Report: Joe Moorhead expected to be named Oregon Offensive Coordinator

The Stadium’s Brett McMurphy is reporting that former Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead is expected to be named the new Oregon offensive coordinator

Prior to Moorhead’s stint as head coach at Mississippi State, he was the offensive coordinator at Penn State under offensive minded head coach James Franklin. He led an impressive uptick in offensive performance over the previous OC in Happy Valley (washington’s new OC John Donovan).

The Pittsburgh native played quarterback for Fordham, where he ultimately ended up being there for the 2012 through 2015 seasons prior to his Penn State job.

At Mississippi State, he produced a 14-12 overall record and two bowl losses. He’s most memorably noted as saying, “You’ll have to drag my Yankee (censored) out of here” after the 2019 Egg Bowl victory that resulted due to an Ole Miss player pretending to urinate after a touchdown, costing the Rebels a PAT miss that would’ve sent the game to overtime.

He endured catastrophic losses in 2019 due to an academic fraud situation that resulted in multiple suspensions over the course of the season. The Bulldogs also lost their quarterback due to a post bowl practice fight with a teammate that resulted in injury.

The Ducks do have a history of plucking offensive minded head coaches from the Northeast.

If you’re undoubtedly interested in what Moorhead might bring to the Ducks, here’s a good read where he explains his offensive philosophy. Here’s another interview where describes his offense as the “Chipotle Offense”.

With Moorhead’s potential likely hiring, it will provide Coach Mario Cristobal with another coach with valuable head coaching experience that can help him. It can be expected that Moorhead will be given full autonomy as the offensive coordinator. With that kind of authority, one has to wonder what will become of key assistants already on staff. Will he like to bring his own guys in or will he keep the status quo?

UPDATE:

Bruce Feldman of the Athletic reports that Moorhead has verbally agreed to become the Ducks OC but nothing has been signed yet

UPDATE 2:

James Crepea has confirmed that Moorhead is the new OC