Moving On, Building On
January 04, 2022 | Football, Joel Coleman
Bulldogs believe 2021 provided a glimpse of their 2022 potential.
STARKVILLE – Play the next play.
If you've paid any attention at all to Mississippi State football over the last two seasons, you're likely aware it's one of head coach Mike Leach's mantras. The past is gone. The future isn't here yet. So just play the next play, not burdened by what happened before or what'll happen after.
With 2021 in the rearview mirror, it's time for the Bulldogs to press onward. It's time for the next play. And make no mistake, the plays made in 2021 certainly provide an exciting foundation for the next one, and the ones after that.
"I don't think we're anywhere close to where we want to be yet," MSU quarterback Will Rogers said moments after State's season concluded last week. "We've got a lot of strides to make between now and the first game next year."
Rogers uttered those words in a moment of disappointment following an AutoZone Liberty Bowl loss. The Bulldogs' year didn't end according to plan.
It's a familiar feeling for most any that have dared to compete. Competition, by nature, always leaves someone on the wrong end.
"It's not fun at all," Rogers said. "I hate losing more than I want to win."
Here's the beautiful part. Rogers' Liberty Bowl letdown came from a belief that the pieces were in place and the preparations were made to find success. And oh, how that was the case for the Dawgs. They proved it all season long.
It was a group that left you no choice but to believe. Week to week, game to game, even day to day, State's improvement was evident as the year went along.
It's how MSU went from a 20-point deficit in the season opener against Louisiana Tech, to eventually finding a path to seven wins, including victories over three different opponents that ended the year in the final College Football Playoff Top 25.
State accepted no excuses. No deficit was ever too great to dampen its spirit. No amount of youth was too much to sit back and think, 'Maybe someday.'
No, these Dawgs lived in the present. They knew they could get better and continued that quest, while at the same time understood they were already ready to punch with anyone.
If anyone knows the usual path of progression, it's Leach. This was his 20th season leading a football program. Of those 20 teams, where did these Bulldogs end up standing in his mind?
"It's one of the best ones ever in my opinion," Leach said with emotions showing in his tone and body language to let you know he really meant it. "It's the youngest team I've coached. So as a result, I think it's the team that's improved the most that I've coached. We did throughout the year get more and more explosive. We got more consistent, though we're still somewhat of an inconsistent team clearly. Any time that you get to work with young guys, you're excited at what the future is going to hold for them. That's the most thrilling part of it. I think these guys showed a great deal of character. I thought we got better and better as the year went on and a lot of teams don't. A lot of teams, if things don't go their way after three or four games, they'll fade a little bit. I didn't feel like we faded. I felt like we let some get away, but I didn't feel like we faded."
They sure didn't. In 2021, State put together the two biggest comebacks in school history. The Dawgs shook off back-to-back tough early-season setbacks against Memphis and LSU to go on the road in front of 100,000 Texas A&M fans and knock off the nationally-ranked Aggies. It was the start of a 5-2 stretch that included two more triumphs over ranked foes.
At that point, Mississippi State stood at 7-4 with a 4-3 mark in Southeastern Conference play. MSU went into the regular season's final weekend with an opportunity to finish as high as second in the SEC's ultra-tough Western Division. Headed into the season, very few thought the Bulldogs could make such noise. They knew they could and did.
"Even by [the media's] standards, we improved quite a bit," Leach said. "We were supposed to finish last in the SEC [according to the preseason media poll] and so we kind of wrecked that. We didn't wreck it as bad as I'd have liked to. But the thing is, we were explosive. We got better and better and more consistent as the season went on. With youth, you get inconsistency sometimes. But the other thing is, with youth, you also sometimes get guys that wilt. I didn't feel like our guys wilted. I thought they really stood up to a lot of challenges that people didn't expect them to be able to do. That's impressive. Those of you not in the building might not realize how impressive that is. The challenges we had this year, the guys overcame and improved and got better. Going into this year, the only guys that really had higher expectations were us. Now we're disappointed we didn't meet our expectations. That's unfortunate, so we're going to work a lot harder this next year to try and meet our expectations."
Leach and the Bulldogs have eight months until the 2022 season opener against Memphis. That's eight months' worth of time to play the next play. That's about 32 weeks to get a touch better here or make a stride forward there. Because the truth of the matter is, those marginal improvements are all the Dawgs lack to take the next step. The 13 games in 2021 proved as much.
It's never wise to dwell on shouldas, couldas or wouldas, but when thinking ahead to next season, keep in mind how close the Bulldogs already were to something incredibly special in the year that is now complete.
"Together we have to make the decision that we're going to have a great offseason and work harder than ever," Leach said. "If anything, [the result of the Liberty Bowl] should draw focus on ways to improve because we're only a few plays away from winning 10 games this year. We've got to get that precision and things that'll allow you to do that."
Three of State's 2021 losses were by three points or less. What if just one more play had been made in each of those games? That thought is part of what's driving the Bulldogs headed into the upcoming months.
"I think Coach has said it and a lot of people have said all year we're however many plays away from being at 10 wins or even 11 wins," Rogers said. "We just have to get better and get stronger and find those plays within the game. Teams aren't going to just hand us the plays. We have to find those plays, whether it's this offseason working harder or getting on the same page with the receivers this offseason. We've got to find it and we've got to find it before next year."
2021 showed glimpses of what Mississippi State can be, but the Bulldogs are convinced it didn't display their true ceiling. The effort now begins to reach it.
Many from the cast of characters that created so much promise from September through November in 2021 will be back in full force come the fall of 2022. They'll be a year older. They'll be a year wiser. They should be a year better. Add that to what's already a nationally-ranked signing class with more additions to come and promise abounds.
The Bulldogs took a massive leap from 2020 to 2021. There's plenty of reason to believe another jump is just around the corner. It all starts by handling the business of today, then tomorrow and so on and so forth.
Stay the course. Head down. Block out any noise. Just play the next play.
