Mind games

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AUBURN, Ala. | It's hard to know what to expect from Manny Diaz.

Mississippi State's defensive coordinator is known for dialing up unique defenses and exotic blitzes, and his creativity is sure to be amped up at Jordan-Hare Stadium this Saturday with Auburn redshirt freshman quarterback Sean White starting his first career game.

"Manny is one of the best out there, I know him well, great guy, great defensive mind," Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. "We played him before when he was at State, played him last year at (Louisiana) Tech; he did a really good job.

"I think last year Tech was one or two in the country in turnovers forced; they were up there, I know. He's doing a good job. They did a good job the other night. They had a chance to beat LSU at home. Manny know us. We know Manny. It will be a good challenge."

Three games into the season, the Bulldogs have the SEC's No. 7 defense allowing 335.7 yards per game. MSU is fourth in the conference allowing 16.7 points per game.

Junior Chris Jones anchors a talented defensive line that includes junior A.J. Jefferson, who is the team leader in tackles-for-loss (5.5) and sacks (2.5).

Junior linebacker Richie Brown leads MSU with 26 tackles. Junior linebacker Beniquez Brown, a Florence, Ala., native, and senior cornerbacks Taveze Calhoun and Will Redmond round out an experienced back seven.

MSU has 12 Alabama natives on its roster.

"Defensively, they have a lot of guys back from last year, and they are a very good defensive unit," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said.

The same can't be said for Auburn's offense, which ranks 13th in the SEC averaging 329.3 yards per game and 10th averaging 26.3 points per game.

Auburn's eight turnovers are tied with Vanderbilt as worst in the SEC.

"Obviously that isn't a position any of us wanted to be in, talking about a loss and not playing well. That's where we're at," Lashlee said. "We still believe in our guys. We still believe we have good players on this team and we still believe that we're going to play well, starting with this Saturday.

"That's the most important thing, we get out in front of our fans, Jordan-Hare at night against an SEC opponent that beat us very soundly at their place last year. That we play extremely hard. We play extremely fast. We play extremely physical and play well. That's the number one thing we can do to fix this. And that is exactly what we're going to do."

Auburn hosts Mississippi State at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.