Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Mike Leach as Kentucky played Mississippi State on October 10, 2020. Photo by Mark Cornelison
After Mike Leach’s offense failed to score for the first time in his 232 career games, it’s no surprise the Mississippi State coach was upset after Saturday night’s 24-2 loss to Kentucky. And in typical Leach fashion, he didn’t mince words.
“We’re going to have to check some of our group and figure out who really wants to play here because any malcontents, we’re going to have to purge a couple of those,” Leach said.
Purge? Believe him.
Remember two weeks ago State threw for over 600 yards in a 44-34 win at LSU. Against UK, State had six interceptions against a team that had allowed seven touchdown passes in its first two games and lost its second straight game.
The Bulldogs have gone in two weeks from being the toast of the nation to not even sure who the starting quarterback will be in their next game.
Mississippi State had 296 yards and limited UK to a mere 157, including just 35 yards the second half. But the Cats returned one interception for a score and another 76-yard return set up a 2-yard scoring run.
“We didn’t play together at all,” Leach said. “You can really say all things. We’ve got to figure out a way to clean that up. Their three guys up front can consistently beat our five. Our receivers did not consistently catch the ball. … We turned the ball over, which was a byproduct of the quarterback’s eyes not being in the right place.
“Offensively, we’re not coaching very well right now. We have to coach better. If you look at this game, nearly every problem that we have was self-inflicted. With a lot of respect to Kentucky, but one self-inflicted wound after the next. I’ve been in plenty of games where we didn’t drop any balls. I don’t know how many balls we dropped but I lost count.
“We’ve got to become a better offense. We’ve got a new system, we’ve got some youth and inexperience, and we’ve just got to stick together and coach our way through it.”
