Sam Pittman on Mississippi State QB Mike Wright: 'He throws better than I want him to'
Going into the game between Mississippi State and Arkansas, the health status of quarterback Will Rogers is up in the air. That means that head coach Sam Pittman and the Razorbacks need to both be ready for him and for backup quarterback Mike Wright.
During his Monday press conference, Pittman praised what he’s seen from Wright. In particular, Wright has impressed him with his throwing ability.
“He throws better than I want him to,” Sam Pittman. “He can throw the football.”
On top of having a better arm than Sam Pittman would like to see, Mike Wright is also an excellent runner. That’s going to make him a difficult dual-threat assignment to stop for the Razorbacks defense.
“He’s fast. Obviously, they’ll run him with run designed plays for him, not just read plays where he can have the opportunity to keep it. Run a lot of fly sweeps with him with the opportunity to pitch or keep. Right now, they’re reading the defensive end and allowing him to run or hand it off, and running nakeds and letting him throw a little bit out of that,” Pittman said.
“He did throw more against Western Michigan than he had before, but I think he had more opportunity as well, which proved he could throw the football and we saw at Vandy he could too.”
Will Rogers suffered an apparent injury to his non-throwing shoulder against Western Michigan. That forced Mike Wright into the game. He completed 70 percent of his passes in relief of Rogers and threw for 57 yards. He also rushed for 24 yards and a touchdown.
Mike Wright is a transfer to Mississippi State from Vanderbilt. Out of high school, he was a three-star recruit in the 2020 cycle and the 39th-ranked quarterback overall, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. Wright played in 26 games at Vanderbilt and has appeared in six to this point for the Bulldogs. Wright has a 55.8 completion percentage on 344 career passing attempts with 2,128 yards and 22 touchdowns. He also has 1,043 rushing yards and 10 career scores on the ground.
Zach Arnett has full faith in Mike Wright
As of now, Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett doesn’t know if he’ll need Mike Wright to play against Arkansas or not. However, in the case that Wright does need to play, Arnett has full faith in his abilities.
“But the reality is no matter what position you play, no matter what position you play, it’s not unique to the quarterback. No matter what position you play, whether you are the starter or not, you must prepare as you are the starter,” Arnett said.
“So, I have full faith and confidence. Mike has taken advantage of every opportunity he’s had this season. He’s scored several touchdowns. He’s distributed the ball for several touchdowns when he’s been in. He saw increased action last week. If he has to play additional snaps, we have no reason to believe he won’t perform the exact same.”