STARKVILLE – Joe Moorhead and the Bulldog staff received 14 National Letters of Intent to solidify a top-20 ranked recruiting class on the first day of the early signing period on Wednesday.

MSU's #MoorDawgs19 closed out the day ranked as high as No. 14 by ESPN.com, No. 19 by 247Sports.com and No. 22 by Rivals.com. Based on ESPN.com's rankings, the Bulldogs wrapped up the day as the sixth-highest ranked SEC team behind No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 6 LSU and No. 13 Auburn. The complete class was unveiled on HailState.com/MoorDawgs19.

Eight of the 14 signees hail from the state of Mississippi, while the others come from Alabama (2), Georgia (1), Louisiana (1) North Carolina (1) and Tennessee (1). Moorhead signed three top-15 players in the state of Mississippi according to the 247Sports' overall rankings, including four-star offensive tackle and 95th overall ranked prospect in Charles Cross (Laurel, Miss.). MSU also inked two of the top three ranked Mississippi junior college prospects in safety Fred Peters (Jones County) and LaQuinston Sharp (East Mississippi).

Among State's other top signees were four-star prospects defensive end De'Monte Russell (Pelahatchie, Miss.), quarterback Garrett Shrader (Charlotte, N.C.), cornerback Jarrian Jones (Brandon, Miss.) and defensive end Ani Izuchukwu (Hendersonville, Tenn.).

The Bulldogs finished Wednesday with eight signees on offense and six on defense.

MSU completed an 8-4 regular season, finished No. 18 in the College Football Playoff rankings and secured a New Year's Day bowl berth. State takes on Iowa in the Outback Bowl at noon ET/11 a.m. CT on Jan. 1 in Tampa.

Fans who purchase tickets through HailState.com/bowltickets can receive a free Egg Bowl lapel pin, dinner with Coach Moorhead and an athletic facility tour.

For more information on National Signing Day, follow HailState.com/MoorDawgs19.

Head Coach Joe Moorhead

December 19, 2018

Opening Statement …

"Welcome to National Signing Day: Part One, where hope springs eternal across the country. I think it is no different here at Mississippi State and in Starkville. We're certainty very excited to add 14 new members to our program. I think, first and foremost, the most important aspect of it to me is the celebration of this day for our incoming players and their parents. It's a columniation of a life's worth of work in the classroom and on the field to be rewarded with an opportunity to play in a SEC West program. I can't say enough for the parents entrusting us to help build on the fine work that they've done and making sure that they leave here in four or five years a better student, a better person and a better player in that order. We are definitely indebted to the families and the young men for their belief in us, our vision, our program, our culture and where we can get them. I want to thank all the people who go into the very cumbersome and sometimes tedious task of putting a recruiting class together. That spans well over two years, sometimes three years. I think last year you guys were all waiting as I thanked everyone from President (Mark) Keenum down to the person that flew the plane. I'm not going to go through all them individually this year for the sake of brevity, but they are all very much appreciated. Coach (Mike) Villagrana and his staff in the recruiting department for organizing a plan and putting it together. Our assistant coaches for seeing the kids, making evaluations, getting to know the high school coaches, the families, the players, building and cultivating relationships. Certainly, our administration has given us a tremendous amount of support to do the things that we do. For how we've been received in the state of Mississippi by the high school coaches is really humbling to me. Going on a full calendar year in the state now, I've felt that I've been made one of their own. They've welcomed me with open arms. That certainly extended in our footprint area. Nationally, the brand of Mississippi State football and our vision and what we can do for young men in our program – I think the results show in the guys that we've been able to sign. When you look at it, very good balance in the 14 signees – eight offense, six defense. Eight from the great state of Mississippi, five from our footprint and one from our national area. Every year, you're looking to add size, speed, strength, athleticism and play-making ability to your roster. Obviously, depth issues play a large part into that, but overall, I think we addressed all of those areas. I couldn't be more happy to have these young men in our program."

