Jeff Lebby walks into Saturday’s showdown with something a lot of coaches don’t have: a real feel for what Lane Kiffin wants to do.
That connection goes back to Lebby’s two seasons running Kiffin’s offense at Ole Miss in 2020 and 2021, when the Rebels’ 2020 attack set an SEC record for total offense in conference play. Kiffin made sure to note Lebby’s role this week, calling him “a huge part of our success there.” He also made it clear he’d rather not line up against him.
“I don't like playing against him because they go so fast,” Kiffin said this week.
Now Lebby is the head coach at Mississippi State, and he takes the Bulldogs into Baton Rouge for a top-25 matchup with LSU on Saturday. Both teams arrive with questions, but the biggest one hangs over Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor.
Taylor finished the Alabama game two weeks ago on the sideline with a boot on his right foot, and LSU’s defense has been waiting in the wings for a test after being one of the country’s stingiest run units early in the season. Lebby said the SEC availability report will determine whether Taylor can go.
Taylor’s season has been a breakout. He has thrown for 1,450 yards and an SEC-best 17 touchdowns with four interceptions, and he’s thrown three touchdowns in the last five games, the longest stretch since LSU’s Jayden Daniels in 2023.
But the injury came up in the Missouri win, and it was obvious against Alabama. He was sacked five times, rushed for minus-26 yards, and eventually exited.
If Taylor can’t play, Mississippi State would have to turn to redshirt freshman Parker Puckett or AJ Swann, who spent a season at LSU.
The Bulldogs also need answers in the run game. Fluff Bothwell has been productive overall with 403 yards and three touchdowns on 74 carries, but he had just one carry against Alabama and spent much of that game with a boot on his left foot. Mississippi State was dominated on the ground, getting outrushed 179-18.
That could matter again against an LSU front that ranked second nationally against the run through four weeks, allowing only 47.5 yards per game. Kentucky found some room last week, though, with CJ Baxter bursting for a 77-yard run on the opening snap and finishing with 123 yards. The Wildcats ran for 155 yards overall.
LSU, meanwhile, is coming off an overtime loss at Kentucky that left the Tigers at 4-2 and 1-2 in SEC play. The program is in a familiar spot at the season’s midpoint: two losses and plenty of pressure. A third conference defeat in Kiffin’s first season would tighten the margin for error quickly, especially with Alabama and Texas still set to come to Baton Rouge.
Quarterback Sam Leavitt has kept LSU moving, but not cleanly. He has thrown for 1,496 yards and 10 touchdowns, yet he has also tossed an interception in every game this season and owns eight through six games, the most in the FBS. Against Kentucky, he went 25 of 34 for 275 yards and two touchdowns and added a rushing score in overtime, but he also threw a pick and lost a fumble on a sack in the fourth quarter.
History favors LSU in the matchup. The Tigers have won the last three meetings, while Mississippi State’s most recent win in Baton Rouge came in 2020, when the Bulldogs pulled off a 44-34 upset in Mike Leach’s first season. The teams haven’t met since 2023, and this is their first meeting since the SEC expansion ended the annual series.
Saturday’s game is set for noon ET at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge and will air on ESPN.
LSU enters as a 14.5-point favorite, with SportsLine giving the Tigers a 76% chance to win. The better angle, though, may be the total.
LSU’s three SEC games, if you remove overtime, have finished with 56, 41 and 54 combined points, and none cleared 58.5. Mississippi State’s SEC games have averaged nearly 70 total points, but that track record has been built around Taylor’s legs and Bothwell’s workload.
With both in question and LSU’s front built to slow the run, the safer call is that this one stays below the number.
Pick: Under 58.5
In Other News...
Mississippi State Finally Lands A Future Series That Solves A Real Problem
Mississippi State has locked in a future football home-and-home with Oklahoma State, a move that gives the Bulldogs a high-profile nonconference opponent and helps clear one of the practical hurdles in SEC scheduling. The agreement gives the two programs a familiar kind of pairing, with a past history that dates back to meetings on campus and at neutral sites, and it adds a power opponent to Mississippi States long-range slate at a time when every one of those openings matters.
For the Bulldogs, the bigger significance may be less about the matchup itself than about what it does for the schedule around it. SEC teams are required to line up nonconference games against Power Four opponents, and this arrangement steps into a spot that had been left open after other series fell through. Mississippi State still has a ways to go before those dates arrive, but at least one future problem on the calendar is no longer a problem. [Read more 🡒]
Mississippi States Best Hope Against LSU Starts With One Defensive Fight
Mississippi States clearest path against LSU starts with the kind of defensive fight that has to happen early and often. Through its first six games, LSU has looked like a unit that can make life miserable for opponents, with Sam Leavitt steering the offense and Dillin Jones giving it balance on the ground. For Mississippi State, the task is less about chasing highlights and more about forcing LSU into discomfort, something that has not come easily against a group that has been moving the ball with consistency.
Kentucky showed there is at least a blueprint for slowing the Tigers, and that gives the Bulldogs something to study as they prepare. Mississippi State does not need a perfect plan so much as a stubborn one, the kind that can survive a few long drives and keep the game from getting away early. Whether that translates into real resistance will depend on how well the Bulldogs can win individual battles before LSUs rhythm takes hold. [Read more 🡒]
Mississippi State Heads To LSU With Its Offense Suddenly In Doubt
Mississippi States trip to LSU has taken on a different feel with the offense suddenly in question. Quarterback Kamario Taylor and running back Fluff Bothwell both showed up as questionable on the SEC availability report, leaving the Bulldogs with more uncertainty than they wanted heading into a tough road game.
Taylor has been working through a foot injury and has not completed a full practice since the Alabama game, while Bothwell has also been dealing with an injury suffered in that same loss. For a Mississippi State offense already trying to regain its footing, the status of its quarterback and its top rusher is the kind of late-week wrinkle that can shape everything from the game plan to the pace of the night in Baton Rouge. [Read more 🡒]