FAYETTEVILLE — In the Pac-12, Mike Leach and K.J. Costello were opponents.
Leach was the coach at Washington State the previous eight seasons. Costello was a starting quarterback at Stanford, where in 2018 he completed 34 of 43 passes for 423 yards and 4 touchdowns in his team’s 41-38 loss to Leach’s Cougars.
Now Leach and Costello are on the same team at Mississippi State, which upset defending national champion LSU 44-34 at Tiger Stadium last week.
After Leach received a four-year, $20 million contract to become Mississippi State’s coach, Costello followed him to Starkville, Miss., as a senior graduate transfer.
It looks like a pretty good move for both coach and quarterback after Costello had an SEC-record 623 passing yards at LSU.
“I thought it was a really good debut,” Leach said. “I mean, some of his turnovers were his fault and some weren’t. But I think that it’s a good start.”
The University of Arkansas will try to slow down Costello and the Bulldogs’ “Air Raid” offense when the Razorbacks play No. 16 Mississippi State at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Starkville.
“K.J. Costello had his career game,” Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said. “I mean, it was unbelievable. And for him to be a transfer and then coming in to do what he did was really outstanding.”
Costello, 6-5 and 225 pounds, completed 36 of 60 passes (60%) for 5 touchdowns with 2 interceptions.
“Man, I’m pretty speechless right now,” Costello told CBS in a postgame interview. “I’m going to try not to get emotional, but to picture that I’d be here … I’m speechless, man.”
Fortunately for CBS, Costello — who has a political science degree from Stanford — kept talking.
“I had a hell of a career at Stanford,” Costello continued. “Didn’t end the way I wanted to. All of a sudden I’m out and [going] from California to Mississippi and … I had the craziest offseason of my career. I’ve been playing for 16, 17 years. Had to rehab. Couldn’t throw a ball a year ago today.”
Costello, who was sidelined by thumb and head injuries last season, was a second-team All-Pac-12 pick in 2018 when he passed for 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns. In three seasons at Stanford, including 25 starts, he had 6,774 passing yards and 54 touchdowns.
But missing time with injuries made it uncertain whether Costello would be the Cardinal’s starter for 2020, and he entered the transfer portal.
“For a while there, I didn’t know what was next,” Costello, who is from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., told CBS. “I mean, I left some of my best friends at Stanford. I didn’t know what was going to come next, and for these guys to embrace me the way they have … I know a lot of the guys look at the quarterback as the guy that inspires everybody else, but these guys have inspired me from the second I got here.
“Just the grit, the tenacity of these guys, the way they work out … I tell people back home all the time that every day it’s like we’re going live in practice. Coach Leach is just different. Guys are tackling guys in 7 on 7.
“It’s a mentality. And without a doubt, the SEC — it means more.”
Costello’s 623 yards against LSU rank 11th on the NCAA’s single game list. He’s the fifth quarterback to play for Leach on the list.
Connor Haliday is tied for the top spot with Patrick Mahomes. Haliday passed for 734 yards for Washington State against California in 2014. Other Leach quarterbacks on the list are No. 5 B.J. Symons (Texas Tech, 690 yards against Ole Miss in 2003); No. 7 Graham Harrell (Texas Tech, 646 yards against Oklahoma in 2007); and No. 8 Cody Hodges (Texas Tech, 643 yards against Kansas State in 2005).
Leach said Costello’s rank among all-time performances by his quarterbacks was “really high when you consider playing at LSU and versus the defending national champions. I thought his composure this game was outstanding.”
Costello is the SEC offensive player of the week, the first Bulldog to earn that honor since Kylin Hill rushed 21 times for 234 yards and 3 touchdowns in Mississippi State’s 52-24 victory at Arkansas last year.
Hill had just 7 carries for 34 yards at LSU, but he led the Bulldogs with 8 catches for 158 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown. Mississippi State wide receiver Osirus Mitchell had 7 catches for 183 yards and 2 touchdowns, and JaVonta Payton had 6 for 122.
“K.J.’s experience, the fact that he’d been a starter for a little over two years at a major college, I think definitely helped,” Leach said. “And I think it helped create some stability for our offense and our team.
“For good or for bad, I’ve had some experience in coming in and installing things, which I definitely drew on. I have to say, I’m glad this isn’t the first time I’ve tried to do that, because with the shortened time frame. We tried to expedite what we did and how we did it to try and make it as clear as we possibly could. I had a number of coaches that I’d worked with in the past, so we’re pretty familiar with how it was going to go and what we wanted to try and accomplish.”
Leach said Costello can read the defense and react better than he did against LSU.
“I think he read the field pretty well and reacted pretty well, but then there’s always the handful of plays where we didn’t,” Leach said. “We’ve got to refine that even more. We weren’t perfect by any stretch.
“We left an awful lot on the table out there, and that’s the thing you’re constantly trying to chase and be your best, and we need to make some progress on that this week.”