Full Q&A: MSU outside receivers coach Steve Spurrier, Jr. talks air raid, recruiting & working for Mike Leach

Mississippi State outside receivers coach Steve Spurrier, Jr. addresses a number of topics

Cowbell Corner chatted with Mississippi State outside receivers coach Steve Spurrier, Jr. late last week to discuss a number of topics. Parts of this conversation were used in THIS PIECE ON MSU’S WIDE RECEIVERS earlier this week. Here is the full Q&A with Spurrier Jr.:

Cowbell Corner: I’ve asked this of Mike Leach, but I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. Coach Leach has said his offense can be installed pretty quickly. So in that regard, is this offense kind of tailor-made for this current situation in that it’s not something overly complicated, so your receivers and everyone else can kind of pick up on things in a hurry?

Spurrier Jr.: I hope so. I don’t think this situation is tailor-made for anything. Nobody can really plan and prepare for two or three months of pretty much nothing, which is what we’ve had outside of virtual meetings. But you’ve got to think it helps us. We’re not overly complicated on what we’re doing and how we do it and we have a system in place and it’s not based on the evaluation of our guys, because we really haven’t even evaluated our team very much. We’ve watched them run around a little bit and watched them on tape, but we haven’t spent a lot of time with them on can and can’t do. So we’re going to run the offense we run and certainly, the consistency, that will help us.

Cowbell Corner: Looking at the receivers you have to work with, Osirus Mitchell has been a guy that has progressed over the course of his MSU career. How much have you been able to learn about him and how he fits with this offense?

Spurrier Jr.: Not a lot. The time I’ve been with Osirus and spoken to him and watched tape – speaking with him, you know he’s an intelligent guy. He’s a big guy and he’s got a chance to really be special. But honestly, we don’t know a lot about him. I haven’t seen him catch a football.

Cowbell Corner: I guess that unfamiliarity is pretty much there when it comes to all your receivers right?

Spurrier Jr.: Yeah. Malik Heath is a guy that I recruited at Washington State. i went down to watch him last spring. But I haven’t spent a lot of time with him either. Hopefully, we feel pretty good that those guys can be successful in our offense.

Cowbell Corner: I can remember asking you a similar question back in February, but why exactly does this offense have the reputation for being pretty simple to pick up and start producing?

Spurrier Jr.: Give Leach a lot of credit for what he’s done and how he’s done it. He’s put together a framework and a system that can be successful and has been. Anytime you’ve got a track record of success you can recruit players that want to be a part of that. And having K.J. Costello here means a lot. He’s a really talented quarterback that wanted to play in this system. Why? Because this system speaks for itself. It has a lot of success behind it and (Leach) has a proven track record. But you need a good quarterback and we think we have one. But if you don’t have a very good quarterback, you will struggle. And (Leach has) produced (good quarterbacks) too. Gardner Minshew and some of the guys he’s had at Washington State, this system was put in place and those guys latched onto it and have been extremely successful. Some of the things Anthony Gordon did as a one-year starter was pretty remarkable last year (at Washington State). So the way we practice, I think is really special. We practice what we do. We don’t practice a bunch of things we don’t do. We don’t change what we practice week to week. We’re very consistent on what we’re doing, how we do it and how we practice. I think that gives us a huge benefit and lets guys get comfortable with what we’re wanting to do.

Cowbell Corner: I remember you saying before something about route-running not being overly complicated for your receivers. Can you break that down a little?

Spurrier Jr.: It’s not terribly specific to areas of the field. We don’t have a route that tells you to run here and him to run there and I’ve got to run there and you read the defense and throw to one of those areas of the field. There’s a lot of emphasis on plays that are pretty good against a lot of different coverages. That does help a lot. And we practice that a lot. We practice running the same plays against all kinds of different coverages and looks and just continuing to find a way to get open. That’s what we practice. That’s how we do it. Guys get comfortable with that and they kind of learn how to do it.

Cowbell Corner: You’ve already said you haven’t seen much from your receivers other than watching tape, but from that, does anyone really stand out in such a way you think they can be incredibly successful in the air raid?

