Mississippi State officially introduced former Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead as its new head coach with a press conference on Thursday morning.

Unsurprisingly, a few topics came up during the session that would pique the interest of fans back in Happy Valley.

Moorhead reiterated during the press conference what was reported Wednesday — he will not coach in neither Penn State nor Mississippi State’s bowl games, but will be in Starkville to help the No. 23 Bulldogs prepare for whatever game they end up in.

https://twitter.com/ChrisTurnerWTOK/status/936273461781172224

On the recruiting front, Moorhead stated that he will stick to Mississippi’s recruiting base instead of targeting players that have committed to Penn State.

Moorhead says he won't go after any recruits already committed to Penn State. "I'm not gonna do that." Going all in on MSU's commits and targets.

— Bob Carskadon (@bobcarskadon) November 30, 2017

That’s not necessarily the case for members of the coaching staff, though. The Athletic’s Chris Vannani reported this afternoon that Penn State running backs coach/special teams coordinator Charles Huff will be joining Moorhead in Starkville.

With Moorhead’s contract details released, he’ll have a decent amount to work with to build a staff around Huff and him.

https://twitter.com/dmb_report/status/936270480121761793

Averaging 2.75 million a season across the four year deal — which would be one of the lowest salaries in the SEC — Mississippi State officials apparently liked Moorhead’s willingness to take less and save room in the budget to garner a solid base of assistants.

Moorhead's focus in the deal was a big staff pool, more than his own bottom-line payment. His willingness to pay staff and take less appealed to MSU officials.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 30, 2017

You can check out Moorhead’s full introductory press conference below:

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Derek Bannister

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