Mike Leach Previews Regular Season Finale

STARKVILLE – Mississippi State's Mike Leach held his weekly press conference on Monday to preview the Bulldogs' final regular-season game against Missouri on Saturday.

Below are the quotes from Leach's press conference.  

Head Coach Mike Leach - Dec. 14, 2020

Q: Any update on the status of Marquiss Spencer after his injury?
ML: They are still observing him, you know, just as precautionary. He appears to be okay. They're going to see if anything further needs to be done. It's promising right now.

Q: How challenging is it for you to prepare for an SEC opponent and close out a recruiting class?
ML: Well it is challenging. Just, everybody will stay up late and watch film while they're making phone calls, which we did most of the night last night. So far it's been very positive, but yeah we just have to commingle it and do it both at the same time. Sometimes it's somewhat like that as you're going into a bowl. It is unique. It's definitely a unique situation. You just multitask your way through it.

Q: How do you feel like recruiting efforts have been received here in the final days?
ML: I think good. So, we'll see what happens but I think good. The exciting thing about this is you kind of get a glimpse of putting together your team in the future. It's definitely exciting. You know, you sit there, both your imagination goes wild on how great somebody's going to be. Then you say, "Well, gee maybe we could have got this guy or that guy on occasion." Generally not with this class. It's always amazing. I was thinking about that driving in today, you know, some of the classes I've had over the years. I've got a couple of those guys that are worth a couple billion dollars. A couple, of course, went on to the NFL. They do all kinds of things. I have some doctors, some lawyers and everything in between. It's kind of interesting because you think back to when you were at their house, that signing day or when you were at some high school and where they are now. It really is kind of exciting from that standpoint.

Q: What has the mood been in the locker room lately?
ML: We've had really good energy and focus on improving. That's the one thing I've been proud of with these guys is we've played really hard. In varying degrees, some teams have more people that can participate than others, but I thought our guys played hard and played hard to the end of, certainly the last - oh I'd have to add it up - at least three games we've played, maybe four.

Q: Do you anticipate any competition with Will Rogers and K.J. Costello or is Will the guy?
ML: I think Will is the guy. We're going to stick with Will and just keep him rolling.

Q: You've been high on Lideatrick Griffin for a while, what have you seen from him this year?
ML: I think he's ahead of schedule for a true freshman. I think he's a work in progress. I think you definitely haven't seen the best of what "Tulu" has to offer. He's starting to emerge and doing some better things. He's an explosive guy. He's a tough guy. Now we just have to polish him within what we ask him to do. Of course, like a lot of players this year, he's had some interruptions to his practice and play too, which didn't help. I think that Tulu's going to have a really good future here.

Q: With how many true freshmen you've played, how do you feel like they have progressed from their first practice?
ML: I'd say a long, long ways. Shoot, playing this many true freshmen, I never thought it would happen. To be honest, I didn't think it was possible. Anytime you play young guys it's tough for the present and exciting for the future. The exciting part is it's like being on a roller coaster. You see somebody do something that you never thought they could do and that they couldn't do a week ago. But the other thing is you'll see someone do something dumb or some fast guy who is even further away from the ball because he went the wrong direction. Fast guys, when they go the wrong direction, are farther from the ball than slow guys. You want them to be fast guys, but you want them to be near the ball. You'll see some mind numbing stuff where you hit your head and say, "What did I just watch? What was he thinking?" And you've got to get it all reined in. We're in that process with a lot of guys.

Q: Based off of signing day, what do you think is still missing with this current class?
ML: There's some on the bubble that, you know, I'm not sure what will happen there. I think we have to sure up our secondary. I think we're on our way to doing that. Whether that'll be complete on signing day I don't know. There's another signing day too. But the one thing, this signing deal kind of clarifies, even more specifically what we need to find out there.

Q: Did you realize how big of a role Jaden Walley was going to play for you this year?
ML: I hoped. I didn't know. He's a guy that wants the ball all of the time. He doesn't play perfect, but he plays full-steam and he plays aggressive. He wants the ball. Then he's fearless. You've got a freshman out there that's trying to run through every senior he can find on the opponent's defense. He's not afraid of anybody, and then he's explosive besides. I think his future's exciting too. He's got to stay hungry.

