Leach And Dawgs Ready For A Late Night In The Desert
September 05, 2022 | Football, Joel Coleman
Mississippi State staying hungry after opening-week win.
STARKVILLE – It'll be 10 p.m. back home in the Magnolia State when Mississippi State kicks off in Arizona on Saturday night against the Wildcats. It's an unusual circumstance to have a game where the Bulldogs' body clocks will be in the wee hours of Sunday morning before the final horn sounds.
To find the last time MSU was competing at such an hour, you'd have to go all the way back to….last weekend.
As head coach Mike Leach's team prepares to head westward, Leach joked at his Monday press conference that the Bulldogs' weather-delayed game against Memphis this past Saturday served as the perfect precursor for this week's late-night showdown against the Wildcats.
"The biggest thing [you do to prepare] is you try to have a game in the middle of a lightning storm and hope that you have a two-hour delay…when [the following week] you go precisely a two-hour time zone difference and play Arizona," Leach said in jest.
If you can't tell, there seems to be little concern from Leach about a late start time. After all, the Bulldog roster is essentially completely composed of well-conditioned 18-to-24-year-old young men who love to compete and won't be sitting around checking the clock.
"With computers and all the rest and the more homogenized college lifestyle, maybe [college students] don't stay up as late as they used to, but I know when I was their age, it didn't require very much encouragement to stay up late," Leach said.
Few, if any, in Maroon and White will even remotely think about the time once ball hits foot in Tucson on Saturday. It's just not how Leach's Bulldogs are wired.
Instead, they'll have one thing on their minds. Go 1-0 this week. It's the mantra for State. It's the total focus. Nothing else.
To get a picture of how locked in MSU is, you need only to go back once again to this past Saturday night. Or Sunday morning as it were.
Quarterback Will Rogers sat in a room for his postgame press conference after throwing the football all around Davis Wade Stadium, picking up 450 yards and five touchdowns while completing 77.6 percent of his passes. Rogers was brilliant. What he wasn't though, was satisfied.
"There was throw after throw that I want back," Rogers said at the time. "I'm kind of ticked off about it to be honest…I have to do a better job."
Rogers refuses to settle. For him, there's always cleaning up to do.
Leach says that's a constant thing for Rogers, and just as importantly, it's an attitude that's permeating the whole team.
"[Rogers] is a competitive guy and he works an awful lot and awfully hard when people aren't around," Leach said. "I think that how good of a player you are or even how good of a coach you are is kind of dictated by what you're doing when nobody's around and nobody's looking and that type of thing. I think Will's a really good example of a guy that's really productive with time like that. I think him and his leadership is kind of rubbing off on the locker room, like [offensive lineman LaQuinston Sharp] also. I think we're getting a number of guys like that and hopefully that helps generate a lot of improvement."
Sharp, of course, is fresh off of being chosen as a Southeastern Conference Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week. Like Rogers, he's a tone-setter. He's an example.
"From the day we got here [to Mississippi State], [Sharp has been] one guy I think has improved every step of the way," Leach said. "I think he continues to improve. I think he does a good job communicating with the rest of the offensive line and gets the most out of those guys. He's just very committed. As a result of that, he's evolved into a very good leader."
The Bulldogs are fortunate. There are many on the squad cut from the same cloth as Rogers and Sharp. It's so critical because, even in the shadow of a big season-opening win, Leach still sees much room for his group to grow.
"I think we've got to block better at receiver," Leach said. "I think offensive line has to block better at the second level, although I thought we were pretty good [last Saturday] at the point of attack. I thought that our receivers need to be faster and more precise with their routes, although I saw improvement and occasionally, guys exceeded what I thought they would do. I think it's really important that we keep all those positions competitive so that each of those guys have the pressure of playing time riding on how they practice. I thought that our secondary needs to continue to improve, particularly our safeties. And I think that our linebackers, although very good at times, need to have good eye discipline and we can't ever feel like we've got the game in hand. Defensive line, we saw some depth there which I thought was good. But also, I think if we'd play with lower pads and more violent hands, we can affect the quarterback more."
Leach's critiques ahead of the Arizona game will surely be welcomed with open arms by a team that seems to be collectively adopting the traits of its leader – the kind of characteristics that won't allow the Dawgs to rest on any 26-point-victory laurels.
There's no predicting the future, but one thing seems safe to say. When the Bulldogs stare across the field at the Wildcats on Saturday, they'll be locked in no matter what time of night it is.
"I think we're all excited to be up late and go play Arizona," Leach said.
