Mississippi St. QB hopes to be SEC's next star

Associated Press

There's an easy measuring stick for the difference between Dan Mullen's old job as Florida offensive coordinator and his new gig at Mississippi State: His quarterbacks.

With the Gators, he tutored the Southeastern Conference's largest quarterback — Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. As pre-season practice opens Monday, the Bulldogs' offense is led by one of college football's smallest — 5-foot-11 former walk-on Tyson Lee, a guy who worked very hard all offseason to gain the 17 pounds he needed to reach 200.

"Hopefully I can truck some people," a laughing Lee said when asked if he would be ripping off any Tebowesque runs. "No, no, not really. I just hope I'm more durable, especially in the spread offense. You take some licks a lot of times with there being five wide receivers."

Lee can't wait for his chance to run Mullen's system. Mississippi State Athletic Director Greg Byrne wanted his new coach to fling the football around with the idea points on the scoreboard would lead to fans in the stands, and he got just what he wanted in Mullen.

As his former boss, Florida Coach Urban Meyer, pointed out, though, Mullen may not have the pieces just yet.

"It's all personnel based," Meyer said of the spread offense. "If you have very good players, it's going to be a good offense. If his players aren't very good, it will struggle."

Mullen, who at 37 is Football Bowl Subdivision's fourth-youngest coach, helped turn Utah quarterback Alex Smith into the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick. He followed Meyer to Florida, where he helped win two national titles and elevated Tebow into a household name.

Making the spread work in his new home may be his toughest challenge yet, however. Only Lee has significant game experience after starting eight contests last season. But he's on his third different offense in three years.

After him, there's little-used backup Chris Relf, who passed for 13 yards last year, and the team's much-anticipated quarterback of the future, freshman Tyler Russell, of Meridian.

But Lee is still proving that he is a good fit on the field in the sport's best conference. At times last season he struggled to see over his porous offensive line. And fans cringed every time he got knocked to the ground, which was often in a difficult year for the Bulldogs.

But the perception outside the program is Lee is simply holding the job till Russell surpasses him sometime early in the season. Mullen hasn't done anything to discourage conventional wisdom, declaring the position open — just like the other 10 on offense — and calling it a "week to week deal."

He said he likely will play multiple quarterbacks and is comfortable with the public's sense of uncertainty around the position. He's been in similar situations before, it turns out.

In his first seasons with Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida he rotated quarterbacks — most notably with Chris Leak and Tebow sharing the role and a crystal trophy.

McCray leaves Cards

Louisville Coach Steve Kragthorpe says running back Antonio "Boogie" McCray has left the program.

Kragthorpe didn't state why in his announcement on Saturday, but simply said McCray "will not have the opportunity to be part of our program."

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound running back from Norfolk, Va., signed with Louisville in February and had been on campus for just over a month during the third summer session.