Mississippi State’s K.J. Costello destroyed SEC passing record in LSU upset

Mike Leach’s air raid offense worked for Mississippi State and K.J. Costello against the defending champs.

Mike Leach and K.J. Costello are both new to Mississippi State this year. But they showed what kind of damage they can do together Saturday against the defending national champs. The Bulldogs handed LSU a stunning, 44-34 season-opening upset and its first loss since the 2018 season.

Some questioned whether Leach’s air raid offense would succeed against SEC defenses. The early answer appears to be yes, even if Ed Orgeron’s Tigers are a very different team than they were last season. In addition to losing defensive players because of turnover and some opt-outs, they also took on the Bulldogs without star defensive back Derek Stingley Jr., who did not play after being hospitalized Friday with a condition LSU said is not COVID-19 related.

Still, Leach, Costello and Mississippi State’s new offense tore LSU’s secondary up and helped the Bulldogs upset the Tigers in Death Valley. It’s the first time since Michigan lost to Notre Dame in 1998 that the defending champ fell in its season-opener.

The clear star of the game, Costello completed 36-of-60 passes and threw for 623 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. That was easily a career-high for the senior transfer from Stanford.

With that impressive season-opening performance, he set Mississippi State’s single-game passing yards record, breaking the 508-yard mark Dak Prescott set in 2015, as CBS’ broadcast noted.

He also destroyed the SEC single-game passing yards record, previously held by former Georgia quarterback Eric Zeier, who threw for 544 yards in 1993, according to the conference’s record book.

And as CBS reported, his 623 yards rank him at No. 11 in single-game college football history.

Of course, Mississippi State’s receivers benefit from this system too. Osirus Mitchell led the Bulldogs’ receiving corps with seven catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns, while star running back Kylin Hill had eight catches for 158 yards and one touchdown. Hill also had 34 yards on the ground.

As for the reaction among fans, college football Twitter was impressed, including reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, and had jokes about Leach’s air raid offense succeeding early in the SEC.

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