STARKVILLE — When 60,000 fans show up at your office on Saturdays, and your movements on other days could find their way to social media or a message board, “alone” can be a hard status to achieve for college football players.
Mike Leach is glad his quarterback found it.
Alone time has been a key component in the development of Will Rogers, Leach says.
Leach rattled off like machine gun fire a list of areas in which he’d like to see improvement in the Bulldogs from their season-opening 49-23 win over Memphis to this week’s game against a Power Five conference foe in the Pac-12’s Arizona.
The Wildcats themselves are developing.
They won just once a year ago, and many of their losses weren’t close.
The San Diego State team that Arizona defeated 38-20 on Saturday beat the Wildcats 38-14 in Tucson last year.
The Bulldogs dominated all phases of play against Memphis for 2 1/2 quarters in opening up a 35-3 lead. Memphis outscored the Bulldogs 20-14 over the last 22 minutes, 37 seconds.
Among the goals this week for Leach is to help his players be at their best deeper into the game.
That’s where alone time for Rogers, his junior quarterback, comes in.
“He is a competitive player, and he works awfully hard when people aren’t around. I think how good of a player you are is kind of dictated by what you’re doing when nobody’s around and nobody’s looking. Will’s an example of a guy who’s really productive with time like that. He and his leadership’s kind of rubbing off on the locker room,” Leach said.
Leach singled out center LaQuinston Sharp, a graduate student honored by the SEC this week as its co-offensive lineman of the week, for similar work ethic.
It really helps, though, when a team can rally around its quarterback, its most visible athlete, the one who touches the ball on every play.
Rogers against Memphis had the occasional mis-communication or was slightly off target, but those times were few. He completed 78 percent of 49 attempts for 450 yards with five touchdowns and one interception.
He was good, but in his postgame comments felt he could be better, felt that he left plays on the table.
That’s how leaders respond, unsatisfied and always hunting for the next hill to climb.
Rogers led the nation in accuracy at 73.9 percent last year.
Blind-side protection from left tackle Charles Cross played a big role in that figure.
In the opener, Rogers had solid protection again and looked really good on a couple of deep throws while spreading the ball around. Twelve different players caught passes a year after Makai Polk really separated himself as the preferred target.
The Bulldogs need Rogers’ leadership this week in a different time zone, a different environment against a team that’s a little unknown with a new defensive coordinator.
A win will move State to 2-0 for a Week 3 trip to Baton Rouge against an LSU team that looked vulnerable in its opener.
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