Ed Orgeron Reflects On 2020 Matchup With Mississippi State, Previews 2021

LSU head coach Ed Orgeron has not forgotten about Mississippi State's 44-34 upset win over his team last year when KJ Costello set the SEC single-game passing record with 623 yards in Mike Leach's Air Raid offense.

The loss marked the first of five for the Tigers as they finished out the 2020 season with a disappointing 5-5 overall record after just winning a national title the previous season.

Orgeron was asked about last year's meeting with the Bulldogs and this year's upcoming one by The Dispatch's Theo DeRosa. LSU's first SEC game of the season is against MSU on Sept. 25 in Davis Wade Stadium.

"We have to stop (Mike Leach's) offense," he said. "We didn't stop it one time. Obviously, he came in with the air raid for the first time. We had seen it before, obviously. But we didn't do a good job with it.

"Then we saw the people did some good things against us. The more stuff you put on tape, the more we learn how to stop it. Obviously, going to play there, I think Mississippi State does a great job of playing there, the cowbells and all that noise.

It's our first SEC game. It's a game that we must win to get to where we want to go. This is the SEC. You've got to be ready every Saturday. But you know what, instead of -- when you asked me about that, instead of worrying about all that stuff, my focus is going to be on camp and this football team and getting them better starting August 6th."

WATCH: LSU head coach Ed Orgeron reflected on #HailState football's 2020 SEC season opening victory as well as their upcoming meeting with the Bulldogs on Sept. 25th. #WCBI #SECMD21 ***question courtesy: @Theo_DeRosa pic.twitter.com/gOYPM9PHU9
— Courtney Robb (@courtkrobb) July 19, 2021

It will be interesting to see how much better LSU fares -- if it does -- this time around as it faces a Bulldogs team that will have had a full, unaltered offseason to work with as opposed to last year's COVID offseason.

The Tigers come into the matchup with two of the best defensive backs in the nation in Derek Stingley Jr. and Elias Ricks -- and there's plenty of optimism surrounding this year's team, but they'll have to prove they can put it into action on the football field much better than they did last year for a different outcome.