Mississippi State has a week left of spring practice, and coming out of the latest scrimmage, coach Mike Leach praised the defense, which he said came out with a high level of urgency.

“I thought defensively we played harder than offense,” Leach said. “I thought offense did some good things. Inconsistent, though.”

One of the leaders on the defense, safety C.J. Morgan is still trying to come back from a knee injury that has limited him for more than a year. But Leach loves having him on his team.

“Great presence, great leadership, you know, just a natural leader,” Leach said. “One of those guys that you kind of don’t want to hurry the thing up. But you look forward to his future. Because I suspect there’s big things ahead of him.”

Also on defense, Emmanuel Forbes had another interception.

“I think Forbes is getting better and better,” Leach said. “And I thought what they did really well is they ran to the ball. That’s the thing. Everybody is trying to make perfect execution on a play. Which you don’t get that very often. But if you run to the ball you solve a lot of problems.”

As for QB Will Rogers, Leach calls him a work in progress.

“I think they’re all works in progress,” he said. “I think he does some good things. I didn’t think this was his best work today. But I think that he has been relatively consistent throughout spring.”

One of the players who performed well on Saturday was WR Rufus Harvey, who made several big plays on Saturday including touchdowns.

“Rufus is kind of an uncanny guy,” Leach said. “Rufus is competitive, he’s got some intangibles. And he’s definitely getting better.”