One of the last quarterback battles in the SEC was settled on Monday when Mississippi State coach Mike Leach named his starter.

Leach said at a press conference that Stanford transfer K.J. Costello would start against LSU on Saturday. The depth chart, released earlier on Monday, listed an “or” between Costello and QB Will Rogers.

“I expect K.J. to start, Will’s doing a great job, but I expect K.J. to start,” Leach said, in an announcement that has trended that direction in recent days.

Injuries limited Costello to five games in 2019, and he went 102 of 167 for 1,038 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions.

Leach’s teams have led the nation in passing in 10 of his 18 seasons as a head coach at Texas Tech and Washington State. Mississippi State averaged 179.5 yards passing per game last season to rank 12th out of 14 SEC teams.

Costello threw for 6,151 yards and 49 touchdowns with 18 interceptions while at Stanford. He was a team captain in 2018 and 2019.

He passed for 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2018 while he completed 65.1 percent of his passes and earned second-team all-Pac-12 honors. Those yards were the second-highest total in school history.

The first-team all-Pac-12 quarterback that year was Gardner Minshew, who played for Leach at Washington State.