By Tony Thomas
With the firing of head coach Zach Arnett, Mississippi State Bulldogs QB Will Rogers has decided to enter the transfer portal with one year of eligibility remaining.
In 2023, despite being seen as a breakout candidate, Rogers’s numbers dropped for two reasons. First, he was running Kevin Barbay’s offense, not Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense. Leach suddenly and tragically passed away last January. Secondly, Rogers missed four games as the Bulldogs stumbled to a 5-7 record.
With these two factors combined it isn’t hard to see why he put up such pedestrian numbers this season-1,626 yards passing, 12 TDs, and 4 INTs (with 3 coming in a loss to Alabama). Rogers is also coming off a loss to rival Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl.
But despite all of that, Rogers is still a superior talent at the quarterback position. His two finest years in Starkville came in 2021-2022, when he combined to throw for 8,713 yards, 71 TDs, and only 17 INTs, the beneficiary of Leach’s pass-first, run-never system.
https://twitter.com/HailStateFB/status/1710704938521923674
Rogers has posted nine games of 400+ yards passing and 11 games of 300+ yards passing in his college career.
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Rogers is the SEC record holder for completions in a single season (505) and in a career (1301). In addition, Rogers ranks 1st in career pass attempts and career pass completion percentage (69.3%), 2nd all-time in the SEC in career passing yards with 12,315, and 4th all-time in career TD passes with 94.
The portal opens December 4th. Here is a list of possible landing spots for Rogers.
- USC
- Running the Air Raid with Lincoln Riley and Kliff Kingsbury
- TCU
- Head Coach Sonny Dykes was Mike Leach’s OC at Texas Tech
- NC State
- OC Robert Anae is from the Leach coaching tree, having served under him as the O-Line coach at Texas Tech
Other possibilities could include Hugh Freeze’s offense at Auburn, and Gus Malzahn’s scheme at UCF. Also, Louisville and Jeff Brohm’s offense could be a possibility as well.
Rogers also has the option to remove himself from the portal and stay at Mississippi State, now that the Bulldogs have hired Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby to be the new head man in Starkville. Lebby coached the #1 offense in the Big 12 as the Sooners roared to a 10-2 record this season. Over the course of his career, he has coached talented quarterbacks such as Matt Corral at Ole Miss, McKenzie Milton at UCF, and Dillon Gabriel at Oklahoma.
Cue up the Kool Moe D music, because college football is about to become the “wild, wild west.”
