Mississippi State vs LA Tech 9/4/21 College Football Picks, Odds, Predictions

The Mississippi State Bulldogs meet Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Saturday in week 1 college football action from Davis Wade Stadium. This will be the first on-field activity of the year for both teams. Louisiana Tech is coming off a 5-5 mark last fall, finishing third in their division. As for Mississippi State, they went just 4-7 last season and ended up one spot out of the basement in their division. Check back all season long for free college football picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Louisiana Tech had a 5-5 overall record last year, but they did pretty well in Conference USA play with a 4-2 mark. That finish put the Bulldogs in third place in the West Division. Louisiana Tech started out pretty well at 4-1 overall, but then lost three of their last five regular-season games. 

The Bulldogs managed an invite to the New Orleans Bowl on December 23, where they faced Georgia Southern. That game didn’t work out very well for Louisiana Tech, as they fell in a blowout 38-3 to end the campaign on a sour note. 

Over on the Mississippi State side, they had a forgettable season (with a good finish) last fall. The Bulldogs put up a 4-7 record overall, going 3-7 in Southeastern Conference play. Mississippi State would finish tied with Arkansas for the worst conference record in the West. 

Although Mississippi State went on an ugly 1-7 stretch during the season, the team was able to regroup for a December 9 victory over Missouri 51-32. The Bulldogs capped off the year with a tense 28-26 win over Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl. 

Louisiana Tech is 4-1 ATS in their last five in September and 8-3 ATS in their last 11 versus the SEC. Louisiana Tech is 2-6 ATS in the last eight games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last five road games. 

Meanwhile, Mississippi State is 4-0 ATS in their last four versus Conference USA and 4-1 ATS in their last five overall. Mississippi State is also 11-5 ATS in their last 16 non-conference games and the over is 4-1 in the last five in September. 

PICK: I’m going to stick with Louisiana Tech. Last season, LA Tech put up 316 yards and 27 points per game, finishing 117th in the country for total offense. That’s not going to get it done this year, but there’s reason for optimism. There are four starters back on the LA Tech offensive line, and though Adrian Hardy is gone there’s still plenty of receiving talent. 

As for Mississippi State, they struggled for long stretches on offense last year, but get three of their top four wide receivers back. If MS State can limit the mistakes they should take a step forward in production during the 2021 campaign.