Zach Arnett made an appearance with Paul Finebaum on Monday, and recalled how the transition has gone since he took over as coach at Mississippi State, between recruiting and developing the offense.

Finebaum asked Arnett about keeping the recruiting class together following Mike Leach’s death.

“It speaks to the young men that we have in our program already, and then the young men we were targeting, and had committed in the class,” Arnett said. “There’s a lot of reasons you sign and commit to a football program. … Probably more than anything, that doesn’t get emphasized enough, is the players in the locker room. Your best recruiters are your own players.”

Arnett said the players in the signing class stayed with the program following Leach’s death because they developed relationships with players on the current roster.

“When it came down to decision time, it was ‘Hey, I want to be part of a team with guys like myself and that what exists at Mississippi State,'” he said.

Arnett also spoke about his offense with Will Rogers returning, and Vanderbilt transfer Mike Wright joining the program. Arnett recalled his interview with Kevin Barbay, the new offensive coordinator.

“Show me who our 11 best players are, and that hit home with me a lot,” Arnett said. “That’s obviously your job as a coach, you have to identify your best players because they’re the ones out of the field performing and executing. The fact that that was his first answer coming in … I knew that was our guy right from the start.”