Greg McElroy believes Will Rogers will prove himself in new offensive scheme

Recently college football expert Greg McElroy revealed his list of the best quarterbacks in the SEC and the Pac-12. Taking the top spot for the SEC was LSU’s quarterback Jayden Daniels. But according to McElroy, it was splitting hairs between Daniels and the number two quarterback Mississippi State’s Will Rogers.

“The one difference between quarterback one, Jayden Daniels, and quarterback two and Will Rogers is that there is a transition from one system to another,” said McElroy. “Jayden Daniels, there’s consistency from where he was last year to where he’s going to be this year. With Will Rogers, albeit one of the most accomplished players in school history, statistically multiple seasons now with 35 touchdown passes and fewer than 10 interceptions, but he did so in an air raid offense. Now I’m not taking anything away from him, but the question I have is, is Will Rogers a system quarterback?”

Rogers has put up some colossal stat lines in his three years at Mississippi State in the late Mike Leach’s patented air-raid offense. But some believe quarterbacks within the air raid stats are padded because of the system. McElroy also believes and understands that reasoning. However, he does not think it applies to Rogers.

“I don’t think he is; that’s why I have him at number two. I really believe that he’s gonna prove this year that you can put him into a more balanced attack that’s going to rely a little bit more on off-play action. That’s going to rely a little bit more off bootleg action. And you think about what he did last year; on passes that traveled 10 yards or more downfield, he completed over 50 percent of those passes. So this is a guy that can push the ball down the field. He just hasn’t had to do it as often as some of the other guys on the list.”

With the tragic passing of Leach, Mississippi State had to go out and find a new offensive play caller. The Bulldogs found their new offensive coordinator in Boone, NC, at Appalachian State University.

“You bring in Kevin Barbary from Appalachian State; they’re gonna be a stretch zone team that’s gonna try to run the football. So he’s gonna marry up that run game with some play-action passing. I think he’s going to get some favorable looks in the secondary as a result. And he has shown over the course of his career, a guy that it’s extremely accurate, a guy that is willing to stand in there and take some shots, and he’s already thrown for over 10,000 yards, (and) 82 touchdowns. He’s already one of the most accomplished players in Southeastern Conference history and still has plenty of time left to increase those numbers.”

Rogers has put up some pretty impressive numbers during his first three years at Mississippi State, including a completion percentage north of 70. And if the offense under Barbary as the new OC features a productive running game, that should present more opportunities for Rogers to show off his passing ability and take over the spot of top quarterback in the SEC in MclEroy’s eyes.