Ex-Penn State DC Bob Shoop will join Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State
Joe Moorhead is adding another former Penn State assistant to his staff in Starkville.
Friday morning, Adam Rittenberg and Chris Low of ESPN both reported that former Penn State and Tennessee defensive coordinator Bob Shoop will be joining Moorhead at Mississippi State. He has spent the last two seasons with the Volunteers. Before that, he was on James Franklin’s staff at Vanderbilt and Penn State.
As reported by my colleague @ESPNRittenberg, Bob Shoop is joining Joe Moorhead as Mississippi State's defensive coordinator. Shoop has been the DC at Tennessee the last 2 years and was previously the DC at Penn State and Vanderbilt.
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) December 8, 2017
This will be Shoop’s third stop in the SEC, spending three seasons at Vanderbilt under Franklin (2011-2013) and returning to the Volunteer state in 2016 to be the defensive coordinator at Tennessee.
Each of the last two seasons, the Volunteers ranked in the lower half of the SEC defensively, allowing at least 28 points per game in 2016 and 2017. They also surrendered at 40 points or more eight times in that stretch.
However, while at Penn State Shoop’s defense were some of the best in the B1G. In 2014 the Nittany Lions ranked first in the conference in scoring defense, allowing just 18.6 points per contest.
Mississippi State’s defense allowed 20.4 points per game in 2017.