STARKVILLE – Joe Moorhead has made his move.

It might've taken longer than many Mississippi State fans would've liked, but the Bulldogs' head coach has decided to start true freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader over graduate senior Tommy Stevens against No. 3 LSU (6-0, 2-0 SEC) this Saturday.

Shrader has played in five of Mississippi State's first six games but has started only one, a 28-13 victory over Kentucky in Week 4. Stevens has started the rest of MSU's games in spite of nagging injuries that spawned in the second week of the season against Southern Miss.

Moorhead considered starting Shrader against Tennessee last week but chose to go with Stevens because he was the healthier of the two. Stevens went 6-of-11 for 67 yards and two interceptions.

Shrader replaced Stevens in the second half against the Volunteers despite a fairly serious injury to his left foot. He went 5-of-10 for 79 yards with one touchdown and an interception.

"Based on what we've seen the past few weeks with both guys dealing with injuries and Garrett leading us to the win over Kentucky and coming in the Auburn game and providing a spark and doing the same thing at Tennessee and Tommy still not being completely over some of his things, we just feel like Garrett has been playing [well] and gives us a great shot," Moorhead said Monday in his weekly press conference.

Shrader is 45-of-78 for 590 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions on the season. He's added 374 rushing yards on 59 carries and two scores on the ground. He still ran for 62 yards on 13 carries while hampered with his foot injury in the loss to Tennessee.

Moorhead had high praise for his true freshman who he heavily recruited to State College when he was the offensive coordinator at Penn State.

"I've kind of had it in my head for the past three years that he was going to be a guy that was going to be able lead whatever program he goes to to great things," Moorhead said. "From the time that he stepped on the field to the helicopter run to everything he does on a daily basis to preparation and quite frankly performance has earned the respect of his teammates," Moorhead said.

On the flip side, Moorhead is hurt for Stevens. He transferred to Mississippi State after four seasons spent as a backup at Penn State. He earned the starting job in Starkville after winning a quarterback competition with junior Keytaon Thompson during preseason training camp.

Quarterbacks coach Andrew Breiner spoke with Stevens on Sunday to tell him that Shrader had taken over the starting job. Moorhead will follow up with him Monday.

"I think he understands that we have his best interest at heart," Moorhead said. "Obviously, we talk all the time about decisions being made for the team first and for the individual second. Tommy could still play a valuable role for us, and I'm sure he'll be in a game again at some point."

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Moorhead also said Thompson could play a role at some point this season. Thompson entered the transfer portal after losing out to Stevens but returned just over a week later. He's also been dealing with an upper-body injury.

Moorhead said Thompson is firmly No. 3 on the depth chart. Moorhead is being "very mindful" of retaining Thompson's redshirt status as well. Thompson has yet to appear in any games this season.

Barring injury, Mississippi State is Shrader's team going forward.

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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!