Mississippi State Head Coach Mike Leach Talks Labrador Retrievers, Spring Practice

Mississippi State Head Coach Mike Leach met with the media on Thursday afternoon as the Bulldogs wrapped up another spring practice ahead of their second scrimmage of the season, which will commence on Saturday morning at Davis Wade Stadium.

In the interview, Leach discussed everything from the outgoing pair of Labrador Retrievers who attended this practice (our personal biggest regret of the day is not snagging a picture of those two, but we're happy we asked about them to gain some more insight on them) to the performances of quarterbacks Sawyer Robertson and Will Rogers in addition to other topics surrounding the team's progress as a whole.

See below for a transcript.

On the Labradors (the ultimate highlight of the day): "He has great labs and knows a lot about them... they're great looking dogs. One of them was going to be the mascot for Ducks Unlimited and it somehow got derailed because of COVID or something like that, I can't remember."

On Will Rogers and Sawyer Robertson: “I thought both of them looked good. I thought Sawyer really did some good things in one-on-ones; so did Will. Then I thought Will was a little better in skel and team... But Sawyer was good in team, too. Both of them were really good in team, actually. We didn’t protect Sawyer as well so he had to take off, but looked pretty good doing it.”

On wide receiver Caleb Ducking's progression: “It’s kind of coming together for him. He’s got to keep improving. He needs on-the-field experience. When he first got here he really hadn’t caught a lot of balls. So his ball skills have gotten better and better. But we would like to be able to utilize him more and it has to do with making the most of each play, don’t take any off. But he is one of the fastest guys on the team.”

On players who have taken a jump this spring: “Some of the o-linemen have for sure. We’ve got a little more depth there. Albert (Reese) comes to mind, and Nick (Jones). Percy Lewis is picking things up pretty quick. (Steven) Lasoya is doing some good things, real versatile, he can play a lot of positions... So I think we’re getting more depth there. D-line, we have some guys kind of emerging. And I think the secondary is more cohesive.”

On what he wants to see in the Saturday scrimmage: “Incremental improvement I think is the biggest thing. It will be similar to last week, I’m not sure what the matchups will be. But it will be really similar to what last week’s was.”

On wide receiver Austin Williams: “Consistent, kind of leads the charge in consistency. He makes a lot of plays even if it may start out ugly he just keeps playing, keeps playing, and keeps playing hard. So then he finds his way to a lot of balls.”

On wide receivers and quarterbacks through spring: "They’re developing some. They need to develop faster. I think we’ve got to keep getting better at vertical balls.”