Despite his incredible debut with MSU, K.J. Costello saw issues he needs to correct when studying LSU game film
The way some have been talking up K.J. Costello following his incredible debut against LSU on Saturday, the Mississippi State signal-caller is destined to win the Heisman Trophy and has played his way into the first round of the NFL Draft.
While he certainly deserves much of the praise being thrown his way after throwing for an SEC individual game record of 623 passing yards in his debut for the Bulldogs, even Costello is willing to admit his four turnovers in the game were unacceptable on Saturday.
Now that the league has film of what Mike Leach’s offense is capable of doing in Starkville, things are only going to get more difficult for the Bulldogs moving forward.
After reviewing the LSU game film, how can Costello clean up his game?
“Well, start with improving – turnovers. I mean, you got a lead on someone who’s apparently an 18-20 point favorite, you cannot turn the ball over,” Costello said during his Tuesday evening media availability. “Most coaches go into those games, at least in the past, harping on, ‘Don’t turn the ball over.’ Almost to a point where you play conservative not to turn the ball over.
“I think it was pretty cool in my mind, I wasn’t even thinking about turning the ball over. But at the same time, I did turn the ball over a couple of times. So now it’s got to be maybe five percent of the thought.
“I think I was in 100% attack before, now it’s got to be 5-10 percent conservative, be smart. Not because we had a lead, just overall. I mean we’ve been working in every drill and special teams two hands on the ball. Knowing when to say uncle – not trying to make a play, get rid of the ball now, throw a couple of away if you need to. There’s still a lot of stuff we left on the table in terms of not taking easy completions, not checking to easy plays. Sometimes we made it harder on ourselves than we needed it to be.”
At one point in the fourth quarter, back-to-back Mississippi State drives ended prematurely thanks to turnovers by Costello. That cracked the door open for LSU to make a comeback attempt in the game.
While the Bulldogs survived on Saturday, that may not happen again the further Mississippi State gets into the SEC schedule if the team is turning the ball over four times in any of the remaining nine league games they play this fall.