Mississippi St’s Arnett promotes Brock to DC, hires 2 others

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi State coach Zach Arnett has promoted Matt Brock to Bulldogs defensive coordinator and hired Chad Bumphis and Brad Peterson to his staff.

Brock called defensive plays in No. 24 MSU’s 19-10 ReliaQuest Bowl victory over Illinois after serving this season as linebackers coach. The Bulldogs held the Illini to 22 yards rushing and recorded 10 tackles for loss with a season-high seven sacks that set a school bowl record. He arrived at MSU in 2020 as special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach.

Bumphis returns to his alma mater as wide receivers coach after two seasons at Utah, where he helped the Utes earn their second consecutive Pac-12 Conference championship and Rose Bowl berth and rank in top-five in the league in scoring (38.6 points per game) and total offense (466.9 yards). The Tupelo, Mississippi, native is MSU’s career leader with 24 touchdowns receiving and ranks second with 2,270 yards and 159 receptions. Bumphis also coached at Austin Peay, Buffalo and Iowa Wesleyan.

Peterson returns to MSU as associate athletic director for football administration. He previously was the Bulldogs’ director of high school relations from 2016-20 after going 148-70-1 over 17 years as a high school coach in the state. Peterson was named coach of the year three times in two divisions by the Mississippi Association of Coaches.

Arnett became MSU’s head coach on Dec. 15 following the death of Mike Leach days earlier from a heart condition. He had been Leach’s defensive coordinator for three seasons.

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