STARKVILLE – Joe Moorhead might not be the most popular guy in town after his Mississippi State Bulldogs were throttled by Auburn last weekend, but he isn't going anywhere.

Not any time soon, anyway.

Roughly 30 hours after the loss to Auburn, Moorhead was mentioned in an Asbury Park Press story as a "potential target" for the head coaching job at Rutgers. Former Rutgers head coach Chris Ash was fired Sunday after a 52-0 loss to Michigan on Saturday.

Moorhead met with reporters after MSU's Tuesday evening practice. He said it "must be getting toward that time of year" for rumors to start spreading about college coaches. Moorhead said he has not been contacted by anyone at Rutgers, nor has he contacted them.

"We ask our players to focus on the task at hand, and right now I'm focused on us getting better tomorrow, us doing a great job of recruiting this weekend and doing what we need to do with the team next week to find a way to beat Tennessee," Moorhead said after the Clarion Ledger asked about the speculation connecting him to the Rutgers job.

Moorhead's name has been thrown around as a candidate in many media circles since the Rutgers job opened. Most notably, Moorhead was mentioned by Bruce Feldman of The Athletic and Barton Simmons of 247Sports as a top target for Rutgers.

"He might realize he's bit off a little more than he can chew in the SEC West," Simmons said on his Cover 3 College Football Podcast.

Simmons said Moorhead is a "more cultural fit" at Rutgers while Feldman called him a "wild-card option." Moorhead was born and raised in Pittsburgh and went to college in The Bronx at Fordham University. That's also where his head coaching career began in 2012.

Moorhead obviously has ties to the Big 10, too. He was the offensive coordinator at Penn State for two seasons in 2016-17. Moorhead made his way from there to Mississippi State, and that's where he intends to stay until he's told otherwise.

A video went viral last week of Moorhead vivaciously celebrating in the locker room after Mississippi State's 28-13 win over Kentucky in Week 4. What he said to his team then should be taken at face value based on the reaction and response he gave to the Rutgers rumors Tuesday.

"I'll go to war with this team seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," Moorhead said. "There is something special happening right here, I promise you that."

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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!