Mississippi State University head football coach Mike Leach is a lot of things.
To start, he’s hilarious. His presence immediately brings a program to relevancy no matter their win totals or records. Secondly, he’s proven. His offense works and has put player after player in the NFL draft. Lastly, he’s consistent, and that’s the most important part.
It’s a certain aspect of Leach’s consistency that has gotten me thinking this week, though— his quarterback rooms.
Leach’s quarterback rooms are always among the most competitive in the country. Look at his time at Washington State, for example. Connor Halliday, Luke Falk and Gardner Minshew all took snaps for the Cougars under Leach’s tenure, and all performed at a high level, with the latter still taking snaps in the NFL.
Starkville and the Southeastern Conference are a different animal, though, that much is not up for debate. It’s harder to bring high level recruits to MSU for a cornucopia of reasons, but history tells us that’s even more true when a coach is trying to bring in a signal caller, or so we thought.
Enter Mike Leach, his pirate ship and the Air Raid offense. Since Leach has been on campus, Will Rogers has blossomed into one of the most prolific pocket passers in the country, with some even predicting an NFL future for the junior from Brandon, Miss., after this season.
Leach hasn’t stopped with Rogers, though. Sawyer Robertson committed to Leach during the early days of his tenure as the Bulldogs head honcho. Robertson was the highest-rated quarterback recruit the program had ever signed since those kinds of things began to be tracked. He was the 16th best quarterback in the class of 2021 according to the 247 Sports composites and the 134th best player in the country.
MSU then got another top-25 ranked quarterback, Braedyn Locke, to commit and eventually sign with the Bulldogs to add to an already stacked quarterback room.
Now, with the commitment and hopeful signing of another four-star quarterback, Chris Parson, the gunslinger room is primed with all the talent any school could ask for besides Alabama, Oklahoma or Georgia.
The question then becomes, “Well, what can someone do with all of these guys, they can’t all play?” You’d be right— but they sure can compete for it.
Competition tends to bring out the truest form of people, and when it comes to quarterbacks, that’s exactly what any coach wants. The better the quarterbacks play, the better the team is (typically), and so forth. To make a long story short, the better the talent the quarterback room has, the higher the caliber of recruits that typically come through it.
All that to say, I have come to an inevitable conclusion. If Mike Leach remains in Starkville, it is only a matter of time until the first-ever five-star quarterback comes through the program. The question is, though, how long will it take? Could it be the next recruiting cycle, or will MSU have to put more signal callers in the league first? That is for us to discuss in the future, but for now, Bulldog fans need to sit back, watch the kids grow and enjoy the ride.
Marlar: Mike Leach will bring the first five-star quarterback to MSU
About the Contributor
Tanner Marlar, Former Managing Editor
Tanner Marlar served as the Managing Editor from 2022 to 2023.
He also served as the Sports Editor from 2021 to 2022.
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