Coming off a huge win at Texas A&M and then a bye week, hopes were high in Starkville on Saturday night that Mississippi State would give No. 5 Alabama a battle.
It didn’t happen.
The Crimson Tide jumped out to a 21-6 halftime lead and cruised from there to a 49-9 victory, dropping the Bulldogs to 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in SEC play.
Will Rogers passed for 300 yards for Mississippi State but also threw 3 costly interceptions, and the Bulldogs managed just minus-1 yard rushing on 19 carries against an inspired Alabama defense.
The MSU defense didn’t fare any better than the offense, allowing 543 total yards, including 348 passing yards and 4 TDs by Crimson Tide QB Bryce Young.
After the game, Bulldogs coach Mike Leach briefly met with the media.
Here are some of his thoughts on the lopsided loss.
On how Rogers and the wide receivers struggled at times:
“It was horrible communication.”
Mike Leach not holding back on some plays between Rogers and the receivers.Says he wishes he could say it was because of option routes.
— Stefan Krajisnik (@skrajisnik3) October 17, 2021
On the number of mistakes his team made:
https://twitter.com/afkostka/status/1449572535834718208?s=20
On what it will take to compete with a program like Alabama:
Mike Leach on how to improve to the point of competing with Alabama “You just have to keep battling and grinding away. In our case, get older. If you have a time machine laying around I could use a year.”
— David H Murray (@DawgsBiteMag) October 17, 2021
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
