As Bulldogs go young for their head coach, it's a different era, different program

Jan. 19—Thirty-something football coaches may still be in the minority, but they're not as rare as they once were.

Mississippi State coach Zach Arnett, at 36, isn't the youngest in FBS.

In fact, he could be like the older brother to Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham, the youngest FBS coach at 32.

As coaching salaries have gone through the roof, presidents and ADs are showing more and more willingness to hand over the keys to younger coaches.

Maybe one reason is because young guys are proving themselves as coordinators earlier and earlier.

MSU president Mark Keenum quickly made Arnett, the Bulldogs' defensive coordinator for three years, the permanent head coach — or as permanent as one can be in the business — after the passing of Mike Leach.

"I think Zach is a lot more prepared than I was," former MSU coach Rockey Felker said. "No. 1, I wasn't a coordinator at the places I coached. I became a coordinator later. He's proven a lot more than I had at that time in my life."

Arnett isn't even the youngest coach ever hired by Mississippi State.

That would be Felker, a beloved former quarterback, who was 32 when he got the job, 33 when he coached his first game.

Felker was the youngest coach in the country when he led the Bulldogs onto the field at Syracuse in 1986.

The Bulldogs won 24-17 that day and would start Felker's first season by winning six of their first seven games, the best stretch in his five-year tenure.

He was let go after the 1990 season, and Jackie Sherrill was hired.

Felker was learning his way as a head coach, but the Mississippi State administration was learning too, he said — learning the commitment that was necessary to compete in the Southeastern Conference.

"I think it took what we went through at Mississippi State for people to realize that if we were going to be competitive in this league, it was going to have to be a different way," he said. "They got more competitive money-wise when they hired Jackie. It was more of a commitment to the program than what I experienced. There's no doubt about that."

Felker said one of his greatest challenges as a young head coach was not necessarily hiring a staff or working with a staff, but keeping one together because of the low wages they earned in Starkville.

One revenue opportunity the administration agreed to in 1989 was to sell a home game to Florida.

State was the designated home team in Tampa when the Gators traveled a short distance north from Gainesville and won 21-0.

"They were going to pay us a million dollars to play there," Felker said. "It took Mississippi State a while to realize what it was going to take to be competitive in the SEC."

A lot has changed since those days.

Felker believes Arnett is poised for success for several reasons — the staff he's built around him, his recruiting approach and the way he connects with players.

"The players love playing for him," Felker observed.

That many of those players are from Mississippi is a bonus.

Fifteen of 27 players who signed to become Bulldogs in December are from Mississippi.

"I'm impressed with the fact that Zach believes in recruiting the state of Mississippi, not going to California or flying over a bunch of prospects to build a program. I think he believes in building from the inside out. That's been the key at Mississippi State for the last 40 years. The best teams we have had, 75 percent of the team was from 250 miles from Starkville, building from the inside out. I think that's a big key.

"You're not going to get every player in the state of Mississippi, but you need to be able to keep the players at home," Felker said. "You go to Alabama, you go to Louisiana and you go to Tennessee. You won't beat Alabama on the top players in the state of Alabama, but the ones they don't want still can play in this league."

Some believe younger coaches are more ready to adapt as college football changes with NIL, the transfer portal and players' rising voices on social media.

Reasons vary for hiring younger.

It's worth noting that the coach's average age for the top 10 teams in the final 2022 playoff committee rankings was 52.7.

The youngest was Lincoln Riley at 39 for No. 10 USC, the oldest Nick Saban at No. 5 Alabama at 71.

After leaving Mississippi State in 1991 Felker, a Brownsville, Tennessee native, had three stints as an offensive coordinator, two at Tulsa and one at Arkansas.

He was a part of the Razorbacks team that won the SEC West in 1995 along with then-future MSU defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn.

Later in his career, Felker held various roles at Mississippi State including running backs coach for Sylvester Croom in 2007 and 2008.

Felker conducted this interview from the corner of Lowes' home improvement store in Starkville.

He's retired, and even with the benefit of hindsight has no regrets about his decision to return to his alma mater as a very young head coach.

"I didn't think twice about it. I was getting a raise. I was making $33,000 at Alabama and Mississippi State offered me $75,000 to come and be the head football coach," Felker said. "It was probably the worst time I could have come back to Mississippi State because the talent level was not in good shape. That was a choice I made, and I'm glad I did it. I left the program in better shape after the 1990 season for Jackie than I found it in 1986."

PARRISH ALFORD is the college sports editor and columnist for the Daily Journal. Contact him at parrish.alford@journalinc.com.