Mike Leach Air Raid Passes its' First SEC Test With Flying Colors

Looks like the Pac-12 can have some success against the SEC anyways. On Saturday, it was in record-breaking fashion.

There were plenty of questions surrounding Mike Leach’s system as he left the Palouse of eastern Washington and took his talents south to the SEC, but after his Bulldogs’ resounding 44-34 win against then No. 6 and defending national champion LSU in Baton Rouge, a lot of those questions disappeared into thin air.

One game in and Mike Leach showed that his system, and senior quarterback KJ Costello, can absolutely thrive against the best athletes in the country, against a program in LSU that has recruited 37 more 4/5 - star recruits than Mississippi State has over the last four recruiting cycles. 

How about Costello? The Stanford grad transfer threw for an SEC-record 623 yards (his previous career-high with the Cardinal was 381 yards) on 36/60 passing, five touchdowns, and two interceptions. He averaged over ten yards an attempt, and tore up a talented LSU defense despite his team netting only nine(!) rushing yards. It was the second-highest mark against a top-ten opponent ever.

We never really got to see this arm talent from Costello at Stanford, mostly because of the polar opposite nature of the offense HC David Shaw ran in Palo Alto. A lot more I-formation runs, conservative pass calls, and owning the time of possession. 

Mike Leach’s air raid offense follows none of those values, and Costello was asked to pick this offense up with virtually zero offseason (Costello didn’t even arrive on campus until June 1st) and there were zero bumps in the road the first time through.

We didn’t really know much about this MSU receiving core after the run-heavy approach the team used last year, but they looked excellent. Osirus Mitchell led the Bulldogs with 430 receiving yards in 2019, he got nearly half of that (183 yards and two touchdowns) on Saturday.

All-SEC RB Kylin Hill showed his skills as a receiver as well. Sure he only ran for 34 yards, but shredded LSU linebackers in coverage with 158 yards and a touchdown. 

His touchdown was a thing of beauty. Trailing 24-20 after an LSU touchdown, the Bulldogs lined up with a four-receiver set with Hill next to Costello in the backfield. The two receivers to the quarterbacks left both ran crossers across the middle of the field, and Osirus Mitchell on the other side ran a jet sweep-like motion across the formation to confuse the linebackers.

Hill popped out of the backfield on a wheel route to Costello’s left and was left uncovered. The senior hit Hill in the chest and Hill only had to break one tackle along the sideline to race to the end zone. You can see the play here.

Costello firmly inserted himself into the Heisman conversation with his performance on Saturday, and I would imagine this won’t be the last time we see him put up video-game numbers this season (hello Vanderbilt), or the last top-ten win. MSU still has three more games (Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia) against the current AP top-ten.

It’s going to be fascinating to watch how MSU operates as the season goes on and the games mean more and more. The Bulldogs are now ranked 16th in the country, and if they keep winning, there’s going to be more and more expectation. Leach never seemed to win the big games at WSU. He was 1-7 against rival Washington in his career, and was 2-4 in bowl games.

One game into his SEC career though, he already has a top-ten win. We’ll see if that continues.

We can’t throw the towel in on LSU yet. When star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. was announced out with an illness, the Tigers were down to just three starters from their national championship team from nine months ago.

Myles Brennan started his first game since November 2016 when Brennan was starting at St. Stanislaus HS, so I think we can give Myles a break on not looking 100 percent sharp in his first career start. 27/46 345 yards and three touchdowns aren’t too shabby considering the staggering amount of production the Tigers lost on offense from last season.

It’s all about progression through the season, and we are just going to have to see as this rugged 10-game SEC slate fights on through the fall.

But man, watch out for Mike Leach and the SEC air raid.

Writer

-By: TJ Mathewson