Mississippi State Football: KJ Costello will excel under Mike Leach

KJ Costello decided to transfer from Stanford to play for Mike Leach and Mississippi State football in 2020 and he’ll excel in Starkville.

For the past two years, Mike Leach has seen his credibility as a quarterback whisperer increase. He took two no-named quarterbacks in Gardner Minshew and Anthony Gordon and turned them into prolific passers at Washington State.

Though his quarterbacks haven’t always seen NFL success, he’s guided such names as Josh Heupel, Tim Couch, Kliff Kingsbury, BJ Symons, Sonny Cumbie, Graham Harrell, Jeff Tuel and Luke Falk. Minshew is obviously the latest to star for the head coach’s offense and become an NFL prospect but Gordon may get a look, too.

Since taking the head coaching job at Mississippi State, Leach has gone the transfer route yet again, following that same trend he created in Pullman, Wash.

This time, however, he landed a highly-regarded player and former four-star recruit in KJ Costello from Stanford. We’ve seen what he can do with no-star guys like Gordon and Minshew, so we can only imagine what magic Leach can create with a kid who has all the talent already.

Costello struggled in his final season with the Cardinal and is seeking the tutelage of one of the best in the country in terms of progressing quarterbacks in Leach.

As a first-year starter with Stanford back in 2017, Costello split time with Keller Chryst and looked like the better player despite being an underclassman. He threw for 1,573 yards and 14 touchdowns with just four picks. He put up even more impressive numbers in 2018 as the full-time starter, racking up 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns with a 65 percent completion rate.

After an off-year in 2019, Costello should return to prominence in 2020 as the full-time starter for the Bulldogs in a revamped offense.

Don’t be surprised if Costello is near the top of the conference in almost all passing categories as he has the most potential of any Leach quarterback in years.