Day One Thoughts From Leach
March 24, 2022 | Football, Joel Coleman
Mississippi State’s head coach was pleased overall with the opening practice of the spring.
STARKVILLE – The road towards the 2022 football season has begun.
Mississippi State opened up spring practice on Thursday. Just under three months since the Bulldogs wrapped up their last campaign, there was an obvious bounce to the step as the team got back on the gridiron.
"We were excited to be out there," MSU head coach Mike Leach said afterwards. "It was the first day and that has a certain amount of excitement and enthusiasm. I thought both sides ran around hard. I thought we were more consistent than I thought we'd be. I hoped we'd be consistent, but a lot of times you're not the first day. But we did have a level of consistency.
"[We] played hard. Sometimes it's hard to tell without the pads, but we did get really good work in. And we did a pretty good job of being full speed without full contact. Both sides looked like they executed some things well. There weren't any lapses in the practice."
What else did Leach think of what he saw on Thursday? Here's a quick look at several of his post-practice comments.
The Priority List
A lot is going on in spring football. Youngsters are gaining valuable experience. Newcomers are adjusting to life as a Bulldog. The list goes on and on.
But what, exactly, is at the top of Leach's priority list this spring?
"I think solidify the secondary and solidify the offensive line would be two of the big ones," Leach said. "Then, try to get the receiver roster a little clearer than it is right now. I think it's a little crowded. I think most of the jobs out there at receiver are wide open and we've got some reasonably good guys, but they've got to separate themselves. That's the biggest thing is we need guys not just running in the pack to get through practice. They need to separate themselves and give us a reason why we should play them instead of the other guy."
Opining On The O-Line
MSU must find a pair of new starting tackles prior to the season kicking off this fall. Candidates for those jobs include 2022 signee and junior college transfer Percy Lewis, as well as sophomore Albert Reese IV.
Lewis arrived at State as a four-star prospect and the nation's No. 2 junior college recruit per 247Sports. Reese got to Starkville as an ESPN Top-100 offensive line prospect back in the Class of 2021.
Now each has a chance to start if they can handle business this spring and later this year in fall camp.
Leach on Lewis: "He's worked really hard. He's lost a lot of weight. He's got naturally good feet. Somebody comes right at him; he flat out stops them. He's still getting the scheme and things, so there's some growing pains there. Most of what I have to say about him is all positive. Any problems he's had is kind of to be expected at this point."
And Leach on Reese IV: "He kind of closed in on guys at the end of last year. You can make the argument that he maybe should've been in there last year. It'd be a close call, I think. But he's certainly gained a lot of ground on the starting five and I can definitely see him being one of those guys if he keeps improving."
Catching Up On The QBs
Fresh off his tremendous 2021 season, quarterback Will Rogers was back in action Thursday, gearing up to take another leap forward after starting to rewrite the MSU record book a year ago. And speaking of taking strides forward, redshirt freshman Sawyer Robertson is hoping to do the same.
Rogers, of course, ran first-team reps on Thursday while Robertson saw second-team action. Leach was impressed with both signal callers.
"[Robertson] looks better," Leach said. "He's more comfortable. He looked really good [Thursday] I thought for a first day."
And on Rogers: "I think he's steadily improved. One of his strengths is he doesn't have any huge weaknesses. He's just got to keep enhancing himself overall. He just needs to tune in and acclimate himself with the receivers around him so he can bring out the best in those guys. He works at it real diligently. You can definitely see some improvement. I thought he looked pretty sharp."
New Targets
Mississippi State's quarterbacks have several new targets to throw to this spring, among them Georgia transfer Justin Robinson and Northwestern transfer Jordan Mosley.
The Bulldogs are, of course, hoping Robinson and Mosley can help make up for the production lost as Makai Polk has moved on to pursue his NFL dreams.
So just how big of an addition will Robinson and Mosley be for the Bulldogs? It's wait and see, Leach says.
"We'll find out," Leach said. "If they play good, [their addition] was really good. If they don't, it's not so important. They both can do some things. Robinson is big with a lot of range, but he's got to pull the trigger and make plays. Mosley is real quick out of his cuts. Just a genuinely fast guy. We've got to keep developing their ball skills and route running and stuff like that and see where that takes them."
Leach and the Bulldogs will return to the fields for the spring's second practice on Saturday.
