LION ON THE PROWL—SLU RB Jay Lucas (20) hurdles Alcorn State safety Idly Etienne (2) for one of his few big runs in last week’s season-opening victory. He will face an even more imposing defense today at Mississippi State.

Louisiana Tech certainly did Southeastern no favors last Saturday.

Tech reminded Mississippi State why SEC teams don't often bless lesser programs with home games, upsetting State 22-14 last Saturday in Ruston.

Now the Lions (1-0) get a road date with a riled up pack of Bulldogs when they visit Mississippi State Saturday at 6 p.m. (KSLU, 90.9 FM).

“We were kind of upset that Louisi-ana Tech won that thing,” Lions head coach Mike Lucas said. “Now no-body's go-ing to be sneaking up on them this week. I'm sure Coach Croom has been on his guys pretty hard and they'll be ready for the (home) opener.”

The Lions will try to make it two road wins in a row after snapping a 12-game road losing streak last Satur-day with a 34-28 victory at Alcorn State. But the SEC's Bulldogs will be a quantum leap forward in challenge from the SWAC's Braves.

“Not very many,” Lucas said when asked what areas he thought his Lions matched up well with the Bulldogs.

And after watching with great interest the game film from Saturday's Tech-State matchup - a clash of the Lions' next two opponents - Lucas said most of his offseason film scouting for this week went out the window.

“Watching film on them from last year, they were very tailback-oriented,” Lucas said. “They wanted to get the ball to that big tailback (Anthony Dixon), and he's one of the top returning running backs in the SEC. He's a big guy that can really run.”

“But last week against Louisiana Tech they actually threw the ball more than they ran it, which was kind of surprising; it was kind of out of character for what they did last year.”

Dixon rushed for 1,066 yards and 14 TDs last year as a sophomore and opened the season with 91 yards on 18 carries against Tech.

Mississippi State played two quarterbacks in Ruston and neither played well as the Bulldogs turned it over five times. Sophomore starter Wesley Carroll was 12-for-25 for 172 yards and one touchdown, but also hurled three interceptions.

Juco transfer Tyson Lee, a 5-11, 190-pound walk-on last spring out of nearby Itawamba C.C., was 10-for-15 for 85 yards. He is not expected to play Saturday unless he has to.

“Looking at what they did formationally, I think they went into the game wanting to throw the ball more,” Lucas surmised. “Maybe they feel like to take that next step in the SEC they need to be a little more diversified in their offense.”

Defensively, Lucas said the Bulldogs' front line is physically impressive, but new defensive coordinator Charlie Harbison isn't content to rely on them to provide pressure.

“Their defensive line is awesome,” Lucas said. “They are big and can run and are physical. They are really good up front. But they have a new defensive coordinator, and they blitzed much more last week. They blitzed just about every snap. Last year they did not bring that much pressure. We were very surprised when we saw the video of how much blitzing they did.”

Harbison also threw a variety of alignments at Tech.

“Last year they were mostly a four-man front, totally,” Lucas said. “We've seen 3-4, 3-3, 4-3 and 4-2. They're much more multiple.”

As for the Lions, they will go with backup quarterback Mike Neville in place of injured starter Brian Babin (concussion) and Lucas said he expects to give transfer QB Tyler Beatty his first playing time.

The Lions will also be hoping they can get running back Jay Lucas untracked. Alcorn loaded up against Lucas and limited him to 37 yards on 11 carries and 45 receiving yards on eight catches.

As a result, Babin and Neville went off for a combined 251 passing yards and four touchdowns, completing 68 percent of their throws. Chris Wilson caught two touchdown passes covering105 yards, Andre Cryer of Kentwood had three catches for 71 yards and one TD and freshman Simmie Yarbrough posted a 14-yard touchdown catch.

But while the Lions emerged from Alcorn with a victory, there was a lot for Lucas and the rest of the coaching staff to clean up. Southeastern almost gave the game away late thanks to numerous mental mistakes like a late-hit penalty and a roughing-the-punter penalty.

Of even greater concern were missed tackles.

“If you can't tackle, you can't win games and we missed tackles in critical situations that we can't do,” Coach Lucas said. “It was mostly in our secondary. We did a poor job tackling in the open field on their wide receivers and their quarterbacks.”

Cleaning that up has been a point of emphasis this week as the Lions practiced near Oxford, Miss., for Saturday's game. Even at that, Lucas knows the challenge ahead.

“We've got to go in there and play our best ballgame and try to stay on the field with them,” he said.