STARKVILLE — Mississippi State coach Mike Leach watched film on Arkansas all night on Sunday.
Leach said Monday he planned to do the same that night, too.
He had little time to worry about rankings in between.
Asked whether the AP Top 25 and the USA TODAY coaches poll meant anything to him, Leach said he typically tries to ignore polls when he can.
“There’s no real stopping point on the poll thing, so just try to worry about what’s right now and what you can control,” he said. “Today, it’s ‘put together the best game plan you can,’ tomorrow, it’s ‘have the best practice you can,’ and so it goes.”
Even with the Bulldogs back in the top 25 in both major rankings — MSU (4-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) sits at No. 23 in each — little has changed in Starkville.
That’s how Mississippi State wants it as the Razorbacks (3-2, 1-2 SEC) come to town at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The Bulldogs would love to carry over a great performance against No. 17 Texas A&M, a 42-24 MSU win.
Mississippi State was effective on offense, forced four turnovers and blocked a field goal for a touchdown.
Leach said it was one of the Bulldogs’ better performances in his three-year tenure in Starkville.
“I thought it was a good one as far as playing tough and aggressive,” Leach said. “I don’t know if it was our most consistent one, but I thought we were tough and aggressive and kind of attacked the opportunity, so I thought that part was good.”
Consistency is the name of the game for Leach and something to which the Bulldogs still aspire.
But at least for three and a half hours Saturday, MSU seemed to have it.
“When we did have adversity, something went wrong on offense, defense picked us up,” Leach said. “If something went wrong on defense, offense picked us up. I thought special teams figured in as well. That’s what you want: You want to have complementary football where all phases are holding up their end.”
That will be important against an Arkansas team that nearly beat Texas A&M on Sept. 24 and hung with top-ranked Alabama for a while Saturday.
The Razorbacks, though, could be without quarterback KJ Jefferson, a North Panola graduate. Jefferson suffered a hit to the head against Alabama, and his status is “wait and see,” Hogs coach Sam Pittman said Monday.
Leach is happy to wait, but he doesn’t imagine a drastic difference between Jefferson and backup Cade Fortin.
“We’ll see, but I don’t think they’re going to change their whole offense, and it’d be difficult to do in a week no matter who you’re playing,” Leach said. “It’ll be pretty similar to what they do already, because they can’t just reteach anything.”
Arkansas is second in the country in sacks, just two behind national leader — and the Razorbacks’ Week 1 opponent — Cincinnati.
Asked if the Bulldogs would put any more emphasis on shoring up pass-blocking, Leach said little would change.
“We throw it more than anybody, so we’re kind of locked into the pass protection business,” he said.
With not much changing even after the big win over the Aggies, Leach said he hopes his Bulldogs should be able to flush their emotions and wipe the slate clean.
If they do that, they’ll have a chance to improve to 5-1 with a road game at No. 13 Kentucky looming next.
But MSU won’t look past the Razorbacks until Arkansas is on its way back to Fayetteville on Saturday evening.
“Well, the biggest thing is hopefully we’ll just focus on practice and improvement, because that’s all that we really have control over,” Leach said. “If we do that, I think that gives us the opportunity to play our best.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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