STARKVILLE — Mike Leach is new to the Egg Bowl, but his familiarity with it spans decades.
Speaking with reporters Monday, Leach conceded he’s perhaps not as well versed in Egg Bowl lore as even some of those on the weekly Zoom call, but that he’s long been cognizant of the ramifications the game has within the state of Mississippi.
“Just over the years, even as I was a kid, I know it was always an incredibly intense game,” he said. “I know, it’s very meaningful to people and I know that it’s in conversation all year round. Every day, there’s not a day I don’t hear somebody mention the Egg Bowl.”
While Leach isn’t wholly familiar with the Egg Bowl, he has spent years alongside Ole Miss counterpart Lane Kiffin. A friend of Kiffin’s father, Monte, who currently serves as a player personnel analyst for the Rebels, Leach was introduced to the younger Kiffin years ago.
The pair overlapped briefly in the Pac-12 when Kiffin was the head coach at USC and Leach at Washington State, though they never faced each other on the field. Coaching conventions and other varying events have also seen their paths cross.
“If you’re stuck at one of these coaches meeting things that everybody pretends are so important, Lane lightens it up a little bit,” Leach said. “And I, for one, am happy he’s there.”
Saturday’s 3 p.m. contest in Oxford will be a reunion of sorts for Leach, but for his team, it’s a chance to further improve on the progress made in last week’s near miss at No. 13 Georgia. After failing to reach the 300-yard passing plateau in a month, freshman quarterback Will Rogers delivered his best game to date with a 336-yard, one touchdown performance in Athens.
Beyond the quarterback position, Leach has relied heavily on young pieces in his newly minted air raid. Rogers has received the bulk of the attention, but classmate Jaden Walley enjoyed a breakout game of his own notching 115 yards and a touchdown Saturday. In all, four of MSU’s top five pass catchers were either freshmen or sophomores.
“I think that we’re young enough that we’re definitely going to change to the positive,” Leach said. “That’s where the biggest strikes come is when somebody, the younger they are, the more they’re developing. And we’re right there.”
Defensively, MSU heads into a meeting with the nation’s No. 7 passing attack with a depleted secondary. Given senior Fred Peters is likely to be sidelined for the year due to an undisclosed injury and Marcus Murphy’s recent opt-out, MSU is paper thin at safety. Cornerback is perhaps even more of a problem, where sophomore Martin Emerson and freshman Emmanuel Forbes have been asked to take on massive workloads given their lack of depth.
That said, the Egg Bowl thrives on absurdity. From last year’s Elijah Moore peeing dog celebration to 40 mile per hour winds knocking down an MSU field goal attempt in the 1983 edition. What the 2020 contest has in store? Time will tell.
“…This is a game that’s memorable,” Leach said. “It’s very important to our fans and even though they can’t be in the stands as much as usual, people will be watching and people will definitely take an interest in this game and they’ll talk about it for a year.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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