Zach Arnett has 'full faith' in Mike Wright if needed

Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Zach Arnett is confident in backup quarterback Mike Wright should be needed to take over for Will Rogers.

This comes amid an injury concern for longtime starting quarterback Will Rogers. In the win against Western Michigan, Rogers left with an apparent injury to his non-throwing arm or shoulder. Now, his status is up in the air going forward.

“Before I get to that, in the event you ask a roundabout question about [injuries] I’ll give you an answer,” Zach Arnett laughed. “But the reality is no matter what position you play, no matter what position you play, it’s not unique to the quarterback. No matter what position you play, whether you are the starter or not, you must prepare as you are the starter.”

Mike Wright came to Mississippi State as a transfer from Vanderbilt. Initially, he was a three-star recruit in the 2020 cycle and the 39th-ranked quarterback overall, according to the On3 Industry Rankings,

During his time with Vanderbilt, Wright played in 26 games. He’s already appeared in six games this season for Mississippi State. He has a 55.8 completion percentage on 344 career passing attempts with 2,128 yards and 22 touchdowns. On top of that, Wright has 1,043 rushing yards and 10 career scores on the ground.

“So, I have full faith and confidence. Mike has taken advantage of every opportunity he’s had this season. He’s scored several touchdowns. He’s distributed the ball for several touchdowns when he’s been in. He saw increased action last week. If he has to play additional snaps, we have no reason to believe he won’t perform the exact same.”

No matter the injury status of Will Rogers, the Bulldogs are on a bye this week. That will give Mississippi State more time to get healthy so that Zach Arnett doesn’t have to be reliant on Mike Wright for the Bulldogs’ next game against Arkansas.

Zach Arnett had no update on Will Rogers

During his postgame press conference, Zach Arnett was asked about Will Rogers and running back Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks who was also banged up. However, Arnett didn’t have an update at that point.

“No updates,” Arnett said. “We’ll get them back to the facility and we’ll do a thorough evaluation and obviously we’ll know more when we talk on Monday. But, those guys are warriors. They didn’t want to come out but — that’s why I appreciate coaching guys like that. They’re bulldog-mentality guys.”

Despite that, Arnett won’t be able to determine any player’s availability for the Arkansas game at this point.