Heartbreak news:The Mississippi state football head coach is suspended after proving that he had an affair with his all time player wife.
Starkville — Mississippi State’s first-year athletics director, Zac Selmon, fired football coach Zach Arnett on Monday, citing a reason with two games left in the regular season.
“We thought at this point of the season, we needed just a jolt of energy − a jolt of juice,” Selmon explained to reporters on Monday.
“It’s also comfort in knowing you have somebody like Coach (Greg) Knox that has the experience before.” Arnett was in his debut season and had just lost to Texas A&M by 41 points.
The Bulldogs (4-6, 1-6 SEC) finish with home games versus Southern Miss and Ole Miss.
Knox was moved from senior offensive analyst to interim head coach following Arnett’s dismissal.
Knox joined Arnett’s team in January for his second stint at MSU. He formerly worked as Dan Mullen’s assistant from 2009 to 2017.
After Mullen left for Florida, Knox became interim coach and led MSU to the TaxSlayer Bowl victory.
He also served as Florida’s interim coach for two games following Mullen’s firing in 2021.
“You’re talking about somebody that’s a connector, somebody that builds people up, somebody that’s got over three decades of experience coaching the game of football,” Mr. Selmon said.
“I thought this was excellent. We also have a lot of recruitment.
We have a lot of stuff to do. I’m confident that Coach Knox will assist us in accomplishing this goal.”
