Bulldogs Growing Up And It’s Showing
October 31, 2021 | Football, Joel Coleman
Win over No. 12 Kentucky shows the Bulldogs are coming into their own.
STARKVILLE – One by one, the camera spanned by each member of the 2021 national championship baseball team on Saturday night at Davis Wade Stadium. Four months after celebrating in Omaha, it was ring day, and right there in the end zone during MSU football's game against No. 12 Kentucky, the Diamond Dawgs got the chance to be honored and flash off their new jewelry.
Later, former State baseball players from years gone by were recognized. Before the game had even kicked off, a tailgate for former football players was held just a few dozen feet from Davis Wade. All over campus, MSU alumni had returned to their old stomping grounds for homecoming.
It was a special day in Starkville. It was a day to celebrate the past. Then, Mike Leach's boys went out and further solidified the fact the football future is looking brighter by the Saturday.
By now you know the Bulldogs upset the Wildcats 31-17. Some games are closer than they appear by the final score. This one was not. After MSU fell behind 10-0, State absolutely dominated the rest of the way, rolling to the team's third win over an Associated Press Top 25 opponent this season.
The record now is a strong 5-3 overall. The league mark stands at 3-2. A 12th straight year with a bowl game is now firmly in sight for Mississippi State if the Bulldogs can handle their business down the stretch.
Yet the fact of the matter is Saturday's victory was so much more than just another step towards a postseason game. It was proof the Bulldogs are quickly becoming a complete football team that can punch with anyone.
The reality is it shouldn't even be that big of a surprise. Yes, there've been moments of adversity the last year and a half. Why wouldn't there have been?
Leach and his staff had to put things in place after taking over in early 2020 and as they did so, they had to deal with implementing a new offensive system as a worldwide pandemic was getting underway. Instead of practice reps, the Bulldogs had to learn at least some of Leach's Air Raid offense and defensive coordinator Zach Arnett's 3-3-5 scheme through laptops and tablets and cell phones.
Then, once one of the most unique seasons in college football history got underway last year, State was saddled with having to navigate through a conference-only schedule, relying heavily upon freshmen and other inexperienced players. Stands to reason those guys might hit a bump or two, right? Well they did, and now, everyone appears stronger for it.
Case in point: quarterback Will Rogers. He made his season debut in last year's Kentucky game. The Bulldogs scored just two points that day. Rogers admitted after Saturday's win, he'd went back earlier in the week and relived last year's meeting against the Wildcats.
"It was painful to watch," Rogers confessed.
Fast-forward to this past Saturday and Rogers doesn't even look remotely like the wide-eyed kid who threw a couple of picks last year in Lexington.
The Will Rogers of this year set an SEC record for completion percentage in a single game (for those with a minimum of 30 attempts). He threw for more than 300 yards for a seventh time this season, tying Dak Prescott for the Bulldog with the most 300-plus-yard passing games in one year. Rogers broke Prescott's record for most completions in a single season, and with at least four games to go, is almost assuredly going to shatter the old mark.
In what shouldn't have surprised any of us, Rogers has developed immensely since his true freshman year.
"He keeps improving," Leach said of Rogers. "Everybody talks about how somebody is going to be a great freshman quarterback. There aren't many great freshman quarterbacks. Some of them that we remember turned out to be great... Try judging them based off of their freshman year. They may have been the starter, but I promise you that they were streaky and erratic and not particularly good. I think that [Rogers] has grown a lot and that he will continue to improve."
Rogers is better. His classmates at running back are, too. Jo'quavious Marks and Dillon Johnson were forces on the ground against Kentucky. Both set new career highs for rush attempts in a single game. They combined for 94 yards and three rushing touchdowns.
"I think they did a good job of making people miss and getting lots of yards after contact," Leach said. "That may be as well as they have done this year with that."
State's receivers as compared to a year ago? You guessed it. Improved. Rogers credited them with a lot of his Saturday success.
"Guys got open," Rogers said. "Guys were running hard, finding spots in the zone. That's what it was all about. [Kentucky was] dropping eight and we found ways to get open, found space, and I found ways to get them the ball."
State's offensive line is giving Rogers time. And MSU's defense excelled on Saturday too, forcing four turnovers and holding the Wildcats to only 216 yards. This Kentucky team whose only loss coming into Saturday was to No. 1 Georgia, had no answers for a surging State squad.
The Bulldogs looked like a complete football team against the Wildcats. It's because right in front of our eyes, that's what they're becoming.
"I mean we are two totally different teams, obviously, from [the Kentucky game] last year to here now," Rogers said.
It's pretty fitting. On a weekend where the past was celebrated, MSU football could be thankful for its own recent history. Because its trials and tribulations and ups and downs the last 22 or so months has all led to this – a team that's coming into its own.
