Zach Attack: A look at what makes MSU's Zach Arnett so successful
Erroll Thompson has seen a lot in his five seasons at Mississippi State. The senior linebacker for the Bulldogs has played under three different head coaches. He’s had four different defensive coordinators.
The fourth one of those coordinators has stood out to Thompson though. Back in January, Zach Arnett was hired by first-year State head coach Mike Leach. Arnett was to bring his 3-3-5 scheme to Starkville. In under 12 months, Arnett has left an impression on Thompson that he’ll never forget.
“This is a bold statement, but he’s probably the greatest and best defensive coordinator I’ve had.” Thompson said.
Thompson’s playing career saw him spend a year under highly respected coordinator Todd Grantham and two seasons under veteran Bob Shoop. Thompson was redshirting in his true freshman season when Peter Sirmon guided the Bulldog defense.
But Arnett has quickly proven himself to Thompson and, in his mind, risen above the pack.
“He’s meant everything,” Thompson said of Arnett.
It’s hard to find anyone wearing maroon and white these days that doesn’t agree. But how did Arnett quickly become such an invaluable part of the Bulldogs and leading a 2020 group that has far exceeded all expectations? Oddly enough, it kind of started on the baseball diamond.
From line drives to linebacker
Current New Mexico defensive coordinator Rocky Long was the head football coach at the school when Arnett arrived for college. And Arnett wasn’t originally coming to play football.
“He was a much more sought-after baseball player,” Long said of Arnett. “He came on a baseball scholarship.”
Now Arnett was a successful high school football player too, but he was an absolute stud on the diamond. He was a standout catcher and earned his free ride to play for the Lobos after hitting .477 with 20 home runs, 110 runs scored and driving in 141 runs over his prep career at La Cueva High in Albuquerque.
“(Arnett has) really been like the Mike Ditka of La Cueva High School," Arnett’s high school baseball coach Stan McKeever told the Albuquerque Journal back in 2005. "He's such a heads-up player and he's not afraid to say something to a teammate to get his head on straight.
"He was the leader of our baseball team for at least the last three years, and I'm not sure he wasn't one of the leaders as a freshman."
With Arnett as an anchor, La Cueva won three state titles and set what was at the time a national record by winning 70-straight games.
New Mexico wanted Arnett to bring his toughness and sweet swing to its baseball program. But Arnett wanted to play football for the Lobos too and pretty soon, everything changed.
“He always wanted to play football (too), so he was (walking on) on the football team,” Long recalled. “But if you’re a walk-on on the football team, obviously your scholarship, even though it’s paid by baseball, is counted at football. So for us to keep him on the football team, he had to prove to us that he could be a player and eventually a starter, which he did. He became a very important part of our team and team captain and all those sorts of things.”
And as for that baseball career?
“He actually gave up baseball which really made the baseball coaches mad,” Long said.
Ultimate competitor
Who knows what would’ve happened had Arnett stuck with baseball, but given what happened immediately and since, it seems safe to say Arnett made a good call.
He was a star for the Lobos over his four seasons at linebacker, racking up 200 career tackles and tying for the FBS lead with six forced fumbles as a senior captain in 2008. New Mexico won 25 games with Arnett on the squad and the school notched back-to-back bowl appearances in 2006 and 2007. Not bad at all for a walk-on.
“As a player, he’s one of those guys that overachieved,” Long said of Arnett. “I think he’s a really tough competitor. I think it means a lot to him. He prepares to be successful, then whenever he has a chance, he plays hard and works hard to be the best that it can be.”
Coach Arnett
Fast forward to 2011. Long is at this point the head coach at San Diego State.
Of course Long is a big proponent of the 3-3-5 scheme, so it’s a benefit to him to hire coaches that know it and understand it. Just so happened there was a former linebacker of his that fit and Long brought on Arnett as a defensive graduate assistant.
“He’s smart and loves the game of football,” Long said. “Whenever you have an opportunity to hire somebody like that or give someone a chance like that, you’re gonna do it. And just the fact he played (in the 3-3-5) made the biggest difference because he knew what we were all about. And he knew the expectation level that we had. But him being smart and wanting to be a great coach is the number one factor that made you want to give him a chance.”
And wouldn’t you know it, just like at La Cueva High and then at New Mexico, Arnett kept impressing at San Diego State. He rose up the ranks to linebackers coach by 2014 and then in 2018, Arnett became the defensive coordinator.
In two years calling the shots for the Aztecs, Arnett had his group inside the Top 15 nationally in multiple categories over that span including rushing yards allowed per game, rushing yards allowed per carry, yards allowed per play and much more.
