Mississippi State fired defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler after a poor season and will hire Zach Arnett to lead a struggling defense.

Mississippi State has fired defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler after a 5-7 season, with the defense ranking near the bottom of the SEC in both 2024 and 2025. The program is expected to hire Zach Arnett as his replacement, bringing back the former defensive coordinator and head coach who led the defense to top-10 rankings in the SEC from 2020 to 2022. Arnett, fired as head coach in 2023, spent the past two seasons as a defensive analyst at Ole Miss and Florida State. His return aims to revitalize a struggling defense that allowed 29.2 points per game in 2025.