Spurrier Jr.: It’s hard to say until we go through it. It really is. You know, my time with Osirus, I’ve enjoyed. I think he’s a sharp guy that knows how to play and has some experience. There’s a lot to that. What I know about Malik Heath, I think he’s really talented. Again, we just have to put it in effect and coach it and run it, but he has some athletic qualities about him that you can’t coach. You’re excited about that. I think JaVonta Payton is a guy that is a talented young man and I’m curious to watch how he fits in. He fits the mold of being kind of athletic and shifty and he’s a crafty player. A lot of those guys have been successful in this offense. Then after that, we have a decent crew of guys. You take a look at these guys and what they do when they run around. They’re competitive. And they’re excited to have the opportunity in an offense that’s going to let them go out and go play. That’s fun. We have a fired-up group of guys ready to get out there and go do something.

Cowbell Corner: And I’m guessing it’s a safe assumption you all have no issues letting some of the freshmen or first year guys get out there and play and contribute immediately?

Spurrier Jr.: Absolutely. We have five guys coming and we’ll put them out there and start firing it around to all of those guys and see what they’ve got. And that’s a pretty good group. That’s a crafty, athletic and talented group of guys. Every one of those guys, we’re going to bring them in and give them every opportunity and see what they look like. If they’re capable and they have the ability to run around and catch the ball, they’ll play. We have no hesitation getting those guys ready to go.

Cowbell Corner: It seems like to me, if I was a big-time receiver, playing in this offense would be incredibly attractive to me. Are you all finding that to be the case as you recruit at Mississippi State?

Spurrier Jr.: The presence of this offense always gets recognized. When we call and tell them who we are and what we’ve done and show them the data and show them the stats and show them the numbers, everyone is excited to see that. But on the same note, we have to put that product on the field. We have to show that there are people wearing Mississippi State helmets that are running around and catching the ball. We haven’t done that yet. There’s still a lot of unknowns on who we are. Mike Leach comes in from Washington State and some people know about him and some people don’t. Here’s the air-raid system – (people say), ‘Well, I’m curious.’ Curiosity is really high for all these receivers and quarterbacks. They know who we are and what we’ve done and they know our background and they know Leach and they know our track record. They might’ve done research. But for the majority of our really big-time receivers, they want to see it. They want to see the product on the field. When we can start, even practicing, if we can start putting out there what we do and how we do it, it’s really going to help.

Cowbell Corner: The Mississippi State reputation for years has been one that relies primarily on running the football. Even being a new coaching staff and with Mike Leach and the air raid, do you all still kind of have to overcome the old reputation of being a run-first football team?

Spurrier Jr.: Certainly you do. That’s who we are and that’s who we’ve been and that’s to be expected. That goes along the lines of getting that product on the field the people can really see. But again, we are who we are. We’re going to do what we do. It’s not going to be running the ball much. It’s not going to be quarterback-run driven. We’re going to throw it. There’s no grey area in what we’re going to do. We just have to put it out there and show them what it looks like. One of the stats I like telling people, Mississippi State has not had a 500-yard receiver in five or six years. You know last year at Washington State…we had seven. Seven players last year had over 500 yards receiving. When you tell people that, that gives them an idea that who we’ve been is who we’ve been. But who we are and what we’re going to bring is a bunch of guys who plan on catching it and throwing the ball for a bunch of yards here. That’s a fun stat. That’s clear on what Mississippi State has been and what we hope to be going forward.

Cowbell Corner: One last thing. What’s it like to work for Mike Leach?

Spurrier Jr.: It has actually been really good. Because you know exactly who he is. The one thing you admire about him is he’s very consistent in who he is. That’s what makes him a good coach. Players see that. He’s a little different and we don’t talk a lot and we don’t have 100 team meetings. But when he talks, he talks. And when he says what he has to say, he says it and people listen and then he moves on. But as an assistant coach, we know exactly where we stand. We know exactly what he wants. Are there any questions and then we move on. So you know, you don’t want to work all day and all night. You don’t want to grind all summer. You know obviously there’s a standard for what it takes to coach. And he’s been good at hiring coaches too. He’s had a lot of good coaches work for him. So yeah, working for him is great. He’s very predictable and very consistent and he doesn’t like to work all day long. And he wins games. He wins football games, so there’s a ton of value in that.