Will Rogers lists needed improvements for Mississippi State after spring game

The Mississippi State Bulldogs are moving forward past the Mike Leach era, hoping to maintain the high-quality offensive output the gregarious former head coach always seemed to get out of his squad. Quarterback Will Rogers and the improvements he can make will be a big part of that.

Rogers is one of the SEC’s most seasoned passers at this point.

In the last three years he’s thrown for 10,689 yards and 82 touchdowns, while throwing just 24 interceptions. After the team’s annual Maroon & White Game on Saturday, he sees things coming together for the offense quite nicely.

“I thought we did some good things,” Rogers said. “I think there’s definitely things that we need to work on, whether it just be like fine little details of the receivers and I being on the same page vs. open-field coverage, closed-field coverage, whatever it might be.”

One thing that was on full display in the spring game — and that probably doesn’t need much improvement — was Will Rogers’ ability to unlock the deep third of the field with his arm.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise at this point that Rogers is good when throwing downfield, but Saturday’s spring game reinforced that. One of the highlights of the day was a 55-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to receiver Zavion Thomas, in which Thomas stacked a defensive back and made a one-handed catch on his way to the end zone.

Rogers set him up and led him perfectly.

“It’s interesting. If you dig into the numbers from last year? He’s actually one of the most accurate passers of Power Five quarterbacks when the ball was pushed or targeted 20 or more yards downfield,” head coach Zach Arnett pointed out. “So, obviously, if you can run the ball effectively? And you build some play action off of that? That allows your quarterback to set up and have time to push the ball down the field.”

“He’s a real accurate passer when he pushes the ball down the field. And we’re encouraging him to be aggressive and not reckless. That should be his mindset as a quarterback when throwing the ball. Be aggressive, just not reckless.”

How routine Rogers can make those throws come Saturdays, playing in a new offense, could dictate what kind of season the Bulldogs have.

It’ll also depend on how well new offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay fares. Barbay is a protege of Jim McElwain‘s, working with him at both Florida and Central Michigan before eventually getting the Mississippi State job.

After a full spring, at least Will Rogers is feeling good about the improvement and where things are headed.

“We did some good things, we put some good things on tape, but there’s also a lot of things we can learn from,” he said.