WANING CHAMPS
Miss. St. QB throws for 623 to top Tigers
BATON ROUGE, La. — New Mississippi State coach Mike Leach put his “Air Raid” offense in the hands of a transfer quarterback who showed up over the summer and the results were like nothing defending national champion LSU or the Southeastern Conference has ever seen.
K.J. Costello passed for an SEC record 623 yards and five touchdowns and the Bulldogs knocked off sixthranked LSU 44-34 on Saturday.
“I don’t know if any individual could visualize this taking place,” said Costello, who was Stanford’s starter in 2017 and 2018 before head and hand injuries sidelined him last season. “I wasn’t visualizing sitting here breaking records . ... I’m excited about the potential that this offense has because, believe it or not, we did leave a lot on the field today.”
Costello’s passing yardage in his first game since moving from Silicon Valley to Starkville, Mississippi, eclipsed the 544 yards Georgia’s Eric Zeier had against Southern Mississippi in 1993 to set the conference record.
And Costello needed most of it to make up for his two interceptions and two lost fumbles, which helped LSU rally to tie the game at 34 before he engineered two late scoring drives.
“With this group, I don’t feel like we ever lose momentum,” Costello said. “I feel like we’re always in the attack mode. That’s just Leach’s philosophy.”
LSU became the first defending national champion to lose its opening game since Michigan in 1998 lost at Notre Dame and had its 16-game winning streak, the nation’s best, snapped.