On comparing this year's recruiting process to last year …

"I don't even know if you can make a comparison. I was hired a couple days after Thanksgiving. Maybe that next week, and those next three weeks were working to put a staff together, figuring out who the commitments are, where they go to school, what position they play, the reasons they chose Mississippi State and working to get into the school and into the homes to talk to them about our vision, our goal, our plans. That was definitely something that required a lot of work and effort to forge relationships in a very small amount of time. At a certain time, talking to a kid who's going to play offense and don't know who the coordinator is going to be or defense and not know who the defensive coordinator is going to be. I think this year the difference is we've been working on creating those relationships and do those things over a year's period of time. Now it's been in conjunction with bowl preparation, but I think it is night and day from last year to this year."

On the emphasis on the offensive and defensive lines …

"First and foremost, philosophically, this is a line of scrimmage football league. The mentality of great teams, championship teams are dedicated by the offensive and defensive line. If you can't run the ball and you can't protect and you can't stop the run and pressure the passer in this league, it's going to be a long day at the office. That's the first thing. I think anytime that you have the opportunity to recruit the big guys who really make all the difference in the game that's the primary area of focus. Secondly – from a pure numbers perspective – in a needs assessment, for a few classes here, we haven't really signed many offensive linemen that made it to campus. We needed to sign some to get to our number – number one. You look at our senior class on the defensive line, we're losing a significant number of players. I think it's a combination of philosophy and need."

On building relationships with Charles Cross and Nick Pendley …

"In terms of the initial contact, we've been recruiting Charles (Cross) for a little bit more time because he was in state. We've known about him for a very long time. We just continued to stay in contact with him. He made his decision to re-open his recruiting. We really hadn't changed anything we've been doing the entire time. We just had the opportunity to get him up on campus, get him on an official visit. Ultimately, what we had to offer matched his criteria. Anytime that occurs, that usually makes for a good marriage. To get a player of his caliber from in-state on the offensive line, a four-star guy that could have gone just about anywhere in the country, I think that's a huge feather in our cap. He's going to enroll midyear, so that's going to be a huge thing. With Nick (Pendley), we were recruiting him throughout the year. We didn't' know about him as long as Charles, but got him on campus for a couple games during the season. He was a good luck charm. They were both wins, so that was a positive. We made the decision to go ahead and offer him. We got the family up on an official visit. I think that's the great thing about getting kids on campus in that capacity that the school sells itself, getting around our academic people and seeing everything we have to offer relative to a degree. Getting around our players and seeing our culture and how they fit in, and our coaching staff as well. That's the difference in the recruiting between those two guys."

On if any of the offensive line signees could make an immediate impact next season …

"That's the one thing you talk to all the recruits, specifically our signees, that I can't guarantee them anything but an opportunity. A coach that tells you you're going to come and definitely start – I just don't believe in that because you never know what's going to happen in a kid's development. You never know what's going to happen with players on your team and how they are going to improve, but they are all guaranteed an opportunity. Now if they come in and compete and show that they've earned the right to be on the two-deep or be a starter, they'll play. Some of those guys on the list are better equipped to compete because of their physical maturation, their understanding of the game or their size, their strength or their physicality, but they will all be given the same opportunity."

On quarterback signee Garrett Shrader …

"I've been recruiting Garrett since he was a sophomore in high school, so feels like a long time. When you look at our offense and what we need from that position, a guy that can beat you with his arms, his legs and his brain – I think Garrett checks off all those boxes. Two-time state champion, I believe they've lost one or two games in the last three years. A three-year starter, over 60 percent completions. I'm really impressed with his touchdown-interception ratio. You turn on this year's highlight tape, it's 10 minutes and 30 seconds. You look at his junior one and his first clip is him breaking a run and hurdling a guy. He drops back and throws a post ball on a dime and then scrambles and makes plays. I think he's very representative of our philosophy on offense to be able to balance the run and the pass and have the quarterback beat you with his arm and his legs. He's an excellent fit for our system."

