We’ve all heard the jokes. 21 out of 22. LSU doesn’t concern itself with “MooU,” etc.

State hasn’t won a game in Baton Rouge since 1991. Saturday’s contest will be the 12th between the two SEC Western Division rivals since that forgettable game in Jackie Sherrill’s first season in Starkville.

That LSU game in 2000 was a turning point for both programs. A lot of you younger fans might not realize this, but the late 90s Mississippi State teams struck fear into the souls of their opponents. Laugh if you must, but from 1997-2000, Mississippi State was the most consistent team in the SEC West. The stability of an experienced coach like Sherill overshadowed Mike Dubose at Bama, Gerry Dinardo at LSU, a young Tommy Tuberville at Ole Miss and Houston Nutt at Arkansas, and of course the shite show on the plains that was the latter end of the Terry Bowden era.

That stability is a cherished time in MSU football history. Sure, we are a joke when you look at our overall history, but for a brief moment in history, MSU was a legitimate team. They won the Western Division in 1998, had a memorable 1999 season that featured the nation’s No. 1 defense, led by the sock less assassin himself, Joe Lee Dunn.

The 2000 season was going to be the season. MSU wasn’t a sleeper pick to win the SEC, they were a legitimate threat behind Florida. In fact, Florida-MSU was the projected SEC Championship game. Auburn had a running back named Rudi Johnson that emerged early and propelled Auburn to a Top 15 ranking. MSU had back to back games in late September against Spurrier’s Gators and the upstart Tigers from the Plains. A split would mean State had a pretty good team.

Florida came rolling into town and and the Gators were smashed. Visors flew all over Scott Field, 3rd and 57 can still be searched on YouTube, and although the final score said 47-35, Florida fans will tell you it felt like 47-10. Two 150-yard rushers and over 500 yards of offense on the vaunted Gator defense.

I was a student at Mississippi State at the time. We jumped up in the polls and had the media darling Auburn Tigers coming into town the next week. Younger fans take note - MSU had the CBS 2:30 game two weeks in a row. It was a big deal. Gameday did not travel to campuses at the time, or surely they would have been at that Auburn game. Just as State’s offense had shined against Florida, the defense had its way with Auburn. Auburn did not have a first down until the 4th quarter.

One of Jackie Sherrill’s downfalls was that he used to say “A team can only get up for about three games a year.” Alabama and Ole Miss were always two of the games. LSU had dominated the decade in its games with MSU, despite MSU fielding the better team. It’s been noted that State’s ’98 division champion squad was drubbed 41-7 by a 3-8 LSU team. And of course, the infamous 1999 game, in which this State fan agrees - not having instant replay is the reason a 10-2 State team has that win over an LSU team that fired their coach after a 2-8 start.

LSU hired an up and coming head coach from Michigan State - I forget his name, but he was a defensive genius. Remember the name Joe Lee Dunn? He was considered one of the premier defensive minds in college football. He had a strange defensive alignment that gave teams fits. But this Big Ten guy that LSU hired knew a thing or two about defense as well.

MSU entered the 2000 game with LSU ranked as high as #3 in some of the computer polls (They had a lot more influence in the early days of the BCS). LSU was 4-3, having lost to the aforementioned Auburn team by double digits and even dropping a Homecoming game against UAB. LSU fans weren’t too high on this new coach, but he managed to pull an upset of Spurrier’s Gators and a highly rated Tennessee team after that UAB loss. But here came the MSU juggernaut.

On the second play of the game, State struck for a deep TD and it looked like the rout was on. LSU fought back to to take a 14-7 lead, but over the second and third quarters, MSU outscored LSU 24-3 and held a comfortable 14 point lead on LSU in Death Valley. Then something happened. Something, well, clicked.

LSU started moving the ball like a knife through butter. State’s vaunted defense looked confused. Sherill was yelling at Joe Lee Dunn on the sideline. LSU scored 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter to take a lead. The MSU defense, which had dominated the SEC West for the better part of four years suddenly looked like a Pop Warner team. State managed to tie the game late and send it to overtime, but LSU scored on the first play of overtime and ended up winning one of the most memorable games in the series.

That Big Ten coach had figured out Joe Lee Dunn’s defense, showing the rest of the conference how to beat us. The gig was up in Starkville. A first-year Division I Middle Tennessee came in and dropped 35 in a loss, and State lost to Arkansas and Ole Miss to end the season. MSU beat A&M in the famous Snow Bowl game. Ever wonder why State fans love the late 90s uniforms and revere that Independence Bowl game so much - it was the last beacon of State being a year end, year out contender.

With the short era of MSU dominance over, LSU won the SEC in 2001, the SEC West in 2002, and the national title in 2003. 2001-03 is probably the worst stretch of MSU’s horrible football history - and the era of Jackie Sherrill, considered the best coach in MSU history, ended on a rainy Saturday night in Starkville as Eli Manning had his way to close out a 2-10 season for MSU. Sherrill ended his MSU career with 75 wins, 75 losses. Just three years earlier, he was 67-45 and a stadium was chanting his name for becoming the winningest coach in MSU history.

Joe Lee Dunn faded to folklore in SEC history. He bounced around the mid-majors, then the FCS, then Division II and Division III for a while - each time leaving when teams would figure out how Saban exposed the gimmick defense that brought Mississippi State to the edge of glory.

As for the LSU series, its no wonder LSU fans are confident. For many, the only victory MSU has ever had in their lifetime comes with an asterisk. Other than Chad Jones becoming Superman in 2009, MSU has not even been close to ending the streak.

The torch was passed that Saturday night in Death Valley in 2000. It’s time to take it back.

Grind on.