The coaching carousel is already spinning wildly over the couple of days, as expected this time of the year. USC made the biggest splash in the coaching pool this offseason by luring Lincoln Riley away from SEC-bound Oklahoma, and the Florida Gators made a sensible hire with Billy Napier from Louisiana. The coaching carousel will continue to spin in the coming days and perhaps weeks, and former Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead could be returning to a head coaching vacancy very soon.
According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Moorhead has emerged as a leading candidate to take on the head coaching job at Akron. According to the report from Thamel, a contract could be announced as soon as Monday.
Moorhead has the head coaching experience that would be beneficial for a program like Akron, and Moorhead has ties to the program already. Moorhead was a wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator for the Zips in 2004 and he added the role of passing game coordinator to his name in 2005. Moorhead was upgraded to offensive coordinator at Akron in 2006 and held that title for three seasons before moving to UConn for the same role in 2009.
Moorhead went on to become the head coach at Fordham in 2012 after three years at UConn. And after four successful seasons as head coach of the Rams, Moorhead came to Penn State to revitalize the offense of the Nittany Lions for head coach James Franklin.
Moorhead left Penn State for an opportunity to be a head coach at Mississippi State, where he replaced Dan Mullen after Mullen left to coach at Florida (Mullen was removed as head coach this season). Moorhead lasted just two seasons with the Mississippi State program, and he returned to the role of offensive coordinator with the Oregon Ducks in 2020.
Moorhead and Oregon are preparing this week for the Pac-12 Championship Game, a revenge opportunity against a Utah team that humbled them in recent weeks.
Moorhead’s successor at Penn State in the role of offensive coordinator, Ricky Rahne, is coming off his first season as head coach at Old Dominion and is hoping his team gets a chance to play in a bowl game.
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