Mike Leach makes bold claim about the Mississippi State recruiting class
Mike Leach heads into year three with the Mississippi State Bulldogs holding high expectations for his program.
Leach, hired from Washington State prior to the 2020 season, went 4-7 in his first year at the helm of the Bulldogs. Though Mississippi State struggled at first — perhaps in part thanks to the COVID-impacted season, which forced Mississippi State into an SEC-only schedule — the Bulldogs rebounded nicely in 2021, putting up a 7-6 campaign. Mississippi State ultimately lost to Texas Tech, another one of Leach’s former schools, in the Liberty Bowl, but Leach is excited for the future; one that he says will be bright thanks to the 2022 recruiting class.
“I feel really good about them,” Leach said of Mississippi State’s 2022 recruiting class. “I think that we’re not done yet because right now the dust hasn’t all settled on this business of going to portals, being immediately eligible and all the things that go along with that.”
According to Leach, the job is not yet finished; after all, hundreds of experienced student-athletes with eligibility are still in the NCAA Transfer Portal. But as it stands, Mississippi State has put together quite a nice class, per the On3 Rankings.
Mississippi State’s 2022 recruiting class ranks No. 23 in the country, just two spots behind Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels. It marks the Bulldogs’ best recruiting class since the 2015 cycle, when then-head coach Dan Mullen reeled in the nation’s 16th-best recruiting class. Leach was able to gain commitments from four On3 Consensus four-star prospects — quarterback Braedyn Locke, EDGE Trevion Williams, wide receiver Marquez Dortch and wide receiver Zavion Thomas — while tuning up the roster with the NCAA Transfer Portal.
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In the Transfer Portal, Leach picked up another six players, four of whom are four-star prospects and transferred from schools such as West Virginia, Georgia, Northwestern and Alabama. He’s pleased with his class; so much so that he sang high praise for what the group can accomplish.
“What we are able to do, I guess, is (put together) a pretty comprehensive class here. We’ve filled most of our needs and we’re not finished,” Leach said. “I think they were high-quality guys. I think this is a really good class. It might be the best class that my group has ever had. So it works out.”
The class certainly ranks as the best since Leach’s arrival in Starkville. In Leach’s first season, 2020, he put together the 25th-ranked class; in 2021, he put together the 37th ranked class; and this year, Mississippi State improved substantially, coming in at No. 23. Additionally, the class ranks No. 10 in the uber-competitive SEC, two spots higher than the Bulldogs’ rank last season.