There’s something special about LSU’s Tiger Stadium when the sun goes down and it’s a stark contrast of what happens during the day.
It’s something that Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead will experience for the first time on Saturday when his No. 22 Bulldogs head to Baton Rouge, La., to take on the No. 5 LSU Tigers at 6 p.m. on ESPN. There are a lot of things that Moorhead has heard and seen of Death Valley that he’s excited about.
“I’m excited about the down markers being marked off every five yards. That’s pretty cool. And they’ve got a tiger down there that’s pretty neat,” Moorhead joked. “The great thing about college football is the passion of the fan bases, especially in this conference. They’re going to make it a challenging atmosphere and that’s one of the things I’m most excited about.”
The Tigers have certainly made life miserable for opposing Bulldog teams over the years. MSU has a 35-73-3 record against LSU with a 19-48-1 record in Baton Rouge. However, they’ve only won once at TIger Stadium since 1993 when Dak Prescott helped lead the team to a 34-29 victory in 2014 that started a march to number one in the country.
LSU (6-1, 3-1 SEC) is 4-0 at home already and is recovering from a blowout 36-16 win over No. 2 Georgia last week that officially put the rest of the SEC on notice. They’ve gotten things together offensively with Ohio State transfer Joe Burrow at quarterback and the Tiger defense has been among the best in the Southeastern Conference. Add in the element of the Tiger fans that will be more than 100,000 strong, and it makes for a tough week to prepare for Moorhead and company.
“We’re going to be expecting a lot of crowd noise and we’ll be working on that this week,” Moorhead said. “It’s tough to simulate, but we’re going to do our best. It’s going to be their homecoming.”
Part of the issues that come with the stadium noise is penalties, and the Bulldogs have had their fair share in road games this year. After the first four games of the season, MSU was among the worst nationally in penalties and the pit of it all came at Kentucky when they had 16 penalties, many of which were either false starts or personal fouls.
Since that time, the Bulldogs went from 38 penalties in four games to three in the last two and have now balanced things out to make themselves one of the least penalized teams in the SEC. However, those three penalties were in home games. Composing itself on the road will be much more difficult for MSU.
MSU's Peters set to return
Mississippi State University has been without cornerback Jamal Peters for the last three games, but the senior is expected to make his way back to the secondary this week at LSU. Peters has been dealing with what coach Moorhead called a “lower-body injury” that occurred in the Louisiana game.
The Bulldogs have had junior Maurice Smitherman step into that role and fill it nicely since Peters' absence, but they could use the added depth with Peters' return.
Also on the injury report list was junior safety Brian Cole who was listed day-to-day with a shoulder injury. Cole missed last game against Auburn and was seen with a brace on his shoulder on the sidelines. It is unknown whether or not he will play on Saturday and sources have indicated that the earliest he might return is Texas A&M next week.
Junior wide receiver Keith Mixon went out of the Auburn game with a tweaked ankle. He’s also day-to-day but Moorhead is confident he returns this week with limited issues. Senior safety Stephen Adekoke was also listed day-to-day on Monday.
