Mississippi State dumps No. 6 LSU, 44-34, in a season opener fitting for 2020

And the numbers did pinball upward through the Bulldogs’ ­44-34 win over the No. 6 Tigers in the late September heat. One wide receiver (Osirus Mitchell) caught seven passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns. An outstanding back (Kylin Hill) caught eight for 158 and a whiplash 75-yard touchdown. Another wide receiver, JaVonta Payton, helped himself to six for 122, and a tight end, Austin Williams, had seven for 57 and a touchdown.

They ran around at Leach’s diabolical angles, and all of it added up and added up to a big whoa of 623 passing yards on 36 completions for quarterback K.J. Costello, formerly of Stanford on some of the same days Leach worked at Washington State.

“After the game I heard somebody say 623 or 630, something like that,” Mississippi State linebacker Aaron Brule said. “How is that even possible?”

That’s some fair question, because of all the afternoons and all the nights in all the hot SEC towns since the 1800s, nobody ever threw for more yards in one game than Costello, whose number of career SEC games totals, sheesh, one. Only on June 1 did he stride into Mississippi State’s football building, and here he was three months later treating Eric Zeier’s 26-year-old SEC passing record of 544 yards like some statistical chew toy.

“I don’t know if any individual could visualize this taking place,” said the 6-foot-5 Southern Californian, who lit up the same field where LSU’s Joe Burrow rang up so many of his 5,671 passing yards and 60 touchdowns last magical season, even if Burrow never threw for more than 493 in a day.

Of course, this being 2020, some of the oddity owed to sickness. On the very eve of LSU’s first game since it won the title down the road in New Orleans on the 13th night of the year, Derek Stingley Jr. went to the hospital with an illness the team described as “acute” but not covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Stingley, expected to recover fully and quickly, is a cornerback whose mastery affects — and shrinks — the rest of the field. He is the best player on a defense that Coach Ed Orgeron projected as upgraded under new coordinator Bo Pelini, a projection compelling given Orgeron’s background in defense.

Instead, a nightmare of uncovered crossing routes and over-the-shoulder pass-and-catches took hold. “We have no excuses,” Orgeron said, before saying, “I told the team, ‘Put it on me.’ ” He did tell of untested defenders, and Mitchell did say, “Those guys were on the field saying, ‘Oh, I’m so tired, I’m so tired,’ telling us that.”

Faced with countering haywire, LSU quarterback Myles Brennan couldn’t quite keep up even while looking commendable for a first-time, post-Burrow starter with 345 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions for an offense whose blown gaskets here and there included seven sacks.

So LSU lost for the first time since Nov. 24, 2018 — and that everyday, seven-overtime, 74-72 game at Texas A&M. So Leach went to 1-0 at the third school in three conferences he has helmed, after the many months when people whiled idle time by wondering whether his offense could work in the manscape of the SEC. “At this stage,” the mad football scientist said, “all the young guys, and not having spring [practice], I was proud of the way we executed even though there was some sloppiness out there.”

So northeast Mississippi prepared to go aflutter with anticipation, even if socially distanced. So the season of the nation’s foremost football conference was underway, and already it was quirky, even if it couldn’t match the Big 12 for nuttiness.

Around and inside LSU’s storied old Roman Colosseum of an SEC stadium, you could feel the non-energy in contrast to the visual and aural memory bank. With the mighty tailgates banned because of the pandemic, the parking lots looked strange, even unrecognizable. In a stadium that holds 102,321 over and over again, these teams played before 21,124, the whole occasion resembling the waning moments of some rout of some hapless visitor led to Tiger Stadium for slaughter and payout when much of the crowd might have departed for refreshment and merriment.

When the Tigers raised their 2019 national championship flag pregame, downtown Baton Rouge in the distance, a trained ear might have found the sound four-fifths empty rather than one-fifth full. Then LSU looked capable of being an ugly winner early on, and funny, but Costello contributed, with LSU’s Jabril Cox snaring a 14-yard interception return for a touchdown.

But, wait, no. Back came Costello and his new chums, with answers to problems: a 31-yard touchdown up the right side to Tyrell Shavers on third and 10, a short one left just over cornerback Eli Ricks’s hand to Mitchell on third and 11 for a 43-yard joyride, a quick chuck to a darting Hill on the left for a 75-yard catch-and-run to erase a 24-20 deficit, a skillful nine-yard catch from Williams against the left side of the end zone to make it 34-24.

Then, after Costello’s interception and fumble helped LSU tie it at 34 with 9:37 left, the debuting SEC quarterback redirected himself and directed the show in which his receivers ran amok. There went Shavers for 37 yards across the middle to set up a go-ahead field goal, then Mitchell on a 24-yard beauty with 3:39 left on which he and the ball reached the right end zone sideline together.

“I can’t stop thinking about Leach’s mind-set,” Costello said, “what he’s willing to call on third down, what he’s willing to do on third down. You don’t necessarily feel like, on third down, you’ve got your back against the wall.”

As his words mingled with his disbelief, the defending champions stood 0-1, and an eccentric season looked eccentric.