STARKVILLE — Mike Leach’s quarterback room is reaching maximum capacity.
With Stanford graduate transfer K.J. Costello’s commitment becoming official Wednesday morning, Mississippi State now boasts five scholarship quarterbacks on its roster heading into the spring.
Speaking with the media during his National Signing Day press conference, Leach addressed the quarterback room directly.
“I think it’s beneficial really for everybody,” Leach said of adding Costello. “The thing that in those quarterback rooms, the quarterbacks will learn something one from the other. Then they’ll pick up the strong parts that one guy has, so I think that’s beneficial, and I think it’ll be a very competitive position.”
While it’s wholly unsettled who will start MSU’s season opener against New Mexico Sept. 5, it’s fair to assume Costello is the leader in the clubhouse.
Though the Santa Margarita, California native ran a more pro-style attack during his four years at Stanford, his 6,151 yards, 49 touchdowns and 62.5 percent completion percentage in 28 career games offer statistical backing the rest of the Bulldogs’ quarterback room lacks.
Sophomore Garrett Shrader looked the part of a sparkplug in previous coach Joe Moorhead’s offense as he totaled 1,170 yards and eight touchdowns passing and another 587 yards and six touchdowns rushing while splitting carries with former Penn State quarterback Tommy Stevens.
That said, his 58 percent completion percentage and five interceptions on just 153 attempts offer a look at his inconsistency throwing the football. Too often throughout the 2019 season, Shrader raced through his first read before taking off as a runner. If not, he forced the issue and was erratic as a passer — something that far from lends itself to an offensive system that saw its quarterbacks toss a combined 710 passes a year ago.
Junior Keytaon Thompson — who redshirted last season due to the import of Stevens and the emergence of Shrader — has been even less prolific throwing the ball — completing just 48 percent of his 105 career attempts.
Sophomore Jalen Mayden remains a mystery given attempted just two collegiate passes. Early enrollee Will Rogers out of Brandon is also a relative unknown — though Leach and his staff recruited him heavily when at Washington State.
“I think it’ll be a very competitive position, and by spring, I hope they all can throw strikes,” Leach said. “If they can, we’re going to sort out the best one from there. In the end, it’s the guy that moves the offense the best, but one way to do that is if you can throw strikes, you make six positions good. We won’t be pretending to have six positions producing out there on the field.”
While Costello’s competition doesn’t exactly profile well, there is some concern whether the Stanford import can return to his 2018 form. Following a standout junior season in which he completed 269 of 413 passes for 3,540 yards — the second best mark in the PAC-12 — and 29 touchdowns, Costello failed to surpass the 200-yard mark in any of Stanford’s first three games against Northwestern, Central Florida and Oregon before injuries derailed his campaign.
Leach has done wonders with transfer quarterbacks in the past — most recently Gardner Minshew II (East Carolina) and Anthony Gordon (City College of San Francisco), both of whom led the nation in passing the past two seasons — but Costello’s regression is notable.
Present quarterback controversy aside, any attrition the room endures likely won’t come until the summer or fall camp. Leach said Wednesday he will not have a starter tabbed by the end of spring practices and that he’d like to limit his choices down to two players before naming a starter.
“There is no way to rep five quarterbacks and this isn’t P.E.,” Leach said. “So we’re going to have to make some choices. They’ll be tough choices because these are people that want to do good things and some of them will be great quarterbacks down the road if they develop, but in the end, we’re going to have to be pretty disciplined in settling on two guys.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.