The 2022 season was the best of Mike Leach’s 3 as head coach at Mississippi State.

Then everything changed.

Leach died of heart complications on Dec. 12.

The Bulldogs moved quickly to make defensive coordinator Zach Arnett the new head coach ahead of the ReliaQuest Bowl game against Illinois.

The players and coaches pulled together amid extremely difficult circumstances to prevail 19-10 and move forward.

Now it’s 2023.

And State has to deal with the long-term post-Leach era.

Here are 10 burning questions for Mississippi State in the offseason:

1. Will the program be different without Leach?

Yes. Of course it will. Leach was a unique character who had proven himself as a successful head coach at Texas Tech and Washington State.

Arnett has 1 game as a head coach, and like most everyone else, he is a less charismatic person than Leach.

But different doesn’t inherently mean better or worse.

Time will determine if it’s one or the other.

2. Will Arnett make staff changes?

Yes.

Already it has been reported that outside receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. and inside receivers coach Drew Hollingshead will be leaving.

Perhaps others will as well, but more of Leach’s assistants will stay than leave.

Things are changing, but not all that dramatically.

3. Will Arnett keep the Air Raid offense?

Sort of.

He hasn’t named his offensive coordinator, so it’s hard to say definitively. It would be wise to turn the offense over to someone who will run a system similar to what Will Rogers had run for the past 3 seasons.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Leach “disciple.” It doesn’t have to be called the “Air Raid.” It can be a modified version of Leach’s system.

But it should be, and figures to be, something that can be considered an Air Raid-like scheme.

4. Will Arnett continue to run the defense?

Presumably. He wisely relinquished the play-calling duties to linebackers coach Matt Brock for the ReliaQuest Bowl. The results were outstanding.

Arnett cited his hectic schedule with taking over as head coach and bowl preparations overlapping with the Early Signing Period for the move.

Things are still going to be pretty hectic in the fall, and relinquishing the play-calling would again be wise.

If Brock’s opportunity in the bowl game was a tryout, he nailed it.

It will continue to be Arnett’s defense, with Brock or someone else handling the play-calling.

5. Will Rogers continue to set records?

No … and yes.

The bowl-game performance against Illinois was a hint that the Bulldogs will be a little more conventional than they were under Leach.

Rogers won’t throw quite as often as he has, though he’ll still throw a lot.

And some of the few remaining cumulative career records could still fall because he has set such a blistering pace that he can slow down and still break records.

6. Will the transfer portal be friend or foe?

Foe.

State has seen 12 players depart through the portal, and just 2 arrive through it.

Of course, those numbers will change, and the bowl performance and a clearer vision of the future once the coaching staff is finalized could attract several players.

But the head start that the departures have will be difficult for the arrivals to overcome.

7. Will Dillon Johnson be missed?

Not as much as it might seem.

He was a very productive player as a runner and a pass receiver out of the backfield.

It’s understandable that he would want to go to an as-yet-undetermined program where he could better demonstrate to NFL scouts his ability to handle a substantial workload as a rusher.

But freshman Simeon Price had a big bowl game, and there are talented newcomers arriving.

8. Can Arnett put his stamp on this recruiting class?

Sort of.

The Bulldogs already have signed 25 players, so Arnett won’t be able to add a bunch of players in February.

But he can still make an imprint on the class in the manner in which he utilizes and develops anyone who already has signed and anyone who is added.

9. Will the program regress without Leach?

No. At least, there’s no reason to think that’s inevitable.

Leach was a good coach whose team progressed each season during his tenure.

The overall success of this season, the first Egg Bowl victory since Leach’s arrival and the preparation for and performance in the bowl under extraordinarily difficult circumstances has given Arnett plenty of positive momentum.

10. Was Arnett the right hire?

This is the biggest question of all — and the one that can’t really be answered right now.

The university could have named Arnett acting or interim head coach for the bowl game while scouring the country to see if there were better options for a permanent replacement.

Demonstrating stability beyond Jan. 2 was important.

But had the Bulldogs waited on a permanent replacement, it’s unlikely they would have found a better one than Arnett, who likely was going to be fielding head-coaching offers from the outside in the near future.

The circumstances demanded a quick decision, and it was the right one.