Will Rogers sets SEC career completions record in win over Arkansas

Mississippi State signal-caller Will Rogers continues to fly under the radar nationally, but that hasn’t stopped him from peppering his name all over the record books. The football flies in the air quite often in head coach Mike Leach’s Air Raid offensive attack. That certainly helps him put up gaudy stats, but it shouldn’t diminish the fact that he set the SEC career completions record in his team’s 40-17 blowout of the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday.

It shouldn’t diminish not only how impressive it is that he broke the record, but the short amount of time it took him to break it. He completed his 922nd pass since joining the Bulldogs on Saturday — passing the previous record set by former Georgia Bulldog great Aaron Murray in 2013. It only took Rogers 28 games to break the record, whereas Murray took 58 games, according to ESPN Stats & Info. After the Arkansas game, Rogers has completed 946 passes in his career thus far, with plenty of time left to put the record in a spot where it’s going to be really, really hard to break.

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The surgically accurate signal-caller could end up being one of the best quarterbacks that Mike Leach has ever coached and that’s saying something, considering the number of top-flight quarterbacks that have been developed in his Air Raid scheme over the past two decades. His gaudy stats speak for themselves.

Rogers posted some mind-boggling stats last year as a sophomore for the Bulldogs, throwing for 4,739 passing yards (third most in SEC single-season history) in his second year as the starting quarterback in Starkville. A few months ago, heading into his junior season, ESPN’s Greg McElroy broke down the uber-talented signal-caller on his podcast, “Always College Football” and he mentioned another really impressive stat on Rogers from the 2021 season.

Before the 2022 season, Greg McElroy noted an impressive stat from Will Rogers 2021-2022 campaign

“And if you look, too, at his adjusted completion percentage. I referenced the fact that he completed nearly at least 74 percent of his passes. But when you take out the drops. You take out the balls batted at the line of scrimmage. That adjusted completion percentage was just above 81 percent. That’s the third highest in the SEC since 2014. The other two that were above that–Mac Jones in 2020. He was just over 84 percent and Joe Burrow, who was just under 82 percent in 2019. Obviously, both those two guys both Heisman finalists. Those two guys ran a little bit different offensive style. But either way, adjusted completion percentage over 81 percent. You’re doing what you’ve gotta do, Will Rogers. I think you have a chance to take the next step here in 2022,” McElroy said.

This season, Rogers has completed 71.6% of his passes for 2,110 passing yards, while tossing in 22 touchdowns and just three interceptions. Mississippi State currently sits at 5-1 overall this season and are currently ranked No. 16 in the AP poll. They’ll face the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday, Oct. 15.