Armed By Arnett: The Roots Of State’s 3-3-5 Defense

STARKVILLE – For just a second, rewind time.

Take yourself back to the late 1990s. Mississippi State’s defense is wreaking havoc. The Bulldogs are an opposing offensive coordinator’s nightmare. Names like Pig Prather, Fred Smoot and Ashley Cooper are making big play after big play, and the cowbells are clanging.

It’s been said that history repeats itself. Right now, in the present, it’s doing just that.

Two decades since the late, great Joe Lee Dunn was orchestrating a State 3-3-5 defense that’s legendary, current MSU defensive coordinator Zach Arnett is now in his third season reviving the scheme in Starkville.

But just how did Arnett become an adapter of the 3-3-5 and why did State head coach Mike Leach desire such a style when he arrived at MSU in 2020? Both answers largely have the same roots.

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When Leach was the head coach at Texas Tech from 2000 through 2009, his Red Raiders would often face off against New Mexico in the first half of the season; usually the first or second game of the year. Rocky Long – a big proponent of the 3-3-5 – was the head coach of the Lobos at the time.

“They did a tremendously good job running the defense,” Leach said. “Even if we put some points on them, they’d still end up in the top three in the country defensively, so I couldn’t help but admire that.”

Now, Leach had seen the 3-3-5 previously, including in 1997 and 1998 when, as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator, Leach had to face Dunn and the Bulldogs.

“I’ve had a lot of respect for it for years,” Leach admits.

Leach’s admiration led him to adopt the scheme upon arriving in Starkville, but he had to have the right man calling its shots.

“It’s kind of one of those things where you don’t just buy a book and have somebody read a few chapters and then run it. You need a guy that kind of grew up in it,” Leach said. “There’s other guys that grew up in that defense, but they don’t have the nerve to call it. You need a guy, one, that knows it and, two, not afraid to call it.”

As it turned out, more than a decade before Leach was looking for someone to run his 3-3-5, Long had a linebacker who was starting to soak in the system and beginning to thrive in it. That player’s name was Zach Arnett and – while he certainly didn’t know it at the time – he was paving his path to Starkville.