Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach spoke to the media on Monday ahead of the game at Auburn this weekend and he spoke about a multitude of topics including his invitation after the Arkansas game for kickers on campus to try out.

You mentioned on Saturday that you'd have an open competition for kicker. What's the response been like so far?

We've had quite a few people pay some attention and reach out to us. The biggest thing is that I want to have, which we did this at other stops I've had, where basically you have guys walk on. You can only do it when you're allowed to use a ball, which is during the spring. Guys that accumulate in January you say, “Alright, we'll see you on the first day in spring,” when you check out what they can do. We are in season, so we can check it out if their NCAA papers are right. Anyway, we want to have a pile of kickers that are available that we cultivate and develop. Over the years, most of my kickers have been walk-on guys that have developed and improved to the point where they've become the starting kicker. I remember one guy, and I have the utmost admiration for him, starting right out of high school he went to the kicking tryout. We cut him for three years. He kept working and working. He was the starting kicker for like two years for us, and it was really quite impressive. He became deadly accurate as he grew a little bit. So anyway, I just want to have a pile of kickers, and I want to develop them over time so that as they improve and elevate, they have a chance. I've also had a situation where the walk-on kicker played ahead of the scholarship kicker, which I'll do that without any hesitation because whoever plays the best and helps us be successful is the guy we want out there.

How do the kicking issues impact play calling going forward in the red zone?

I don't know. I'm inclined to go for it on fourth down anyway. I probably need to be a little more aggressive with it. I should've been to begin with. If you look back, we used to go for it on fourth down more than anybody. I probably ought to get back to my old ways.

Are you pleased with the state of this program as you approach the end of your second season?

I don't really do it that way. You just keep scratching and clawing, trying to make sure you're getting better every day. I think we're improving. I think that we've already beaten several teams that nobody thought we were going to beat. We just have got to keep getting better. The worst of it is there's several in our grasp that are a play away. One play away and we win the game. We can't lose sight of that. I thought our guys played extremely tough in a tough environment. All of the things went into it. These guys all had an off week before we played them. Then they're loaded with seniors running around with 96 scholarships to our 79. The good news is our guys are going to be here next year and are going to learn from this game. They're going to be here for a couple of years. Some of these guys aren't going to be there next year that are on these other teams.

Who would be your starting kicker if the game were today?

I don't know. We are going to check it out this week.

Have you spoken to either of your kickers about your postgame comments? Are you concerned that it could have impacted their confidence or created a chip on their shoulders?

I don't know what it did. The thing is that there is a ball, and you kick it. It really doesn't matter if a bunch of seven-year-olds are watching or five million Mongol warriors on horses getting ready to shoot their bows and arrows at you. You approach the ball, and you kick it. It's as simple as that. But I do want to have that depth. We debated on it, and I just got to thinking about that we haven't done that here. It is just kind of automatic as they would come through. There'd be a list of about 40 and some would kick it worse than you would think, like worse than you can for example. Some were even worse, trust me. Some were quite remarkable and those you'd keep around for kick drills. They'd work and develop then two years later, boom, there's your starting kicker.

What was the experience at Texas Tech with Matt Williams like with finding a kicker through a halftime contest?

Matt Williams wasn't really a byproduct of that. You know, it's not really personal to these guys. I just want a thicker force to draw from if we get in a bind. Matt Williams was even more interesting because had a number of them that became our kickers there at Tech, walk-ons were the vast majority. Matt Williams – we'd scholarshipped a fellow that was struggling. This is the contest, the third quarter contest. We were playing Massachusetts I believe, and it's early in the season. Here comes a guy. They had that contest where if you can kick it 30 yards out, a student thing, you get free rent. The ball of course would go all over the place. Matt Williams in his regular shoes, tennis shoes, one steps it. It goes straight up and through. The type of thing where if you just had a center and a holder and nobody blocking the defenders on the line of scrimmage, you still would've made it because it went up right away. I said, “Go get that guy. I mean what does it hurt? Stick him in the pile here.” The equipment guys ran him down, found him, got his information. He came by the office and turned out he was eligible that year, right then that year. About two weeks later, we are playing No. 10 Kansas at Kansas, and he kicked nine extra points that day. How about that? Nine in a row. We were pretty thrilled with that.

What are you seeing from Auburn, especially on the defensive side of the ball?

I think they are good. They are talented guys. They are not super complicated or elaborate. They are just talented guys. They are physical and get after you.

With the special teams penalties, what has been the overarching issue and what are you doing to fix that?

I don't know. We just have to be more disciplined in there. Nobody works on special teams more than we do. We got the two last week that I can think of. One of them we hit a guy in the back which is just stupid. The other thing is we jumped offsides, and that is dumb too. There may be another one. I can't remember.

With Auburn's Bryan Harsin in his first year in the SEC, you're only one year removed from your first year in the conference. What were your biggest growing pains in your first year in the conference?

Those interruptions were the worst thing. The other thing and I don't think it's lost on anybody, there are those out there that try to make things as joyless as they possibly can, and they did. They successfully did it. The other is everybody coming in the SEC jumps up and down and says the SEC is special by some gigantic margin, and how it is so much different from where you were before. I don't want you to go away empty-handed. I think the energy and excitement is unique because the proximity of the SEC is relatively close. The fans get integrated to the point where they know each other, they spend time with each other and they see each other from one year to the next. It really is quite exciting. But when it comes to the football part, you sit there in a dark room, you watch film, you eat bad food, you drink coffee, you dip tobacco and you try to figure out how to get after the other guy. Guess what, his defensive tackle is this, but his safety is only that. And so it goes. On the other side, the quarterback is this but with the running back we think we can do something with this. You sit there to scheme and grind away. You try to have a great week of practice. I think that is the biggest thing, having a great week of practice. You fire it away. You find it is uniquely similar to, the SEC in this way, to the Pac-12 or Big 12 or whatever conference Boise State was in at the time because they keep changing the name. I think he finds it eerily similar.

How have you seen Auburn's Bo Nix improve in the last year and what makes him dangerous as a quarterback?

He has got some mobility to him. This conference is full of great quarterbacks, not to take anything away from him. He is going to present similar challenges to the others we have faced this year.

Jaden Walley hasn't had a 100-yard game this season. Is that a product of depth at receiver or has he not made the jump you've expected from him?

[Christian] Ford has done a really good job of taking some of those catches away from him. He had a chance to have two more this last game. I think as Ford emerges, Walley is in a dogfight for reps to see which one he gets, Ford gets or Jamire [Calvin] gets.

You mentioned a few weeks ago that this was a one-layer team in terms of depth. Now, would you say you're two layers deep, or where's that depth right now?

We are trying to get there. I don't know if we are there yet. Depth is kind of relative. Last year, we were like five layers deep, but we are pretty thin. The thing that is exciting is we have a lot of people that are sophomore or less playing pretty well.

What have you seen from Cole Smith lately and do you anticipate him getting more playing time?

He could. He has been on the list the whole time. He does some good things, very enthusiastic out there and aggressive. He brings some energy to our unit, but like everybody, he has to keep getting better. He is another guy who is pretty young too.