Mississippi State football selected as National Team of the Week after upsetting LSU

The Bulldogs are selected by the Football Writers Association of America

The following release is courtesy of the Football Writers Association of America:

DALLAS (FWAA) – K.J. Costello threw for an SEC-record 623 yards and five touchdowns with three receivers topping 100 yards as the Mike Leach head coaching era at Mississippi State began in stellar fashion with a 44-34 win at No. 6 LSU. MSU recorded the highest-ranked road win in program history, which earned them the Reveal Suits National Team of the Week honor for games of the weekend of Sept. 26, as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.

This is the fourth time for Mississippi State to earn the Team of the Week honor and the first since 2016. All Division I FBS and FCS schools are eligible to be selected. This is the 19th season for the FWAA to award a Team of the Week.

The win marked the first time a defending national champion lost its season opener since 1998 as MSU (1-0) snapped the nation's longest active win streak at 16 games. It was MSU's second win in Baton Rouge of the last four meetings but those are the only ones since 1992.

Costello, a graduate transfer from Stanford with career 25 starts there, became the 11th quarterback in SEC history to top 500 yards en route to the league record, and his 36 completions on 60 attempts were school records. His previous career completion high (34) came against Leach’s Washington State team in 2018 and his yardage total topped Dak Prescott's school record (508 yards vs. Arkansas, 2015) by more than 100 yards.

Five different times MSU took a lead only to see LSU rally to tie or take the lead before the Bulldogs scored the final 10 points. Big plays keyed the win as MSU finished the game with 16 plays of 20 or more yards, all through the air. The receiving trio of Osirus Mitchell, Kylin Hill, JaVonta Payton each eclipsed the 100-yard mark, only the second time for a trio to do so in school history.

MSU posted seven sacks, the program’s highest single-game total since 2015 vs. Ole Miss, and Erroll Thompson, the SEC's active career tackles leader with 227, had 10 tackles.

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