The bare bones: A quick look at what all Mike Leach said after Mississippi State football's first practice

Leach met with the media for the first time during training camp on Tuesday.

Just moments after Mississippi State wrapped up its first football practice of preseason training camp on Tuesday, head coach Mike Leach met with reporters via Zoom. Here's a quick look at some of the more noteworthy tidbits of what all Leach had to say:

Neither wide receiver Malik Heath or cornerback Tyler Williams participated in Tuesday's practice. Heath, a possible starter, was arrested last week on multiple charges including driving under the influence. At the time, Leach released a statement noting Mississippi State was aware of things and gathering the details of the situation. Leach said something similar Tuesday.

"We’re still looking at it," Leach said. "Just getting all the facts, but no, I don’t (have a further update on Heath)."

As for Williams, he'd likely be a starter at corner if he's with the Bulldogs in 2020. And while he was on the initial roster released by Mississippi State on Tuesday, his status for the upcoming year has become unclear. All that's known for sure at this time is that he wasn't practicing on Tuesday. Leach told reporters, at the time of his press conference only moments after practice concluded, he wasn't yet sure where Williams was on Tuesday.

Leach also noted he's hopeful that senior safety C.J. Morgan, who's battling back from an injury suffered last season, will be ready in time for the season opener on September 26 at LSU.

No one has opted out. While several players from programs around the country have opted out of playing this season due to COVID-19 concerns, Leach noted on Tuesday that no Bulldogs have done so to his knowledge.

"Not that I’m aware of, but they’re certainly welcome to exercise their right to do that," Leach said.

The Southeastern Conference has already announced that if players choose to opt out this season, their scholarships will still be honored.

Any possible COVID-19 cases aren't being disclosed. Leach was asked if the Bulldogs had any cases and quickly noted that he wasn't going to say one way or the other.

"If I did, I wouldn’t tell you," Leach said. "No, we generally operate fully healthy here. We have doctors and people like that looking closely into that at every turn. We have a great protocol here. As a matter of fact our protocol – at least initially when they allowed us to have some work – others modeled after it. It was very good."

Leach says he's preaching to his players to be smart in hopes everyone can keep from contracting the coronavirus. He says they talk about it constantly and will continue to talk about it constantly.

"The honest answer is there isn’t a ton we can do beyond that," Leach said. "Everybody can talk about all the elaborate measures they want, but I don’t know what you (the reporter) are going to do after this meeting. So, multiply that times a hundred (to account for all the members of the team). The best thing we can do is educate to the extent that we can."

K.J. Costello isn't the starter at quarterback (at least not yet). It seems highly probable that Leach and the Bulldogs will ultimately have Costello – the grad transfer from Stanford – as the staring signal caller this year, but Leach wasn't declaring that after the first practice.

"No, we haven’t (chosen a starter)," Leach said. "I doubt that we will until maybe as late as the week before (the first game). I hope it doesn’t extend that far, but it certainly could. So, we’re trying to roll them through as we can in these practices, get the best look that we can. It will be more of a sudden decision than I would like because you’d like to see more body of work out of all of them, but (Tuesday) we repped K.J. (Costello), Garrett Shrader and Will Rogers."

Leach feels a bit behind. It's understandable, given how the coronavirus pandemic took away spring ball and has pushed back training camp, but Leach says the Bulldogs have some catching up to do. Still, there are traits Leach is seeing early on that he likes.

"Obviously, we have a lot of work to do, but we’re aggressive and explosive," Leach said. "But we waste too many steps. We’re not a precise as I’d like to be with technique. We just have to keep working at it."

Leach said he might have to simplify some things in his Air Raid playbook in order to make life easier for everyone.

"That’s something we’ll have to be as disciplined about as we can," Leach said. "What we did at Washington State was built over a series of years. Trying to master that in a short period of time is not realistic. We need to be constantly aware of that."

On the schedule, Leach called it "probably the most competitive and demanding schedule in the history of college football". And while Leach was specifically talking about the entire slate for each SEC team, he could have just as easily been speaking about just his own team's schedule that includes road games at the homes of three legit national title contenders (LSU, Alabama and Georgia) just to name a few of the big tests. Still, Leach didn't have any desire to complain about the tall task ahead or yearn for someone else's schedule.

"The schedule provides hardship and opportunity for everybody," Leach said. "I don’t really have a better way to do it. There were some schedules maybe I’m jealous of, and there’s some schedules I’m glad I don’t have. How would you like to be the schedule guy (that makes the schedules)? That would be a fun job, huh? That would be like being a policeman in Portland."

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