Football: Tigers open conference play at Mississippi State tonight

For the past five seasons, the winner of the Southeastern Conference has gone on to hoist the national title.

So as No. 3 LSU (2-0) opens conference play tonight against No. 25 Mississippi State (1-1), the Tigers will attempt to ride their hot start to the season into Starkville, Miss., and repeat their 2007 national championship campaign.

"As a conference game this is a very key contest," said LSU coach Les Miles. "We will enjoy opening conference play, and we expect it to be a very competitive game. You know they are going to play hard and that they have a great scheme."

The matchup marks the second non-holiday Thursday night game in LSU history, with the first coming in that 2007 season when LSU opened its title run with a 45-0 victory over the Bulldogs in Starkville, scooping up a fumble and nabbing a record-tying six interceptions en route to victory.

The meeting also marks the first time the two schools will face each other while both are ranked.

Mississippi State started this season ranked No. 20 and reached No. 17 after a dominant 59-14 win at Memphis.

The Bulldogs suffered a heartbreaker last week to defending national champion Auburn, whose goal line stand as time expired left the Bulldogs at the wrong end of a 41-34 shootout.

"They're coming off a difficult contest with Auburn, so you know they're going to play hard," Miles said. "We understand that this is a very good Mississippi State team. We understand that Thursday night will be a couple of days early, but it is one in which there will be great enthusiasm."

The Tigers, on the other hand, are coming off a commanding 49-3 win over Northwestern State that allowed LSU to rest some starters and avoid injury.

LSU faces a new challenge this week with a Mississippi State offense that ranks No. 6 nationally with 321 rush yards per game and No. 31 nationally with 267 passing yards per game.

The Bulldogs are led by senior quarterback Chris Relf, who leads SEC quarterbacks with 78.5 rush yards per game and ranks No. 6 in the conference with 198.5 pass yards per game, and senior running back Vick Ballard, who leads the SEC with 150.5 rush yards per game.

"They're very physical even though they run it out of the spread," said LSU sophomore defensive tackle Michael Brockers, who snagged a rare interception last weekend. "I feel like we have to play very physical with those guys. Oregon tried to run east and west to get you out of your gaps, and this team really doesn't care where you're at; they'll try to move you out of the gaps."

Miles warned against the dual-threat challenge Relf presents and spoke highly of Ballard, who finished last season No. 8 in the conference with 968 rush yards.

"[Ballard] is a tremendously talented back," Miles said. "I think he's unusually capable, and I think a lot of schools in this conference would enjoy having him as a tailback. His abilities would draw a number of schools in this league."

But the Tigers' defense has been impressive thus far, ranking No. 28 in the nation in scoring defense and third in the conference in total defense.

LSU held the same Oregon squad that dropped 69 points and more than 600 yards of total offense last week to 27 points and 335 total yards in week one and stuffed Northwestern State to just 95 total yards including -4 yards rushing.

"[LSU is] a very, very physical team and a very, very talented football team," said Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen. "They took a team that played in the national championship game last season with a lot of returning starters, ranked No. 3 in the nation and pretty much blew them out. We'll have our hands full against them, and we're going to have to play 60 minutes of really good football to find a way to win."

Mullen called LSU one of the best — "if not the best" — teams in the nation and joked that LSU would "probably win the NFC East" this year.

But despite the hype and the fact that Mississippi State hasn't beaten LSU since 1999, Miles said the Tigers aren't going to take any team easy.

"The reason [for the winning streak] is because we give great respect to our opponents," Miles said. "We prepare very sincerely. When you look at them on film, the coach doesn't have to do any convincing. Everyone sees that they are a very talented and capable team. We're going to have to play well to win."

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Contact Mark Clements at mclements@lsureveille.com