fired head football coach Zach Arnett after just 10 months on the job.

Arnett, previously the program's defensive coordinator, took over the program last December on an interim basis following the death of head coach Mike Leach. After leading the Bulldogs to a victory in the ReliaQuest Bowl he was promoted to full-time head coach as the Bulldogs skipped out on doing a national search. 

His first full year on the sidelines did not go well as the Bulldogs went 4-6 in their first 10 games while posting a disappointing 1-6 record in SEC play. The latest defeat was an ugly 51-10 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday that was followed up by the firing of its own head coach, Jimbo Fisher, on Sunday. 

Mississippi State athletic director Zac Selmon pointed out that the progress and on-field results were not up to the level that the program was expecting in Arnett's first season.

The Bulldogs have won just three games against FBS teams this season, beating Arizona, Western Michigan and an ugly 7-3 SEC win over a 3-7 Arkansas team. 

Arnett took over an extremely difficult situation and was always going to be facing a challenge. The fact Mississippi State promoted him to a full-time basis after the bowl win without a full coaching search always seemed like a trial run and a desire to bring some stability to a program that was going through an unexpected crisis.

Even though Mississippi State is not usually one of the top powers in the SEC, the Bulldogs had still appeared in a bowl game in each of the previous 13 seasons. 

It would need to sweep its final two games against Southern Mississippi and arch-rival Ole Miss to become bowl-eligible this season.