Mike Leach: Mississippi State has strong interest in upcoming kicker tryouts

Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach appears to be sticking to his word about kicking tryouts.

On Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference, Leach answered questions from multiple reporters about the state of the Bulldogs kicking room. 

“We’re a work in progress,” Leach said when asked how he would evaluate the kicking game at the current time.

The follow-up question pertained to a comment Leach made last weekend following a 31-28 loss at the hands of Arkansas. Time expired as Nolan McCord missed a 40-yard field goal that would have tied the game at 31. 

“We have about 40 that signed up so far that I know of or that I heard,” the second-year head coach said about a tryout he proposed after the game. “Whatever we do as far as kicking, we’ll decide that this week.”

Even if Mississippi State selects one of the approximately 40 kickers apparently showing up at the tryout, he will not be ready to take the field against Auburn on Saturday.

“We haven’t seen them yet, so I’m sure it will come in all shapes and sizes,” Leach said after also discussing the paperwork that comes with adding an additional player to the team. 

“There is a date set. I think it’s next week sometime,” he added. “We will have our special teams guy sift through them and see which ones we keep, if we keep any or how many.”

In the meantime, the Bulldogs coaches are continuing to work with the kickers currently on the roster.

“You keep working,” Leach said. “You just keep working. Just kind of go back to square one as far as the drills and just focus on the plant foot and all those things.”

Poor performance led to call for kickers

McCord’s miss was not the only problem on the night against Arkansas. 

Kicker Brandon Ruiz missed both of his field goal tries on Saturday, a 23-yard kick and a 46-yard kick. 

As a team this season, the Bulldogs are now 9-for-17 on field goal attempts, as Ruiz has gone 5-for-9 and McCord has made 4 of 8.

After being ranked No. 17 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, Mississippi State’s loss to Arkansas dropped them to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in SEC play. They fell out of the rankings this week. Arkansas, however, moved into the No. 25 spot.

In addition to the Auburn game, the Bulldogs have games against Tennessee State and Ole Miss remaining. 

Mississippi State is a 5.5-point underdog at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. The game starts at 11:00 a.m. CT on ESPN.