STARKVILLE — Mississippi State coach Mike Leach called his team “fragile” and “a little quick to get discouraged” during Monday’s press conference.
But Leach didn’t take kindly to being asked if there was anything more he could tell his players to help them overcome that.
“So you think there was a sentence or two that wasn’t said last week?” Leach fired back. “Left out a phrase, maybe, a couple words? Maybe a key adjective here or there? No, I think it’s a little more complex than that.”
Whatever the solution is, Leach and the Bulldogs are trying to find it.
Mississippi State let things unravel in a 31-16 loss Saturday at LSU, allowing three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and letting the Tigers score 31 of the final 34 points.
MSU’s offense, defense and special teams all fell flat down the stretch, although Leach credited LSU for part of the paradigm shift at Tiger Stadium.
“I thought all three sides buckled at key times,” Leach said. “I think that the other guy had something to do with it, too. LSU’s a good team and has good players.”
Bowling Green, Mississippi State’s upcoming opponent, can’t quite meet the same standard.
The Falcons are coming off a win over Marshall — which upset Notre Dame on Sept. 10 — but are just 1-2 on the season with losses to UCLA and Eastern Kentucky.
“I think they’re a good, scrappy team,” Leach said. “They play hard start to finish. We’re just getting into the film now, but they look good. They look good and could have won all three of them pretty easily.”
In Bowling Green, Mississippi State gets a brief respite from the Southeastern Conference grind. The Falcons are neatly sandwiched between LSU and Texas A&M — which comes to Starkville at 3 p.m. Oct. 1 — on the Bulldogs’ 2022 slate.
It’s a schedule that “certainly didn’t help us” so far, Leach said. A lightning delay made the season opener against Memphis feel like it “probably lasted 12 hours.” MSU then flew to Arizona for a 10 p.m. Central kickoff, returning at 10 a.m. rather than the scheduled 6:30 a.m. arrival, before another road trip to LSU.
“I don’t think it helped us much, but you’ve got to just do it anyway, you know?” Leach said.
During the first two weeks, the Bulldogs performed admirably regardless of the circumstances.
On Saturday, though, the wheels fell off.
Austin Williams muffed a punt late in the third quarter, and MSU’s defense fell apart from there in allowing 21 points to LSU in the final frame. The Bulldogs’ offense was plagued by drops, and a late interception thrown by Will Rogers sealed the game.
Leach again called Mississippi State’s performance “explosive but inconsistent.”
“It’s not enough just to practice hard,” he said. “You’ve got to be thorough.”
The third-year coach said that hasn’t been the case recently when the Bulldogs face adversity.
Of course, a 12-game regular season — particularly in the SEC — has nothing but.
“There’s going to be adversity,” Leach said. “That’s why there’s a football game in the first place: to create adversity and see who comes through it.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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