Transfer quarterback experiment hasn’t worked for MSU
The experiment of bringing in the graduate transfer quarterback and expect them to be the savior for Mississippi State just hasn’t worked the last two seasons.
First, it was head coach Joe Moorhead that tried it last year when he got Tommy Stevens to leave Penn State and come to Starkville. Stevens was in and out of the lineup, mainly due to injuries, and never performed up to a high standard for the Bulldogs.
After Mike Leach was hired to replace Moorhead at MSU in January, it didn’t take long for K.J. Costello to sign in February as a graduate transfer from Stanford.
Costello sported
video games numbers from his time as a Cardinal and was expected to be just what Leach needed to run his Air Raid offense.
In the first game of the season at LSU, it seemed that Costello was ready to live up to that billing as he put up 623 yards passing and five touchdowns. He did throw a pair of interceptions, which was an unfortunate sign of things to come.
Costello now has 10 total interceptions this season after throwing another one against Texas A&M during
Saturday’s 28-14 loss at Davis Wade Stadium.
The mistakes have been just a case of Costello trying to do too much when the Bulldogs were trying to move the football on offense. Costello is capable of doing good things, but it’s tough to have any offensive flow when throwing pick after pick after pick.
MSU changed quarterbacks from Costello to freshman Will Rogers midway through the third quarter and the offense did seem to perform a little better.
Rogers completed 15of-18 pass attempts for 120 yards and threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Malik Heath in the third quarter. That capped a 13-play, 89yard drive.
“When you consider the quality team A&M has, that drive Will had is probably as good as I’ve had a freshman, especially a true freshman at his age, have before,” Leach said.
It may be just time for Leach to just stick with Rogers as the main signal caller at this point. As much as the
Bulldogs want to save Rogers for the future, he might need to be the present also.
If you are trying to build a program, why not just build from the ground up and let the freshman stay at the controls. There are definitely going to be some growing pains, but Rogers may just have to learn from them.
That’s really not just at the quarterback position, but across the board for MSU. There are some definite problems to be ironed out.
negated on the ensuing possession by a 51-yard touchdown pass from Mond to Chase Lane and Costello’s fumble at the 8-yard-line led to an easy score by Isaiah Spiller making it 28-7.
In the fourth quarter, Leach turned to true freshman quarterback Will Rogers, who gave MS a spark for at least one series. Early in the final quarter, Rogers commanded a 13-play, 89-yard drive that was capped by a 32-yard pass to Malik Heath for the two’s first scores of their careers.
Rogers finished the night 15-of-18 off the bench for 120 yards and the touchdown pass. Costello was 15-of22 for 99 yards and an interception.
“I thought he gave us a spark,” Leach said of Rogers. “I thought it was a little late, but he gave us a spark.”
The Bulldogs had their struggles at times on defense as well, though they limited Mond and held the Aggies to 325 yards. Star running back Isaiah Spiller had 18 carries for 114 yards and two touchdowns and Ainias Smith finished with 10 carries for 52 yards. It offset a so-so game from Mond where he was 13-of-23 for 139 yards and two touchdowns while also throwing an interception.
MSU linebackers Erroll Thompson and Aaron Brule weren’t pleased with the performance postgame because it meant another loss. Brule hasn’t seen the film yet but he already knows of some things that they must do better.
“Their o-line does a great job getting to the second level,” Brule said. “There were a lot of things that we could do better, probably like getting downhill. That’s something that we can do better in the future.”
With a bye week next week, the Bulldogs lick their wounds and continue to search for answers in how they can get better. They have two weeks to prepare for Alabama when they travel to Tuscaloosa on October 31 to take on the No. 2 Crimson Tide.
Leach first has to figure out why MSU practices so well but plays so poorly.
“Right now, we’re one team on Tuesday and another team on Saturday,” Leach said. “I’ve dealt with that before. You’ve got one group that goes out there and looks that way and there’s several Saturday until it kicks into gear.”