After the 2019 season, Long retired at San Diego State. With his mentor gone, Arnett found a new opportunity as well. He went to Syracuse to become the defensive coordinator of the Orange. That lasted less than two weeks because a certain pirate that was now calling the shots down in Starkville at Mississippi State had his eyes on the up-and-coming Arnett. To be perfectly fair though, Arnett didn’t get the first crack at the gig.
Highly recommended
According to Long, Leach was looking for a defensive coordinator that could run the 3-3-5 style, a scheme remembered fondly by many in Starkville because of the success former defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn had using it with the Bulldogs some two decades ago.
To hear Arnett tell it now though, it wasn’t Arnett that Leach was first looking for. It was Long.
“I’m probably just lucky enough that Coach Dunn is retired and Coach Long didn’t want to give it a go here,” Arnett said earlier this week. “Here I am as the fortunate benefactor of that.”
Indeed, Long didn’t come to MSU. But he certainly highly recommended Arnett as a guy Leach could rely on.
“Coach Leach was looking for a guy that knew and understood the (3-3-5) system,” Long said. “(Leach) and I are friends and we talked about the possibilities and if there was somebody out there that could run our system and I gave him Zach’s name. Coach Leach took it from there.”
In the year that has followed since, it has become apparent opportunity was all Arnett needed.
Overachieving again
Like the walk-on linebacker that became the heartbeat of New Mexico in the late 2000s, the Bulldog version of Zach Arnett has once again exploded onto the scene and surpassed all expectations. Mississippi State’s defense began this year with depth questions and inexperience. Those two things have been obstacles for Arnett all season, but somehow, someway, all he has done is give MSU one of the Southeastern Conference’s best units. State is fourth in the SEC in both rushing defense and total defense, something that no one could’ve imagined back in August. Earlier this month, Arnett was nominated for the Broyles Award, an honor given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach.
The secret seems to once again be that never-fading competitive spirit of Arnett.
“All great competitors are never satisfied,” Long said. “Even if you played well, you didn’t play as good as you should have. If you lost the game and even if you win, you didn’t play as good as you should have because (the opponent) scored too many points.”
Indeed, Arnett has seemed all year like a coach never ready to settle.
“I wish I could have called a couple of better games,” Arnett said. “We might have a few more victories.”
It appears that drive just never turns off for Arnett.
“He comes in every day and he puts the work in,” Thompson said. “He won’t tell you that, but he really does put the work and the time in behind the scenes.”
Now the Bulldogs just hope that work continues to happen in Starkville for the foreseeable future and they went a long way towards securing that recently.
Extended
This week, it was confirmed that Arnett has agreed to an extension to remain at Mississippi State. He was, and still likely is, expected to be an attractive candidate for any team looking for a defensive coordinator this offseason. But now, MSU has done its part to try and make sure the Bulldogs retain the services of Arnett.
“Well we’re just really excited about the job that he does,” Leach said when asked about Arnett’s contract extension. “He brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm. He’s aggressive. We want Zach to be here for a long time.”
Terms of Arnett’s deal aren’t currently known. But it is known that the Bulldogs are committed to Arnett and it sure sounds like he’s committed to them.
“I absolutely love it here," Arnett said. "First of all, I get to work with a fantastic head coach who’s a future Hall of Famer obviously. For a young coach to get to learn from him and the other guys on the staff who’ve got a lot more years of experience and a lot more knowledge, the opportunity to learn from those guys is incredibly invaluable. There are great players in this program. Obviously there’s really good football players, but they’re even better guys…And I’m married with two young kids and I don’t think there’s a better place to raise a family. I’ve got incredible neighbors.
“I’ve absolutely loved it here.”
The proud mentor
Long has been busy this season at New Mexico, but not too busy to keep up with, and even help, Arnett.
“In fact he texted me the other day,” Long said. “The other day we had a game where we had eight sacks or nine sacks against Fresno State and he wanted to get a copy of the deal because he wanted to see if we were running any blitzes he didn’t know.”
Competitive. Tenacious. Determined. It’s just who Arnett is and Long has loved seeing the success come for his former player and assistant.
“I’m very proud of what he’s been able to accomplish, but it’s not surprising to me because I’ve seen him do things like this in the past with the relationship we’ve had over the years,” Long said. “It doesn’t surprise me a bit…I think that Coach Leach was lucky to get him and I think it’ll just get better.”
And Arnett, in part, has Long to thank for much of his success – apparently in more ways than one as Arnett expressed with his often blunt, sometimes self-depreciating style.
“I really owe Rocky Long a thanks for not coming out here,” Arnett said this week. “You guys probably would have liked him better.”
Mississippi State defensive coordinator Zach Arnett has been invaluable for the Bulldogs this season. (Photo courtesy of Mississippi State athletics)
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