How Mississippi State has evolved in year two under Mike Leach

Mike Leach entered the SEC on fire, then quickly flamed out in 2020 (thanks to Kentucky’s defense). Entering the Pirate’s second season, Mark Stoops sees a Bulldog offense that has reignited thanks in part to second-year quarterback Will Rogers.

In his first game as the Mississippi State head coach, the Bulldogs dethroned the defending National Champion LSU Tigers with a 44-34 win. KJ Costello set an SEC record with 623 passing yards in the victory. Two weeks later he was temporarily benched when Kentucky picked off six Bulldog passes. Star running back Kylin Hill opted out shortly after the 24-2 loss to the Wildcats.

Kentucky will be facing a much different team when the 12th-ranked Wildcats travel to Starkville this Saturday.

Year Two Growth Under Leach

Stoops was quick to downplay the Wildcats’ success last year in Lexington against the Bulldogs, attributing some of the big plays by his defense to the ball just bouncing UK’s way. As Stoops knows all too well, there are significant growing pains in a new head coach’s first year, particularly when making a drastic stylistic shift.

“Obviously, they were in the first year of their system offensively and they’re going to be at a much higher level right now,” Stoops said at Monday’s press conference. “They still are a physical football team and they’ve never disappointed that way. When you go watch them, you go out there for pregame warm-ups, they’re always a good-looking football team with great length and size and they play very physical.”

Leach’s air raid system is predicated on gaining yards after the catch. The Bulldogs will dink and dunk the ball around to receivers underneath the defense, then try to make defenders miss. That just wasn’t happening consistently a year ago.

“You see their players making the routine plays,” said Stoops. “I’m sure it was frustrating when they’re not making routine plays look routine. Now when they’re running their offense in the basic stuff is there and the simple catches turn into yards are there, they’re doing that. That’s a staple of Mike Leach’s offense. They’re going to be repetitive, but they’re going to be very good at what they do, they’re going to know it. You see them playing at a higher level that way.”

Will Rogers Fits the Air Raid

It only took a few games for Leach to realize Costello was not the answer at quarterback, moving to true freshman Will Rogers for the final six games of the season. By looking to the future, Rogers has developed into a consistent pocket passer. This year he has completed 73.5% of his passes for 364 yards per game.

“Will is doing a really good job of running the offense. You can see his comfort level going higher and higher, getting rid of the football and not putting them in such negative situations as you saw in the first year of the program with a young quarterback.” Stoops added, “You see him playing at a very high level, getting to where they want to be.”

Defending Leach’s Air Raid

Any Football Frank that watched last year’s Kentucky win will tell you that dropping eight into coverage is the secret to success against Leach’s passing attack. If it were that easy, everyone would do it. There’s more nuance involved and Brad White has to known when to disguise defenses and mix up coverages.

“I think there has to be a mixture. Brad did a nice job a year ago of mixing things up. They will. They’re continuing to evolve and grow, but yet you see the same things Mike’s been doing for a long time. Mainly, just how well they execute things. They do what they do,” said Stoops.

“The quarterback understands their system I think. You can see the receivers playing at much higher level this year, understanding when to sit it down, when to run, just doing the basics much better. Mike (Leach) always presents a problem, his offenses always do, you see them being more effective and that goes the same for us. We have to be multiple, we have to mix things up and we just have to play good football.”

The BBN cannot expect Kentucky to pick off six passes to run away with a win at Mississippi State. Rogers has the Bulldogs playing at a much higher level. The Wildcats must tackle well in the open field and time up their shots wisely to leave Starkville with a victory for the first since 2008.