Mike Leach’s Mississippi State could hit LSU with an upset special
By John Buhler
Mike Leach and Mississippi State football are hoping to start the year with an upset over LSU.
Mike Leach hopes to start his Mississippi State coaching career with a big upset of reigning national champion LSU on Saturday.
“The Pirate” left his remote outpost in The Palouse for another rural setting in Starkville. As the new head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Leach hopes to take his signature Air Raid offense and combine it with top-flight SEC players. Though his new program isn’t Alabama, Florida or Georgia, Mississippi State may have the talent to stun the No. 6 LSU Tigers in Death Valley.
How would Mike Leach and Mississippi State pull off this monumental upset?
Despite being a perennial bowl team throughout the 2010s, the Bulldogs are in a slight rebuild under Leach. Things were not going well under former head coach Joe Moorhead, who was not a good culture fit in the Southeastern United States, nor did his Penn State Nittany Lions offense gel in SEC country. We’ve seen the Air Raid work wonders back at Kentucky in the 1990s with Leach.
Entering the 2020 college football season, Mississippi State projects to compete for fifth place in the SEC West with the in-state rival Ole Miss Rebels. They’re in the mix of about four teams competing for being the ninth to 12th-best team in the SEC this year. However, Mississippi State has the talent and potentially the offensive scheme to turn heads early in Leach’s first year.
The two star players of note he has on offense are Stanford graduate transfer quarterback K.J. Costello and All-SEC performer running back Kylin Hill. Costello could put up Tim Couch, Kliff Kingsbury, Graham Harrell, Luke Falk, Gardner Minshew, Anthony Gordon numbers in this Air Raid system. Hill is already a legend in his home state for helping get Mississippi’s state flag changed.
It may be an adjustment for Hill to be more of a receiver than a ball carrier in the Air Raid, but he is certainly excited about what he can do in this offense. He may be the most talented player to star in a Leach offense since Michael Crabtree at Texas Tech. Yes, we’re talking about a guy with College Football Hall of Fame talent right here in the Bulldogs backfield. Hill is that impressive.
Mississippi State may be better than the fifth-best team in the SEC West this year after all. Of course, they’ll need teams like Auburn, LSU and Texas A&M to stumble. Though it’s not to say it’ll happen on Saturday, there are three reasons Mississippi State could hand the Bayou Bengals a big fat L in Death Valley in Week 4: Offensive star power, the element of surprise and no real pressure.
What is getting lost in the offseason shuffle is LSU’s starting lineup will look vastly different than it was a season ago. Seemingly everybody of note has either gone pro or has opted out of the season. There will be no Joe Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase connection this year. Rather, it will be Myles Brennan to Terrace Marshall. That could work, but it’s not Heisman winner to Biletnikoff winner.
Even though LSU head coach Ed Orgeron and defensive coordinator Bo Pelini know it’s coming, the Air Raid will sneak up on the Bayou Bengals. They don’t know what to expect out of Costello on Saturday other than he should be pretty good moving the sticks. How will Hill be used as a running back in a pass-heavy offense? Let’s not forget that the Bulldogs have real SEC players everywhere.
As for the pressure part of it, LSU is coming off the greatest season in program history. Though only delusional Tigers fans think they’re repeating, this is a team that should still be competing with Alabama, Auburn and Texas A&M for a shot at getting to Atlanta to face Florida or Georgia. Mississippi State only needs to win the Egg Bowl and push for .500 in a 10-game SEC season.
For as much as Mississippi State underwent big changes this offseason, so did LSU. It’s a big reason why the gap may not be as wide as you think. It would shock no one if these teams finish fourth and fifth in the SEC West this year. Alabama should win the division, Texas A&M needs to finish top-three and Auburn could really go either way. All the pressure is on LSU in this game.
Leach may not have Mississippi State quite there just yet, but LSU could be upset by the Bulldogs.
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