K.J. Costello, Mississippi State Football News: Draft Scout Player News

09/06/20 - QB K.J. Costello, rSr/2021, Mississippi State

If you thought all K.J. Costello had to do to earn the starting quarterback job at Mississippi State was show up on campus after transferring in as a graduate from Stanford, then think again. Coach Mike Leach said Costello is still battling freshman Will Rogers and sophomores Garrett Shrader and Jalen Mayden as Week 3 of training camp continues. Leach added some insight into the competition during his first appearance on "Dawg Talk" Thursday. "You know I'm kind of waiting for those guys to separate themselves," Leach said. "I guess that's been a little frustrating. I guess that's good because they're competitive. Sometimes they're competitively good and sometimes they're competitively inconsistent."

Costello has started 25 games in his college career. The other trio has combined to start four, and Shrader owns all of those starts. Costello has thrown for 6,151 yards and 49 touchdowns. Shrader has thrown for 1,170 and eight, respectively. Mayden is 1-for-2 for nine yards in his career. Rogers hasn't stepped foot on the field in a college game. Costello wins in a runaway on paper, but football isn't played on paper. It's played between the white lines. Leach said Costello is ahead of the others, but he's still waiting for him to definitively "rise to the top." "I think they're hugged together pretty tight," Leach said. "But I do feel like it's still an open job. Somebody has got to take it and run with it and really provide that consistency." Costello is aiming at a redemption season of sorts. After starting all 13 games in 2018 during a season in which he nearly set the Stanford record for passing yards in a single season with 3,540, he only started five games in 2019 because of nagging injuries. - The Clarion Ledger

rSr/2021