New Mississippi College head football coach Norman Joseph is looking forward to showing off a new, wide-open offensive attack next fall.

Considered one of the better offensive minds in college football, Mississippi College will be Joseph’s third head coaching job. He led Louisiana College to a 5-5 record in 2004 behind an offense that set 38 team records and 41 individual marks.

Joseph, who has also had stops at Southern Miss and San Jose State, said the Choctaws’ offense will be similar to the one at Louisiana College, but not just a run-and-shoot style.

“It’s a wide open attack, but it’s not a spread offense,” the Vicksburg native said. “We don’t throw it all the time. We want to run the ball effectively.

“We’ll go four wide, but I also like to use a tight end. There’s also some situations where we will use two backs,” Joseph said.

While at San Jose State, Joseph’s offense ranked 24th in the NCAA in passing offense in 2002. At Southern Miss, the Golden Eagles were second in scoring offense in Conference USA.

Mississippi College is coming off a 1-9 season. They were 1-8 in the American Southwest Conference. Joseph says his staff has made progress in improving the Choctaws’ focus and the team made substantial progress toward his three primary goals for the spring semester.

“First, we wanted to develop a positive attitude. Second, we wanted to implement our basic offensive and defensive sets, and third we needed our recruiting to get going because we need to get our numbers up,” he said.

Getting new recruits will also be a big factor for Joseph, who starred at South Vicksburg High. He said he intends to get some from his hometown.

“I know they are quality athletes in the area. We’ve got one coming in the fall in Chris Kelly from Warren Central. He’s an offensive linemen,” he said.

Joseph also said that MC will be remaining a Division III school for the time being.

“They did a feasibility study and we’re going to stay where we are at Division III,” he said.