1. Quarterback competition is for real
Moorhead was not ready to name a starter at quarterback. He likely won't be ready to do so until late August.
Moorhead said the team has a scrimmage scheduled 10 days before the season opener against Louisiana on Aug. 31. He wants to have either graduate transfer Tommy Stevens or junior Keytaon Thompson in the starting slot by the end of that scrimmage, but he also said it might not work out that way.
"I'm not going to paint myself in a corner and necessarily it has to be by this date," Moorhead said. "I think when it becomes obvious to me it becomes obvious to the team, that someone's stepped up and won the job, we'll name it. But I don't want to put a hard and fast date on it. Just because 21 years of doing it, it never really kind of works out how you think it is."
Right now, the general consensus from the public is that Stevens has the edge. Moorhead said Stevens should have retained roughly 85 percent of the ins and outs of Mississippi State's offense from when Moorhead ran the same system for two years when Stevens was under his wing at Penn State.
Thompson, though, is the player who was under Moorhead's tutelage for an entire season in maroon and white, and he has more experience as a collegiate quarterback as well. It wouldn't be wise to write this quarterback competition off as a done deal.
2. Isaiah Zuber is fully healthy
Moorhead said one week before Media Days that he thinks Mississippi State will have two 500-yard receivers this season. That's a big goal for a team that didn't even have one 500-yard receiver last year.
Kansas State graduate transfer Isaiah Zuber could be one of the players who exceeds that mark in 2019. He led the Wildcats in receiving with 619 receiving yards last year. Zuber announced his transfer to MSU in late May, a few months after he underwent offseason hip surgery.
Zuber missed all 15 of Kansas State's spring practices while recovering, but Moorhead said Zuber is fully healthy and ready to take part in Mississippi State's fall camp when it commences on Aug 2. Zuber adds a versatile element to the Bulldogs' receiving corps. He'll be relied upon heavily by whichever quarterback wins the starting job, and Moorhead said he'll also free up space for MSU's other receivers.
"When you look at his film from Kansas State he played some slot, he played some outside," Moorhead said. "I think that flexibility, instead of pigeon-holing yourself into the X, the Z, and the slot, a guy who has been able to play all three positions allow you a little more opportunity to get your best three on the field."
3. Biggest hole is defensive line
Last year, the defensive line is what made Mississippi State so tough on defense. This year, Moorhead said it might be the team's biggest question mark.
All four starters from last year's defensive line -- Gerri Green, Braxton Hoyett, Jeffery Simmons and Montez Sweat -- have left the program. They're being replaced by a quartet of players who hardly have any collegiate starts under their belts.
"I think the defensive line is where we have to find the most answers the quickest," Moorhead said.
Moorhead likes what he sees at each end position with seniors Chauncey Rivers and Fletcher Adams and juniors Marquiss Spencer and Kobe Jones. Rivers was recently named to the preseason All-SEC third team by the media.
Moorhead is also confident in interior lineman such as seniors Kendell Jones and Lee Autry as well as redshirt freshmen Fabien Lovett and Jalen Crumedy. The talent is there, but the players are unproven.
"I'm excited for a mix of returning players and influx of young talent, and I think any time you have that number of positions open, it breeds competition and forces everyone to improve and get better," Moorhead said. "I think that's where we are heading into the season."
4. Biggest strength are the linebackers
Led by preseason first-team All-SEC selection Erroll Thompson, the Mississippi State linebacking unit could be one of the best position groups in not just the state of Mississippi but across the conference and country.
Moorhead thinks so, anyway.
"I would be hard-pressed to believe we're not one of the top linebacking units in the SEC and in the country as well," Moorhead said. "At that critical position they affect the run game and the pass game, that's probably where we bring back the most experience and the most snaps. So those guys are going to play a pivotal role."
Thompson is joined by seniors Leo Lewis and Tim Washington and fellow junior Willie Gay Jr. Thompson was second on the team in tackles last year with 87. Gay had 45, and Lewis had 45. Washington even had 21 in limited time on the field.
With the inexperience of Mississippi State's defensive line, Moorhead said there might be come changes in scheme to allow the linebackers to have as much of an impact as possible. Moorhead wants to place games in the hands of his best players, and defensively, those are the backers this season.
"Last year with the guys we had in our front four you could single-gap or one-gap a lot," Moorhead said. "This may be a year where we pressure more or we use more movement to kind of bounce things to the outside. So if you're not able to one-gap with your front four and let the linebackers run, there are some different things you can do. You can swap gaps and try to change the X-and-Os to fit the personnel rather than the other way around."
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5. The 'culture' is right in Year 2
It's a buzzword, but it might actually have some merit. Moorhead said the culture of his program is much better at this point in the summer than it was last year.
"The thing I like most from our team from the offseason program, you hear a lot of coaches use the word culture... I think the leadership, the accountability and most important, the chemistry are headed in the right direction right now in year two."
Moorhead said every player on the team is more receptive to constructive criticism than they were during his first year at the helm. The criticism doesn't even have to come from Moorhead himself, either.
Moorhead has seen team captains Thompson and Darryl Williams get onto their peers for things as little as not touching the line during drills. Instead of backlash, those instances have been followed with intensified effort.
That's how Moorhead wants it to be.
"We get to the season and it's going to be back to the old Mississippi State, blue-collar-chip-on-the-shoulder mentality that we really have to earn everything we get this season," Moorhead said.
More:Everything Joe Moorhead said at SEC Media Days
Preseason predictions:See where MSU, Ole Miss are picked to finish in SEC West
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Contact Tyler Horka at thorka@gannett.com. Follow @tbhorka on Twitter. To read more of Tyler's work, subscribe to the Clarion Ledger today!