Leach gives thoughts on transfer portal

Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach shares his thoughts on MSU players and players around the country looking to move on to other places

The transfer portal has both benefitted and been a detriment to Mississippi State in recent weeks and months. On one hand, players like quarterback K.J. Costello and offensive lineman Scott Lashley have joined the Bulldogs and given MSU quality pieces that increase the team's talent and depth. On the other, five Mississippi State players on scholarship have entered the transfer portal of late including three (offensive lineman Stewart Reese, defensive lineman Fabien Lovett and defensive back Jarrian Jones) who might well have been starters for the Bulldogs in 2020.

In an interview on the Thunder & Lightning Podcast on Thursday, Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach had a chance to address his thoughts on the portal and attrition this spring, as well as some of the reasons behind all the activity. Here's what Leach had to say:

“There’s going to be attrition, but I think the attrition happened in different ways. If you have a spring and it’s all competitive and somebody is behind in the depth chart, then maybe they leave or get dissatisfied or decide they don’t love football as much as they thought. Then people leave or somebody will flunk out. Okay, so through spring, there’s always some attrition.

"All schools – there are more people in that silly portal than usually from all schools. (It’s) not just us. We’ve got some on there, but I do think…they’re away from football. They’re away from coaches. Some cases, the players get bored. I think some of them miss the attention a little bit. I don’t think it’s typically anything is wrong with where they are at or the situation…They get bored they get out of their routine. As the body goes idle, so does the mind."

It's uncertain how a normal spring might have changed things for Mississippi State. Under normal circumstances – if practices had been ongoing and players remained on campus as opposed to scattered all around due to the novel coronavirus pandemic – would players such as Lovett and Jarrian Jones have been more likely to not hit the portal? It's an answer we'll never know for sure, but it certainly seems as though Leach believes all the extra time on players' hands around the nation has increased transfer activity.

Hear more from Leach below in his Thunder & Lightning interview with SuperTalk Mississippi's MSU beat reporter Brian Hadad and Joel Coleman of Sports Illustrated's Cowbell Corner.