Q: What are your initial thoughts on Missouri?
ML: Well, I think they're good, both sides of the ball. They're aggressive on both sides of the ball. They have kind of an aggressive run game on offense. You know, defense they put a heavy front up there the whole time. They like to play man coverage and try to be physical about it. It's not a situation where they're trying to fool you. They're pretty aggressive, and they're right out there and in your face.

Q: What's the next step you want to see this offense take?
ML: Well this game, and young teams are personified by this, is just consistency. Whether it's protection or getting rid of the ball, we're half a second away on some really good things. We've got to get that half a second. Routewise, if we're just more precise then we have more space to operate. The other thing is we had too many drop balls last game. That's a game we lost by about five plays. If we do the things I'm talking about, you're probably 20 or 25 plays better, and we've got to find a way to get to that point. It's kind of an endurance thing now. We've got to physically hold up for the long run without a whole lot of reinforcements, you know.

Q: How are your guys staying engaged with playing a later season?
ML: You know that's kind of relative because we started later. I think the thing that's a drag and that's a drain is the stop and start. Okay, these guys are playing, these guys aren't. You're going to play. You're going to play. Oops, no. Now you're not going to play. Okay we're not playing them this year. Oh well, we're going to play them in two weeks instead. Okay the season ends now. No it doesn't, it ends now. Okay, recruiting what can you do? Well you can do this. You can't do that. Well, you can do this instead. Well, you can do that, but not this. Okay are we going to go ahead and have signing day when it is? Yes, we are. Well, maybe we're not. Well, we probably are. Yes, we are. Okay, are we practicing today? Oh, I don't know. Okay, so this many guys were positive. Okay, who were the contact tracers? We've got to try and track that down. Okay well, how many offensive lineman do we have? Who's going to play guard? Okay now, do we have enough corners? Well, I don't know. Well, this guy, he played a little corner in high school. And then, okay what time does this start? Well, I don't know they're going to change that. Now there's a procedure for this. We're going to test this many times a week. No, it's going to be that many. So contact tracers are out this long? Okay, no they're out that long. Okay, what constitutes a contact tracer? And then, in the back of that you're wondering, okay, the NFL does it one way. We do it another. You know, it's just the stop and start and just the incessant change and adjustment. You guys are dealing with it yourself. I mean I see ya'll sitting in these rooms and some of you look a little more cheerful than others. Some tried to look cheerful but you're kind of gloomy because you're stuck in there. We're sitting here, you know, doing it like this and pretending it's all for real. This is just like a regular press conference. This is such a brilliant idea. Let's do it like this all the time. I mean everybody's been through this. Determination, yeah we've got some problems we have to deal with. Any time you get committees involved in something it's going to be convoluted and twisted up. Then the politicians are trying to beat their chests and maximize on this at every step. In the end together with all the commotion and clutter, we've created one of the most joyless seasons on earth. Hopefully, we have the presence of mind to not repeat it this way again. Other than that, it's been great.

Q: One game is not going to rewrite the season, but what would a win do for your guys mentally?
ML: Well it means a lot to us all to get a win. I think that means a lot to all of us to get a win. As a core team, this team, with a few exceptions, has never played together before. I think that they're starting to play together better and better. Like I said, with the disruptions of this guy's in and this guy's out. Well maybe he's in. No he's not. He's out. Oh well hey, look he can play, but he didn't do anything all week. Now we discover that we have him on Thursday. So there's that. I think that it's constant improvement meets finishing the deal and having success together. I think that would be huge. I think we've been on the threshold of that against some really good teams for the last several weeks.

Q: Have you taken a pulse of the team regarding bowling and how they might feel about it?
ML: That's been enough of a moving target that we haven't really addressed much of it. I think we'd all be excited, with rare exception. There's probably and exception or two. I think we'd all be excited to continue to work together and have another game.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Mike Leach Previews Regular Season Finale

Players Mentioned

K.J. Costello

Lideatrick Griffin

Will Rogers

Marquiss Spencer

Jaden Walley

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