How Mississippi State football can move past 'butt-whooping' it received from LSU

STARKVILLE — Some fans at Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday elected to use four-letter words to describe Mississippi State football’s 41-14 loss against LSU. To stay away from quoting them, with many of those words being unsafe for print, we’ll allow MSU linebacker Jett Johnson to describe it.

“A butt-whopping,” he called it.

The numbers back him up. LSU outgained Mississippi State 530 to 201. Jayden Daniels had 361 passing yards to Will Rogers’ 103. MSU was 3-for-13 on third down while LSU was 9-of-16. The box score isn’t flattering, and it fittingly resembles the product on the field.

Just as quickly as the SEC opener got away from Mississippi State, coach Zach Arnett’s squad needs to figure out how it’s going to move forward. There are two options.

“We’re either going to do the hard things and the necessary things to get better,” Arnett said. “Or we’re not and losing like this becomes commonplace. We have decisions to make as coaches, as players – everyone in the program. We’ve got a decision to make how we’re going to respond to this.”

Under former coach Mike Leach, who died in December, the Bulldogs often responded properly. In his final two seasons, Mississippi State lost back-to-back regular-season games only on two occasions. Can MSU follow a similar path with Arnett? It’s to be determined as the defeat marks his first loss in four games at the helm. However, Saturday’s performance – along with the schedule – gives reason for concern.

Mississippi State wasn’t coming off a loss entering LSU week. MSU defeated Arizona in overtime last week, but it wasn’t a convincing victory.

It’s evident Arnett and his staff didn’t do enough to move past a rough outing, even if it was a win. Can the Bulldogs recover off an ugly loss going into a tough road environment at South Carolina next Saturday (6:30 p.m., SEC Network)? Johnson believes his team will pick the right path to recovery off the beatdown.

“It’s something that we’re not going to get used to,” Johnson said. “We’re going to see what kind of team we are and what we’re made of. … We’ve got a lot to clean up, obviously. It’s a terrible feeling.”

Arnett said outside noise will provide the wrong route to bouncing back. He said if players concern themselves with negativity, it’ll lead to another poor performance. At the forefront of that will be his most important player.

Fans grew impatient with each incompletion Rogers threw – and there were 19 on 28 attempts. Boos reigned down as the cowbells rested. It led the student section to chant, “We want Mike” in reference to backup quarterback Mike Wright.

“I don’t really pay attention to what anybody (says),” Rogers said. “I don’t really care. If it’s not in our locker room or on our team, I really don’t care.”

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Rogers leads a roster heavy with veterans, which Arnett said gives him confidence in Mississippi State taking the right path to bouncing back. But as South Carolina and Alabama await, it won't be easy.

Mississippi State needs to get better at a steep rate. Otherwise, the fans’ words will get louder.

“There are going to be plenty of critics,” Arnett said. “We can either decide to listen to all that and let it be a distraction and we’re not going to get any better. It’d be pretty simple to tell you what the results will be from choosing that course of action. Or we can not listen to all that BS and we can go to work.”

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State football: How to move past 'butt whooping' by LSU