LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly and his Tigers are fresh off a 65-17 win over the Southern Jaguars.
Now the attention turns to SEC play this week as the undefeated Mississippi State Bulldogs come to Baton Rouge.
Mississippi State’s success is led by their air raid offense schemed up by head Coach Mike Leach. Coach Kelly talked about facing a Bulldogs team that’s 2-0 this season.
“It starts with the offense. It is a precision offense,” Kelly said. “It’s extremely well coached and there’s a level of patience and persistence you need on defense.”
Coach Kelly also talked about what his players will need to do to slow down State’s explosive offense.
“It’s going to come down to our guy’s attention to detail. They’re going to have to tackle very, very well. This is a scheme in some instances, it’s like triple-option. The precision, the way it’s set up, if you’re not taking care of your assignment and doing your job, you’re going to get exposed.”
State enters this week’s game averaging 486 yards per game on offense. They’re the 5th-best passing offense in college football. A lot of their success both offensively and defensively is on the strength of the 16 starters brought back from last season.
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The Tigers will get two players back this week as defensive end BJ Ojulari is expected to return from injury along with running back John Emery, who served a two-game suspension.
"We expect him (Ojulari) to be available, based upon my conversations with our doctors yesterday," Kelly said.
As far as Emery: “He’s worked hard to get back into this position and now he gets an opportunity. But let’s be careful now, he’s been off for a while. To put a lot of expectations on him in the first game, we certainly can’t do that.”
One position Kelly isn’t worried about is quarterback. Starter Jayden Daniels finished the game against Southern with completions on 10 of his 11 passes, three of which resulted in touchdowns.
“You start with efficiency with Daniels. His ability to keep eight drives alive consecutively and turn them into touchdowns is a great place to start,”’ Kelly said. “There’s still growth and recognition there and he would tell you that. He’s extremely coachable, taking in information, talking to me on the sideline. I like that about him.”
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Daniels’ success in Week 2 could be connected to the improved play of his reshuffled offensive line. Daniels was constantly under duress against Florida State and used his legs to avoid negative plays. That same offensive line group will return this weekend against the Bulldogs. (LT Will Campbell, LG Garrett Dellinger, C Charles Turner, RG Anthony Bradford, RT Miles Frazier)
“We were pleased with that starting five. I think you can expect to see that moving forward. The true freshman Emory Jones played well,” Kelly said. “I think you’ll see more of him in the rotation. It’s not five for the whole game, but I think if you add Emory he did some really good things on Saturday.”
With that, the Tigers will kick things off on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Tiger Stadium. LSU is trying to avenge a loss the last time Bulldogs were in Baton Rouge. Mike Leach got his first SEC win in an upset over the Tigers, 44-34. The Bulldogs passed for 623 yards, breaking school and conference records. The Tigers did turn the tables last season with a 28-25 win in Starkville.