| Greetings from Mississippi. We're not quite in Starkville yet — or as Brian Kelly has called it all week, "Starksville" — but we're on our way there for today's oh-so-early 11 a.m. SEC opener between the No. 14-ranked Tigers (1-1) and Mississippi State (2-0). The game will be televised on ESPN. This is a huge game for LSU, one that could chart the course of the rest of its season. Win and the Tigers emerge from the shadow of that 45-24 season-opening loss to Florida State in Orlando as one of the top contenders in a wide-open SEC West race. Lose and LSU can still win the division, but hopes of a College Football Playoff berth are dashed and there is precious little if any margin for error in the SEC with seven conference games left. If LSU is to win Saturday, it will likely be because wide receiver Malik Nabers has a stellar game. The Tigers' top target was very nearly a Mississippi State Bulldog. Learn about his path to Baton Rouge in another of Wilson Alexander's excellent game day features. Who have you got winning the LSU-State game? We tell you what we think in our game predictions section right here. The offense LSU will be facing is vastly different from the Air Raid attack the Bulldogs employed under late coach Mike Leach. State is now a run-first team under new coach Zach Arnett, and Reed Darcey tells us the kind of running the Bulldogs like to do is the kind that has given LSU trouble in its first two games. This is one of the big games in the SEC this week, but not the only big one. Sheldon Mickles is here with five hot topics entering the start of conference play across the SEC. Finally, Spencer Urquhart gives us his top betting picks for the weekend, including the LSU game. That's all for now, folks. Myself, Wilson, Sheldon and Reed Darcey will be in Starkville on Saturday to cover all the angles. Please subscribe in print and/or online and of course please keep reading our daily LSU newsletter. Until the postgame, Scott Rabalais | 