It was clear early on that new Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett's vision for the Bulldog offense was different than his predecessor and former boss, the late, great Mike Leach.
Now we know who will execute that vision.
According to multiple reports on Thursday, Appalachian State offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay has taken the same job at Mississippi State.
The 2022 campaign was Barbay's first (and only) season at App. Prior to that, Barbay spent three seasons at Central Michigan, including 2021 as offensive coordinator.
This past season, Barbay ran the ball 40 times per game, a number that nearly doubled Mississippi State's 22.7 totes per game average, which was a distant last place in FBS.
Clearly, Barbay's offense will, in part, play ball control to protect Mississippi State's defense.
Appalachian State ranked in the top 25 nationally at 6.56 yards per play, 8.4 yards per attempt, and 34.9 points per game.
A native of southeast Texas, Barbay spent the first 11 years of his career in the Lone Star State -- including two seasons as the head coach at San Antonio Warren High School and two seasons as the wide receivers coach at Lamar -- before joining Jim McElwain's operation as the director of player development at Colorado State in 2014.
That proved to be good timing. Barbay came along in 2015 as the director of player development at Florida, a job he held through 2017.
When the staff broke up after the 2017 campaign, Barbay spent 2018 as the offensive coordinator at Stephen F. Austin before re-uniting with McElwain as CMU's assistant head coach and wide receivers coach.