GAME SNAPSHOT
KICKOFF: Saturday, 7 p.m. ET
SITE: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La.
TV: ESPN
SERIES: LSU leads 73-35-3. Mississippi State won the last meeting 37-7 in 2017.
RANKINGS: Mississippi State No. 22, LSU No. 5
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Bulldogs
–QB Nick Fitzgerald is now the SEC’s all-time leading rusher as a quarterback, surpassing Tim Tebow. He now has 2,999 yards for his career. Fitzgerald is coming off a 195-yard rushing performance against Auburn with two touchdowns. He has rushed for a team-best 513 yards for the season but has struggled with accuracy issues in passing. His completion percentage is only 49.6 percent and he has three interceptions against four touchdown passes.
–RB Aeris Williams is only third in rushing for the Bulldogs with 201 yards behind Fitzgerald and RB Kylin Hill (494). But he rushed for a game-high 146 yards in last year’s Bulldogs win over LSU on 23 carries.
–DE Montez Sweat has the ability to dominate along the line of scrimmage. He has 7.5 sacks, which is second in the country to the 8.5 of East Carolina’s Nate Harvey. Sweat has 24 tackles overall with 10 of them for losses.
Tigers
–RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire has emerged as the leading ball carrier in a tandem with Nick Brossette. Both have been effective and LSU continues to utilize both, but in recent weeks the Tigers have leaned more on Edwards-Helaire, who is more of a speedy outside runner than Brossette, who is more of a between-the-tackles rusher. Edwards-Helaire’s speed and quickness could be especially useful as the Tigers try to get around State’s big defensive front.
–C Lloyd Cushenberry III has been an anchor on a line that is starting to get some continuity. LSU started the same group for a second consecutive game for the first time this season when it faced Georgia last week. Cushenberry will be matched against nose tackle Jeffrey Simmons, who was a big part of State’s dominance up front against the Tigers last season.
–NT Ed Alexander played perhaps his best game of the season last week and was key to LSU slowing down Georgia’s SEC-leading rushing attack. State runs a different type of running game, but it is also one of the best in the SEC. Alexander will be a key to slowing it down, especially because of QB Nick Fitzgerald’s propensity for running up the middle.
KEYS
TO THE GAME
LSU has put itself very much in the Southeastern Conference West race and in contention for a spot in the College Football Playoff, but the Tigers don’t have the luxury of looking ahead to its Nov. 3 date with No. 1 Alabama.
The No. 5 Tigers (6-1, 3-1 SEC) will host rejuvenated Mississippi State Saturday before getting an open date on the last weekend in October. Kickoff at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge is 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The No. 22 Bulldogs (4-2, 1-2 SEC) also have some lofty hopes of their own after knocking off Auburn 23-9 in their last appearance to end a losing streak at two games. If that isn’t enough to get the Tigers’ attention, the memory of the 37-7 pounding the Bulldogs administered the Tigers a year ago could do the trick.
That remains the worst loss for LSU since coach Ed Orgeron took over the program four games into the 2016 season.
“They out-physicaled us,” Orgeron said.
Kind of like what the Tigers did to then-No. 2 Georgia last week.
The Tigers were balanced on offense, rushing for 275 yards and passing for 200, a continuation of what they have done through the season. They Tigers have split their rushing and passing yardage equally, running for 1,415, passing for 1,415.
“We have different weapons,” Orgeron said. “We’re running from a spread, can spread the ball around. But it all starts up front.”
LSU has developed a one-two rushing punch with Nick Brossette, who had more than 100 yards in each of the first two games, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who rushed for more than 100 yards in two of the last four, including 145 against Georgia.
“They do different things,” Orgeron said. “We have different packages for each of them. I would see them as equal now.”
Brossette is more a between-the-tacklers runner and Edwards-Helaire is more of an outside runner, though Orgeron said both can handle both.
“I think they have a lot of confidence in their run game right now,” Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead said. “I think both backs run with great pad level. They fall forward, and I really think it is representative of how they are playing as a whole right now with a ton of confidence and playing to win rather than trying not to lose.”
State isn’t as balanced, but it looks like its bread-and-butter, the running game, is getting better.
The Bulldogs struggled in the run game in consecutive losses to Kentucky (56 yards) and Florida (104) yards before turning things around against Auburn, rushing a season-high 57 times for a season-high 369 yards.
“They switched up their offense a little bit against Auburn,” Orgeron said. “Dominant effort by them.”
Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald had season-highs of 28 carries and 195 yards and scored two touchdowns. Kylin Hill added 146 yards on 23 carries.
Last season against LSU Fitzgerald rushed for 88 yards and two touchdowns.
“He is a very dangerous runner,” Orgeron said. “He can pick and choose his holes. He likes to run them between the tackles — big, strong, quarterback.
“We watched his runs especially against Auburn. He’s very dangerous. He can get up the field, can make you miss, very smart with the football, makes decisions.”
Moorhead has tried to upgrade the Bulldogs’ passing attack, but it hasn’t really worked. Fitzgerald has completed just 49.6 percent of his attempts and State ranks 104th in the country with an average of 190 passing yards per game.
Moorhead listed the keys to the game as he sees them.
“We are going to need to be able to control the controllable, which is our attitude, our effort and our execution,” he said. “We are expecting a lot of crowd noise, and we will be working on that this week.
“It is tough to simulate, but we are going to do our best.”
