List of Mississippi State Bulldogs head football coaches

The Mississippi State Bulldogs college football team represents Mississippi State University in the West Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Bulldogs compete as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 36 head coaches since it began play during the 1895 season.^[1] Since November 2023, Jeff Lebby has served as Mississippi State's head coach.^[2]

Twelve coaches have led the Bulldogs in postseason bowl games: Ralph Sasse, Allyn McKeen, Paul E. Davis, Bob Tyler, Emory Bellard, Jackie Sherrill, Sylvester Croom, Dan Mullen, Joe Moorhead, Mike Leach, Zach Arnett, and Lebby. ^[3] McKeen led the Bulldogs to their lone conference championship as a member of the SEC in 1941.^[4]

Sherrill is the leader in seasons coached and games won, with 75 victories during his 13 years with the program.^[4] McKeen has the highest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .764.^[4] W.M. Matthews and J.B. Hildebrand have the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .000.^[4] Of the 36 different head coaches who have led the Bulldogs, Bernie Bierman,^[5] McKeen^[6] and Darrell Royal^[7] have been inducted as head coaches into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana.

Key to symbols in coaches list
General		Overall		Conference		Postseason^{[A 1]}
No.	Order of coaches^{[A 2]}	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties^{[A 3]}	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage^{[A 4]}

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards^{[A 5]}
No.	Name	Term ^{[A 6]}	Season(s)	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	PT	DC ^{[A 7]}	CC	Awards
1	W. M. Matthews	1895	1	2	0	2	0	.000	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2	J. B. Hildebrand	1896	1	4	0	4	0	.000	0	2	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0	—
3	L. B. Harvey	1901	1	5	2	2	1	0.500	1	2	0	0.333	—	—	—	—	0	—
4	L. Gwinn	1902	1	6	1	4	1	0.250	0	4	1	0.100	—	—	—	—	0	—
5	Daniel S. Martin	1903–1906	1	24	10	11	3	0.479	5	9	3	0.382	—	—	—	—	0	—
6	Fred Furman	1907–1908	2	16	9	7	0	0.563	5	6	0	0.455	—	—	—	—	0	—
7	W. D. Chadwick	1909–1913	5	43	29	12	2	0.698	19	12	2	0.606	1	—	—	—	0	—
8	Earl C. Hayes	1914–1916	3	25	15	8	2	0.640	10	8	0	0.556	—	—	—	—	0	—
9	Stanley L. Robinson	1917–1919	3	21	16	5	0	0.762	11	3	0	0.786	0	0	0	—	0	—
10	Fred Holtkamp	1920–1921	2	17	9	7	1	0.559	7	5	1	0.577	0	0	0	—	0	—
11	Dudy Noble	1922	1	9	3	4	2	0.444	2	3	0	0.400	0	0	0	—	0	—
12	Earl Abell	1923–1924	2	18	10	6	2	0.611	5	3	2	0.545	0	0	0	—	0	—
13	Bernie Bierman^†	1925–1926	2	17	8	8	1	0.500	3	7	0	0.300	0	0	0	—	0	—
14	John W. Hancock	1927–1929	3	24	8	12	4	0.412	3	9	1	0.269	0	0	0	—	0	—
15	Chris Cagle	1930	1	9	2	7	0	0.222	2	1	0	0.666	0	0	0	—	0	—
16	Ray G. Dauber	1931–1932	2	16	5	11	0	0.313	0	9	0	.000	0	0	0	—	0	—
17	Ross McKechnie	1933–1934	2	20	7	12	1	0.375	1	10	1	0.125	0	0	0	—	0	—
18	Ralph Sasse	1935–1937	3	32	20	10	2	0.656	8	7	0	0.533	0	1	0	—	0	—
19	Spike Nelson	1938	1	10	4	6	0	0.400	1	4	0	0.200	0	0	0	—	0	—
20	Allyn McKeen^†	1939–1942 1944–1948	4, 5	87	65	19	3	0.764	29	16	2	0.638	1	0	0	—	1	—
21	Arthur Morton	1949–1951	3	27	8	18	1	0.315	5	15	0	0.250	0	0	0	—	0	—
22	Murray Warmath	1952–1953	2	19	10	6	3	0.605	6	5	3	0.536	0	0	0	—	0	—
23	Darrell Royal^†	1954–1955	2	20	12	8	0	0.600	7	7	0	0.500	0	0	0	—	0	—
24	Wade Walker	1956–1961	6	56	22	32	2	0.411	8	30	2	0.225	0	0	0	—	0	—
25	Paul E. Davis	1962–1966	5	50	20	28	2	0.420	9	22	2	0.303	1	0	0	—	0	AP SEC Coach of the Year (1963)^[12]
26	Charles Shira	1967–1972	6	63	16	45	2	0.270	5	32	2	0.154	0	0	0	—	0	AP SEC Coach of the Year (1970)^[12]
27	Bob Tyler ^{[A 8]}	1973–1978	6	67	21	44	2	0.328	7	30	0	0.189	1	0	0	—	0	—
28	Emory Bellard	1979–1985	7	79	37	42	0	0.468	15	27	0	0.357	1	1	0	—	0	—
29	Rockey Felker	1986–1990	5	55	21	34	0	0.382	5	28	0	0.151	0	0	0	—	0	—
30	Jackie Sherrill	1991–2003	13	152	75	75	2	0.500	43	59	1	0.422	2	4	0	1	0	—
31	Sylvester Croom	2004–2008	5	59	21	38	—	0.356	10	30	—	0.250	1	0	—	0	0	AP SEC Coach of the Year (2007)^[12] SEC Coach of the Year (2007)^[12]
32	Dan Mullen	2009–2017	9	115	69	46	—	0.600	33	39	—	0.458	5	2	—	0	0	AP SEC Coach of the Year (2014)
Int	Greg Knox	2017	1	1	1	0	—	1.000	0	0	—	—	1	0	—	0	0	—
33	Joe Moorhead	2018–2019	2	26	14	12	—	0.538	7	9	—	0.438	0	2	—	0	0	—
34	Mike Leach	2020–2022	3	35	19	16	—	0.543	11	14	—	0.440	1	1	—	0	0	—
35	Zach Arnett	2022–2023	2	11	5	6	—	0.455	1	6	—	0.143	1	0	—	0	0	—
Int	Greg Knox	2023	1	2	1	1	—	0.500	0	1	—	.000	0	0	—	0	0	—
36	Jeff Lebby	2024–present	2	25	7	18	—	0.280	1	15	—	0.063	0	1	—	0	0	—

^[15]^[16]

v t e Mississippi State Bulldogs football
Venues	Davis Wade Stadium (1914–present) Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (alternate, 1953–1990)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Alabama Auburn LSU Ole Miss: Egg Bowl
Culture & lore	Bully "Hail State" Famous Maroon Band
People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1895 1896 1897–1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

List of Mississippi State Bulldogs head football coaches

Coaches

Notes

References

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