Tray Rutland Transferring

Spring practice started up on Monday for Mississippi State. You're not going to be getting extensive coverage here as basketball is what my focus is on at this time of year. If anything of note crops up though, I'll make sure to spread the word. This week the big news had nothing to do with the practices on the field. It was the announcement on Tuesday that backup QB and redshirt sophomore Tray Rutland would be transferring to another school. No real reason has been given, and probably won't be, outside of the usual coachspeak which tells us nothing. Rutland started in two games last year and played in five after Michael Henig broke his collarbone in the first game of the season. He was 20-48 for 151 yards and 4 interceptions on the season. While there is at least a fair chance he was going to end up third string this year with Josh Riddell coming in, this is still a big blow to the team. QB depth is now painfully thin again as two of the three quarterback who played last year are gone, Omarr Conner due to graduation and Tray Rutland due to transfer. That leaves MSU with arguably thinner depth than last year. Henig was the only QB on the depth chart with any experience, but they at least had the option of moving Conner from WR back to QB if needed, which it was. Riddell does have two years of JUCO experience and was very effective, but that is still a far cry from SEC football. After him is either Ty Evans or Zack Harrington, and that right there makes up all of my knowledge of those two. It's a good thing the coaching staff managed to bring in Riddell. There is a very good chance that Henig is going to be broken in half by LSU the first game of the season and I shudder to think about that depth chart without Riddell at that point.