Can Rogers surpass Prescott marks?
Mississippi State QB has potential to set standard
STARKVILLE — At just about every coaching destination, Mike Leach and his Air Raid offense have rewritten record books with a pass-heavy scheme that’s among the most efficient in college football.
At Kentucky, it took Leach 22 games as offensive coordinator to break 116 program records. At Washington State, his 2014 team set or matched 42 school, Pac-12 or NCAA records. And the same has occurred at Mississippi State, with the Bulldogs recording 21 passing and receiving records in Leach’s first season in 2020.
Now, quarterback Will Rogers is altering those records again, and by doing so he’s overtaking the name of Mississippi State’s premier quarterback of all time.
When Dak Prescott departed the program after the 2015 season, the Dallas Cowboys star held 38 school records. Those numbers are dwindling as Rogers — only a sophomore — catches up at a breakneck pace, with his latest feat coming last week in a comeback victory against Auburn, when he had a programrecord six touchdown passes.
That’s far from Rogers’ only highlight, and there could be more to come in the near future. When Mississippi State faces Tennessee State on Saturday (11 a.m., SEC Network+), Rogers is in line to set two more records.
The Brandon native is 72 yards shy of passing Prescott’s single-season passing yards mark, posting 3,973. And if Rogers throws one touchdown pass, he’ll have 30 this season — beating Prescott’s 29.
When asked after the Auburn game how it felt to continually set program records, Rogers momentarily fought back tears.
“It’s just a blessing, man,” Rogers said. “I can’t put it into words. I’m living the dream, just being able to be the quarterback for this university. So yeah, not to get emotional or anything like that, man, but it’s just a blessing and I’m thankful for it every single day.”
Here’s a look at where Rogers stands in Mississippi State history — with his performances setting new highs each
time he takes the field.
Attempts and completions
When comparing Prescott’s career statistics with Rogers’ there will always be an asterisk. Rogers has attempted 50 or more passes in five games this season, while Prescott attempted that many just three times.
Still, Prescott held the school’s singleseason passing attempts record with 477 in 2015 before Rogers surpassed that earlier this season, reaching 539 with three games remaining. Prescott also leads the Bulldogs with 1,169 career attempts, although Rogers has 885 through 19 games. If Rogers continues to average 46 per game, the sophomore will pass Prescott’s mark within seven contests.
Even with all those attempts, Prescott and Rogers have taken care of the ball. Prescott’s interception rate is 1.96%. With
a smaller sample size, Rogers’ is 1.69%.
And Rogers’ single-season completion percentage of 69.1 from 2020 already bested Prescott’s 66.2% in 2015. But Rogers is on track to break his own completion rate record, converting 76% of his passes this season.
With three games to spare, Rogers has passed Prescott for the Mississippi State completion record, connecting on 408 balls compared to Prescott’s 316. Rogers will pass Prescott’s career mark of 734 completions within three games at his current pace.
Yardage
The Bulldogs are an unbalanced offense by design, putting the ball in Rogers’ hands to make a play. As a result, Rogers has racked up passing yardage records, surpassing Prescott’s 300-yard passing game record already this season.
Rogers has nine this season and 11 overall compared to Prescott’s nine total.
Rogers should beat Prescott’s singleseason passing record Saturday against Tennessee State, needing to add 72 yards to his 3,722. And as a sophomore, Rogers has the time and ability to beat Prescott’s career passing yards record (9,376). Rogers is under 4,000 yards away from that benchmark — a tally he can record in one season.
Prescott separates himself from Rogers particularly in his running ability. In 2014, he ran for 986 yards and added 3,449 through the air for a combination of 4,435. Rogers could still hit that mark, but he’d do it through the air, needing 714 passing yards in the next three games to surpass Prescott’s single-season total offense record.
And Prescott’s career total offense mark of 11,897 yards isn’t safe from Rogers, either. Rogers could catch that by his senior year, combining for about 8,000 yards over the next two seasons. It’s not outlandish, even without the running game to help Rogers.
Scoring
Prescott scored a program-record 42 touchdowns in 2014. He threw for 27, ran for 14 and even caught one. Making up that distance will be a challenge for Rogers, but it’s conceivable, even without the running involved.
Rogers has run for one touchdown in his 19 games, although he’s thrown for 29 touchdowns this season. To break Prescott’s record, he’d need 14 touchdowns over the last three games — or an average of 4.67 touchdowns per game.
Rogers averages about three touchdowns a game, so the pace is high. But he’s coming off consecutive performances with four touchdowns and six touchdowns, respectively. Matching that output is improbable, yet not impossible.
Rogers could match Prescott in career passing touchdowns. The sophomore is already tied with Prescott for the singleseason record of 29 touchdown passes, and Rogers has thrown 40 in his career — 30 shy of Prescott’s career tally.
But Prescott’s running helped him accumulate 114 total touchdowns. Again, it’s not impossible for Rogers to make up that ground — he’d need 74 more touchdowns. But for now, that record seems safe for Prescott.