Mississippi State Football Coach Mike Leach Shuffles Staff

So far, Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach has lost no coordinators.

Of course, it helps that he is the offensive coordinator. Leach did lose inside wide receivers coach Dave Nichol to new USC head coach Lincoln Riley, who coached under Leach at Texas Tech.

Leach has announced that offensive quality control assistant Drew Hollingshead has been promoted to replace Nichol. A former quarterback at Houston, Hollingshead, 31, previously was an offensive assistant under Leach in 2020 at Mississippi State and at Washington State from 2016-18.

"Drew is one of the rising offensive minds in college football adn a tremendous coach, teacher and tactician of the game," Leach said. "He is incredibly detail oriented, brings a great deal of energy and passion to our program."

Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers finished third in the nation in passing yards with 4,739 in 2021 as a sophomore as the Bulldogs finished 7-6 overall and 4-4 in the SEC. Rogers' offense is so progressive that it has an inside and outside receivers coach.

"I'm incredibly thankful for this opportunity," Hollingshead said. "I'm excited to be working with this staff."

Leach also made Steve Spurrier Jr. pass game coordinator. Spurrier will remain as outside wide receivers coach as well. Offensive line coach Mason Miller will also coach the run game. Eric Mele, who was running backs coach, is now special teams coordinator. Matt Brock, who was special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach, will now coach all linebackers. Jason Washington will switch from coaching safeties to coaching running backs.

Defensive coordinator Zach Arnett will no longer coach linebackers, but will add safeties.