STARKVILLE — With spring commencement at Mississippi State now officially passed, summer has arrived in Starkville.
And while the MSU football team has yet to endure its usual regimen of spring practices due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a growing optimism a 2020 football season will be played — though an exact start date and the logistics behind such an occurrence remain unknown.
Over the past week-plus, we’ve dived into the Bulldogs’ depth chart heading into the summer and what it might look like once competition is allowed to begin.
Following last week’s three-part look at the defense and a foray into the offense, it’s time we round out the series with a look at the quarterback room.
In an offense predicated on the aerial attack, there’s perhaps no position more crucial to Mike Leach’s success at MSU than under center — or, rather, in the shotgun. For Leach, his first few weeks in Starkville were busy devising a coaching staff while also scrounging the graduate transfer market for a potential quarterback to run the show this fall — or whenever football does return.
“It’s a new resource nowadays,” Leach said of the transfer portal at his introductory press conference Jan. 10. “It’s both positive and negative, but it can be a resource. I don’t think it can be ignored for any position. Football’s a competitive sport, and you’re always trying to upgrade. Of course, everybody, regardless of position, remembers somebody that played from whenever. But if you can upgrade, that’s the point of a team game.”
In response, the Bulldogs landed a commitment from Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello — a two-time Pac-12 all-Academic honorable mention, a second team all-conference honoree in 2018 and a former Cardinal team captain.
Though nothing has been settled, the lack of spring practices takes a particular toll on the quarterback position. Leach had hoped to have his competition narrowed to two possible candidates heading into the summer, but with little to no time on the field in April, he never got the chance.
That said, Costello is the most experienced option of the four scholarship quarterbacks MSU currently carries. In 28 career games at Stanford, he completed 495 of 791 passes for 6,151 yards and 49 touchdowns to just 18 interceptions. His best year in a Cardinal uniform came as a sophomore, throwing for 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns while guiding his team to a 9-4 record.
“He’s one of those take-charge guys — very dedicated, competitive,” former Santa Margarita High School head coach Rick Curtis said of his one-time signal-caller. “One of the great things about him is he really could rally his teammates around him. He liked that role, and they kind of gravitated toward him.”
While Costello has yet to arrive on campus, there shouldn’t be much competition from those already enrolled at MSU for the starting job.
Sophomore Garrett Shrader is the most experienced incumbent following junior Keytaon Thompson’s transfer to Virginia. Despite being held out of the Music City Bowl due to a broken nose suffered in a reported skirmish with since-departed linebacker Willie Gay Jr., Shrader completed 88 of 153 passes for 1,170 yards and eight touchdowns while adding another 587 yards and six touchdowns rushing.
More of a dual-threat option, it’s likely Shrader serves as the backup to Costello in 2020 while potentially garnering a redshirt to keep his year of eligibility intact.
Other names to watch in the MSU quarterback room include mid-year enrollee Will Rogers and Vanderbilt transfer Allan Walters. A Brandon native — the same hometown as former Washington State quarterback and current Jacksonville Jaguar Gardner Minshew II — Rogers was previously recruited by Leach’s regime in Pullman before he pledged to the Bulldogs.
As for Walters, he’s a former three-star recruit in the class of 2018. In limited action during his two seasons in Nashville, he completed two of nine passes for 36 yards in three games for the Commodores. Walters is expected to join MSU as a walk-on and sit out this year due to NCAA transfer rules but could be put on scholarship down the line.
Former four-star prospect Jalen Mayden also still resides on the MSU roster heading into the summer, though whether he sees anything beyond garbage time snaps remains to be seen.
Since 2014, Leach-led offenses have led the nation in passing four times. With an able-bodied Costello as the presumed starter, that trend stands to continue in Leach’s first season at the helm in Starkville.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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