STARKVILLE — Mike Leach knows you don’t have to see a scrimmage to know if it’s a good one.
All you have to do is hear it.
The Mississippi State football coach said he didn’t hear the pads popping like he hoped in Saturday’s 2021 spring game, which resulted in a 30-22 win for the White team over the Maroon squad. The Bulldogs ran 104 offensive plays, showcased five quarterbacks and suffered a loss of potential concern in their first spring game under Leach — a contest that didn’t live up to the coach’s expectations.
“It was less competitive than I hoped, and it was every bit as sloppy as I thought it might be,” he said.
Defense won the day for the Bulldogs in both jersey hues, but Leach said his team’s poor offensive execution in the first half skewed things a bit.
“Early on, I thought our defense sat there and waited for our offense to screw up, primarily,” he said.
Sophomore Will Rogers, who ended the 2020 season as the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, was outplayed by Southern Miss transfer Jack Abraham in the first half, but the incumbent stepped up his game after halftime. Rogers finished 25 of 41 for 255 yards, a touchdown and a pick, while Abraham was 23 of 34 for 161 yards, two scores and no interceptions.
Leach said it’s far too early to tell which passer will be the Bulldogs’ starter come the Sept. 4 season opener against Louisiana Tech.
“I think the quarterback position is wide open,” Leach said. “We channeled more reps to Will because he was performing better early. But whoever can move the ball downfield the best is in the end going to be the quarterback here.”
Walley helped off field in first
Whoever ends up the No. 1 signal-caller will depend on sophomore wideout Jaden Walley, whose health is in question after Saturday’s contest. Walley went down with a leg injury while blocking on a Jo’quavious Marks run late in the first quarter, and he was helped off the field by two staffers without putting any weight on his right leg.
Leach said postgame he had no update on Walley’s status, but if the D’Iberville product is seriously hurt, it would be a big blow to a Bulldogs offense that sorely needs him.
Sophomore Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin was the Maroon team’s leading receiver Saturday, hauling in five passes for 107 yards. Starkville High School product Rufus Harvey had 56 yards on two catches, including a 58-yard touchdown grab, to lead the White team.
Green leads solid defensive performance
But Zach Arnett’s defense was the star of the show at Davis Wade. On the Maroon side’s first play of the second quarter, sophomore running back Dillon Johnson bobbled a lateral from Rogers and was leveled by safety Jalen Green. The senior Texas transfer scooped up the fumble and ran it back 20 yards for a touchdown.
Junior safety Collin Duncan called Green, a former five-star recruit, a “certified corner” playing at his position.
“I feel like he’s definitely added another dimension to this defense,” Duncan said of Green.
Green had five tackles, including two for loss, in a strong performance by a defense Arnett maligned less than two weeks ago. Redshirt junior linebacker Jett Johnson had 16 tackles for the Maroon team, leading all Bulldogs on Saturday; redshirt sophomore safety Dylan Lawrence led the White team with 12 tackles, and redshirt junior linebacker Aaron Brule had 11. Redshirt junior nose tackle Jaden Crumedy had two sacks.
Brule said the Bulldogs still have things to clean up in Tuesday’s final practice of the spring, including improving alignments on pass rushing and tackling, but he said the defense was strong Saturday.
“I feel like we got to the ball pretty well,” Brule said.
A few extra drives
When the clock hit zeros, the Maroon team ran two final cursory plays before players from both sides jogged off the field to applause. The spring game was over.
Or so it appeared.
A few minutes later, the White team offense and Maroon defense took Scott Field once again. The two squads traded four drives, and things got weird — more so than the typical suspension of disbelief that comes with a spring game pitting Mississippi State against itself, anyway.
Players suddenly swapped sides mid-possession, with redshirt junior running back J.J. Jernighan even switching jerseys from white to maroon when redshirt senior Omni Wells was shaken up. A fumble recovery touchdown was nullified, with the Maroon drive allowed to not only continue but move 10 yards forward. And more than half an hour passed between the time the clock hit zeros and the referees and players finally vacated the field.
Ultimately, Mississippi State’s performance wasn’t played how Leach wanted it. But all is not lost: The Bulldogs still have that final practice Tuesday and more than four months until the 2021 season truly begins.
“I obviously didn’t set the stage to the point where I was likely to achieve a scrimmage to my satisfaction,” Leach said. “But that happens sometimes. That’s why you have them.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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