Nov 23, 2017; Starkville, MS, USA; A general overview of the stadium before the game between the Mississippi Rebels and the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Arnett reportedly has his offensive coordinator.
Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated reports that Mississippi State is finalizing a deal with App State OC Kevin Barbay.
Barbay has some SEC familiarity as an off-field assistant. He was the director of player development at Florida from 2015-to-2017 under Jim McElwain.
After a year at Stephen F. Austin as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach (2018), Barbay reunited with McElwain at Central Michigan. Barbay was CMU’s assistant head coach and wide receivers coach for the 2019 and ’20 seasons. McElwain promoted Barbay to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Central Michigan’s 2021 campaign.
Barbay left Central Michigan after the 2021 season to take the offensive coordinator position at App State for 2022. App State went 6-6 in 2022. Under Barbay, App State averaged 34.9 points per game in 2022, which ranked No. 23 nationally in scoring offense.
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I'm not mad at it. A balanced offense is never a bad thing.
This does confirm we're dropping the air raid, but Barbay does still throw the ball quite a bit. Appalachian State ran the ball around 100 times more than they threw it, but they also ranked around 36 spots higher in total offense than State did, so I'm not worried about it.
Woody Marks is already celebrating on twitter too, the dude is ready to shine.
You and I differed on the offense under Leach. However, I do think this could be a good fit for our offense. I'm a little concerned about Will Rogers running an offense that is completely different than the one he ran the last 9 years.
Yeah I would say how Will can adapt is the biggest question mark right now. Barbay's offenses have been designed to be flexible and take ehat the defense gives them so we'll see I guess.
I think he should be able to adapt fairly well… but it will definitely suit our QB for 2024
BTW, I admittedly don't know Barbary's offense very well at all. I knew what Leach was doing and why, but no idea about Barbary.
Barbay runs a more pro style, run heavy offense. Although, like I said he usually takes what the defense gives him and will happily throw the ball all day if receivers keep finding themselves open downfield. Our RBs will be getting a ton more carries regardless.
He adapts to his personnel. If we have receivers who can catch contested ball then we are going to sling it around and woody is going to have a 200 yard game