Sam Leavitt Throws Four Touchdowns as No. 22 LSU Shuts Out Mississippi State 31-0

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA · SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2026

Sam Leavitt throws four touchdowns and LSU shuts out Mississippi State 31-0 — a shutout that was never a grind. No. 22 LSU beat Mississippi State 31-0 at Tiger Stadium on Saturday, a final reported by Sportradar and covered by LSU Wire and USA Today, The Daily Advertiser, the Clarion Ledger and 247Sports — and the Tigers did it with the kind of complete, unbothered performance that makes last week's loss at Kentucky feel like a story from a different season. LSU is now 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC. Mississippi State falls to 4-2 and 2-2, shut out for the first time since 2020, and with an injury list that explains a great deal of what happened without excusing all of it.

The headline act was Sam Leavitt. The LSU quarterback threw four touchdown passes, completing 31 of 38 for 289 yards, according to LSU Wire's account of the game. Four touchdowns, no drama, and a completion rate north of eighty percent — that is what a bounce-back looks like when it is done properly. LSU scored in a steady drumbeat, 14 points in the first quarter, seven in the second, ten in the third and none in the fourth, by the quarter splits reported around the game, because by the fourth quarter there was simply nothing left to decide.

Leavitt spreads it around

Leavitt's four touchdowns went to three different receivers, which tells its own story about how Mississippi State's defence was being pulled apart. Eugene Wilson III caught the opening score. Jackson Harris caught two of them — a 27-yard touchdown in the first quarter and another in the second — on his way to six catches for 85 yards, per LSU Wire. The fourth was a 6-yard touchdown to Malik Elzy late in the third quarter, Elzy's first touchdown catch of the year and his first at LSU. Scott Starzyk added a 26-yard field goal in the third quarter, as the Clarion Ledger reported, to complete the scoring.

The one cloud in LSU's afternoon came attached to its most productive receiver. Harris left the game with an apparent ankle injury, LSU Wire reported, after those six catches, 85 yards and two scores. LSU were already without Whit Weeks and Trey'Dez Green, both sidelined and expected back in November, so the Tigers can absorb absences — they proved that again on Saturday — but Harris's status will be the first thing LSU fans check this week. A receiver who scores twice in a half tends to be missed.

Underneath the passing show, Dilin Jones gave LSU balance: 18 carries for 84 yards on the ground and eight catches for 58 yards receiving, a dual-purpose afternoon that kept Mississippi State from ever simply pinning its ears back against Leavitt. When a running back catches eight passes, the defence is not dictating anything. LSU was.

A brutal afternoon for a backup and a walk-on story that deserved better

Context matters for Mississippi State, and it is not generous. The Bulldogs played without starting quarterback Kamario Taylor and top running back Fluff Bothwell, both injured in the October 3 loss to Alabama, as reported in the coverage of this game. In Taylor's place, sophomore Billy Puckett — a former walk-on — made his first career start, at Tiger Stadium, against a ranked LSU team coming off a loss and in no mood for company. Puckett threw for just 82 yards and was intercepted by Ty Benefield. That stat line reads harshly until you picture the assignment, and then it reads like exactly what it was: a young quarterback handed one of the hardest debuts in the sport.

The team numbers were just as stark. Mississippi State went 0-for-5 on fourth down, per the Clarion Ledger, and was shut out for the first time since 2020, against Alabama. Five fourth-down tries, five failures — that is a team chasing a game from early on and never once catching a break in it. There is a difference between a shutout where the offence never shows up and one where it keeps knocking and the door never opens; this, on the numbers, was closer to the second kind, which may sting more.

Old rivals, a new LSU coach, and what comes next

There was history in the fixture, even if the afternoon itself was one-sided. LSU and Mississippi State are old SEC West rivals who had not met since 2023 before Saturday, and the man in charge of LSU now is Lane Kiffin, in his first season in Baton Rouge after leaving Ole Miss — a subplot that gives every LSU result this year an extra layer of attention around the conference. On this evidence, his team responded to the Kentucky defeat exactly the way a coach would script it: fast start, quarterback in rhythm, defence pitching a shutout.

For Mississippi State, everything hinges on health. Getting Taylor and Bothwell back changes what this team is; without them, asking a former walk-on to win in Death Valley was always going to be a long afternoon, and it was. For LSU, the Weeks and Green returns expected in November, plus clarity on Harris, will shape the run-in. But a 31-0 win, four touchdown passes and a shutout is a statement however you frame it. Follow the rest of the SEC picture on our Sports front, and see how results like this feed the College Football Playoff expansion debate.