Mississippi State Quarterback Competition Remains Open, Mike Leach Indicates Two Leaders
So many of us expected the Mississippi State quarterback competition to come down between graduate transfer Jack Abraham and sophomore Will Rogers.
Rogers did a respectable job to be just a true freshman last year, taking the reins after KJ Costello sustained a concussion against Alabama.
Rogers finished out the year with a 69.1% completion percentage, 1,976 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
But, the thing about that is that we haven't seen Abraham out throwing with the others. Abraham did take part in some warmups, but didn't participate in drills on Friday.
For now, it looks like the primary competition for the starting position is between Rogers and South Alabama transfer Chance Lovertich.
In his Monday meeting with reporters, Leach indicated that he had not yet named a starter, but that those two are ahead as of now. There seems to have been a notion that this Rogers' job unless someone takes it from him, but Leach continues to refer to this as an "open deal" rather than a done one.
"It's circumstantial, but we need to push it," Leach said. "We've got a few more practices to do it, but there will come the time where we have to make a decision and split the reps different."
We specifically asked Leach about Lovertich, who completed 27-of-33 passing attempts in team and appears to have the best arm among all the quarterbacks on the team, based on what we've seen so far.
"He's steadily improved. I thought he had a really good day today and he's triggering quicker than he did in the spring. So, he just needs to keep improving."
It will be interesting to see who is taking the snaps when the Bulldogs take the field against LA Tech on Sept. 4 in Davis Wade Stadium.