On the relationship between Mississippi State and Noxubee County High School …

"It's critically important from a philosophical standpoint. Our recruiting model is to work from inside out and do as good as we can in the state of Mississippi, work our footprint area and then work national areas. The further we go away from the city of Starkville, the better the player should be. A player of Kyziah's (Pruitt) ability, from Noxubee County, he's been up here a bunch of times. His family bleeds Maroon and White. It's another situation where his criteria matched what we have to offer. He had a very big MS-AL game. He was kind of injured a little bit over his senior season but came on strong. I think he had 90 catches for over a 1,000 yards as a junior, but he's a guy that has posted really, really impressive numbers on top of his physical attributes. He's a real smart kid, too. I think he'll do an awesome job here."

On how Jarrian Jones and J.P. Pruitt will fit into the system …

"Jarrian (Jones) is going to start out at corner, but I think he can play safety. He can play wide out. He can do a bunch of things. He could probably take my job if he wanted to. He's got that kind of charisma. People gravitate towards him. He's intelligent. He's well spoken. You watched the MS-AL game or watched any part of his season, in my opinion, he could be an All-SEC defensive back or an All-SEC receiver. I think he was the glue that in a lot of ways held this class together. His contribution to us is already been significant in a lot of ways. I think you hit the nail on the head, J.P. (Pruitt) coming out of Pelahatchie. Sam Williams, his head coach, was a player here. As much as you can in this day and age with the access to information, has flown under the radar. But, a big, long athlete that's played the majority of his snaps on the offensive side of the ball. He's another guy that kind of reminds me of a kid from last year's class like Bookie (Brendan Radley-Hiles). Bookie played wide out, played tight end, played linebacker. He did a bunch of things. I think J.P. can really see himself on either side of the ball, but we're starting him off on defense though."

On what he hopes to accomplish with Garrett Shrader joining the team for bowl practice …

"You talk about the qualities you're looking for in a quarterback, he loves the process, and he loves the game. Any opportunity he can find to improve himself or make his game better, even if it is a small number of practices, he takes advantage of those things. That's what you want. You want the quarterback to be a guy that's able to lead from the front. A term that I've used with our players the past few practices is that the speed of the leader determines the speed of the pack. I believe that when your quarterback is that person, the other people are going to follow suit. He's a guy that kind of has those charismatic qualities to him. You watch him on the field, the way he conducts himself, and to me, when the starting quarterback of your team walks in the room, you shouldn't have to ask if it's the starting quarterback. When he and his beard walk in a room, he's got a little bit of that borderline confidence-cockiness to him. In a lot of ways, I think that's a good thing."

On what other positions he hopes to address in February …

"We've got, I don't want to say all of them, but we have positional needs relative to needs by number. We have a list of guys we're going to continue to recruit. Really, who we take and ultimately sign is going to depend on how the numbers fall. If we take a certain player at this position and we have a similar player ranked right below him – obviously, you can't take them both, it falls on the contingency plan."

On recruits that are still remaining on the board …

"Absolutely, we obviously have a number of guys committed that are going to wait until February to sign. We feel confident on where we are."

On the importance of signing Fred Peters …

"You talk about a guy that loves the game of football. Runs the alley. Physical, hits, can cover, and he's seasoned. Any time you're playing a Jones (County CC) or a program of that caliber, you've got a couple years of college football under your belt. You're ready to come in and set in and play. Coach (Bob) Shoop has talked already about our thought process of reloading rather than rebuilding. I think when you have guys like that come in and have played a bunch of football at a high level, it makes that learning curve a little less steep."

On signing running back Lee Witherspoon …

"Four to five is the number we kind of want on scholarship at that position. That's kind of a rough number, I guess. When you look at that guy, what Lee's done, he didn't switch over to running back until his senior year. It would be hard pressed to replicate these numbers on Madden on rookie level. It's really ridiculous. Almost 3,000 yards 19.7 a carry, 60 touchdowns. Those are like "Road to Glory," NCAA '14 numbers. Hopefully, he can do that here."