Mike Leach Has Simple Goal for Bulldogs' Second Scrimmage of Fall Camp

The Bulldogs aim for consistency and continued upward momentum ahead of the second scrimmage of fall camp.

The message has remained the same for Mississippi State throughout fall camp this year with two primary goals -- consistency and steady improvement.

Bulldogs head coach Mike Leach echoed that when he discussed the goals for Saturday's scrimmage after on Thursday afternoon. This marks MSU's second scrimmage of the fall this offseason.

"Just improvement. Steady improvement," Leach said. "Then we go into Mock Game Week, where all the periods are the same as game week, then we have to make some decisions. We’d like to be in a good position to do that. Have a good crisp, well-executed scrimmage."

So, what exactly constitutes a successful scrimmage? Both the offense and the defense being "pissed" at the end of it, in the words of Leach.

"Competitive at every level," Leach said. "Execution on both sides of the ball, which pretty much means both sides are pissed, because they would have liked more plays…would have liked to be more explosive…more success on their side of the ball. Competitive, dynamic consistent play, that isn’t streaky or in spurts."

One unit to watch in Saturday's scrimmage will be the offensive line, which has had a good camp overall, but allowed some 10 sacks between the four quarterbacks that saw action in Bulldogs' previous scrimmage.

"I think so," Leach said when he was asked if he thought the unit had made strides between this week and now. "The big thing is we have to put good plays closer together. We make plenty of good plays, we just make them in streaks. We kind of traded blows today. I thought it was pretty even on both sides, nobody got the momentum for too long…a little bit in team. Offensively, we had it for a long time and then defense had it for a long time."

It will be interesting to see just how much improvement the Bulldogs show on Saturday afternoon when they're back in Davis Wade for Scrimmage 2, but the theme remains the same.

MSU has come a long way, but there's still much work to be done before LA Tech comes to town on Sept. 4.

"We’re executing maybe a little better, but we have a long ways to go. You can see guys improving and you can see a transition quicker. That’s the biggest thing. It’s not like you turn on the film and somebody is totally wrong, just slow, hesitant. We’re a little crisper right now."