Mike Leach provides critical assessment of Will Rogers, MSU passing game vs Alabama

Mike Leach didn’t pull any punches while speaking about Will Rogers and the Mississippi State offense’s performance as a whole against Alabama.

The Bulldogs couldn’t get anything going, scoring just six points against the Crimson Tide defense. While Rogers threw the football a whopping 60 times, Rogers passed for just 231 passing yards and no touchdowns.

During his postgame press conference, Leach provided a critical assessment of his quarterback and the Mississippi State passing game.

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“I didn’t think it was particularly good. I thought that, you know his performance, so many people have a hand in there between him, the protection of the line and getting separation, being in a position to catch it and then catching it. No, I didn’t think that we did a very good job with that. 

“I thought that, I thought he was late on some balls, but part of it is he never really got into a rhythm.”

Additionally, the Bulldogs had a case of the dropsies against Alabama, to which Leach believed a little bit of intimidation was the culprit.

“Oh heck yeah,” stated Leach, regarding on if his team’s fear of Alabama contributed to the drops. “I think it factored big time.

“You know, a ball hits you in the hands and what difference does it make if a seventh grader is throwing it or an All-Pro? Ball flys through air, hits hands, catch.”

While it was a disappointing game for Mississippi State, it was always going to be a tall-task for the Bulldogs to go into Tuscaloosa and get a victory. Still, there’s plenty of season left for Mike Leach, Will Rogers and company.

Mike Leach calls out own players vs Alabama: ‘We spent a lot of time frightened of their jerseys’

Furthermore, Mike Leach was less than happy with his Mississippi State squad following the drubbing handed to them by the Alabama Crimson Tide.

During his postgame press conference, the Bulldogs leader called out his players for being too afraid of Alabama’s jerseys, instead of playing with pride and confidence.

“I didn’t think we played well. I didn’t think we played well at all,” started Leach. “I’ll tell you one thing that they did that gives us trouble, we’ve got some guys that are afraid of the jersey that says Alabama on it. We spent a lot of time frightened of their jerseys. 

“You want to scare some of the guys on our team, put an Alabama jersey on, you’ll scare the hell out of them.”

While the Alabama brand has become huge, Leach wondered why the Crimson Tide affected his team so much, as they play plenty of other gigantic brands in the SEC each week.

“There’s other really good teams that we’re not afraid of their jerseys,” elaborated Leach. “We’re afraid of Alabama’s jerseys. Then there were obviously some externals that you observed that you may or may not comment on that I’m not going to yet, and then you can evaluate that accordingly.”

Alas, it’s evident Mike Leach feels his team wasn’t out-played by much, and simply let a game slip out of their hands due to fear. Nevertheless, a 30-6 conference loss never feels good, regardless of how it’s delivered.