Derrius Guice is back and he might be bringing LSU with him.

Guice, the reigning SEC rushing champion who has been slowed by a leg injury for most of this season, looked like the 2016 vintage in No. 24 LSU’s 40-24 victory against Ole Miss on Saturday night in Oxford, Miss.

He set an SEC record with the third 250-yard rushing game of his career, finishing with 276 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.

Guice could have easily broken his school record of 285 rushing yards, but coach Ed Orgeron gave much of the late workload to Darrell Williams after the Tigers built a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter. In the final period, Guice had four carries for 8 yards and Williams had seven carries for 49 yards.

LSU won its third consecutive game to improve to 6-2 and 3-1 in the SEC, and just as important Guice looked like the running back who was expected to lead the way for a potential SEC contender. In the first half of the season, neither Guice nor the Tigers lived up to expectations, but that might be changing.

And the resurgence of Guice and the Tigers couldn’t have come at a better time. The team has an open date next week before traveling to Tuscaloosa to face No. 1 Alabama on Nov. 4. The winner of that game will be in the driver’s seat in the SEC West.

Of course the Crimson Tide will be a prohibitive favorite in that game, but after the way LSU has played the last three weeks, especially with the way Guice looked Saturday night, the potential for that to be a competitive game is appreciably greater than it has seemed at any previous time this season.

Guice had not had a 100-yard game since Sept. 9. After starting the season with 122 yards against BYU and 102 against Chattanooga, he was slowed by the injury.

He had 76 yards against Mississippi State, partly because LSU had to get away from the run game when a 37-7 defeat got out of hand.

A week later Guice carried the ball just eight times (for 14 yards) before being pulled against Syracuse after it was apparent just how limited he was. That led to him sitting out a 24-21 loss to Troy a week later.

Guice was obviously hampered against Florida, but fought his way to 50 yards on 17 carries. A week later he appeared healthier against Auburn and carried 20 times for 71 yards.

On Saturday, LSU set the tone for what was to come on its first offensive series.

Backed up at their 10, the Tigers gave the ball to Guice on their first two plays. He ran for 13 yards, then ran for nine to jump-start what turned into a 72-yard drive that yielded a field goal.

The next drive was exclusively Guice as he ran 9 yards, 59 yards, then 7 yards for a touchdown and a 10-3 lead.

At halftime, LSU had a 13-6 lead and Guice had not only had his first 100-yard game in six weeks, but he had his season-high for yards (126 on 11 carries).

On the first possession of the second half, Guice broke free for a 48-yard run that led to another field goal.

After Ole Miss kicked a field goal to cut the Tigers lead to 16-9, Guice had runs of 11 and 33 yards on drive that ended with Danny Etling’s 5-yard touchdown run and a 23-9 lead.

The Rebels got within 23-16, but Guice answered with a runs of 5 and 26 yards before Etling threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to J.D. Moore.

Etling’s touchdown pass to Foster Moreau put the game away and led to Guice turning things over to Williams, who finished with 103 yards on 22 carries.

The run game had required significant help from the wide receivers to be effective during back-to-back wins against ranked teams — No. 20 Florida and No. 10 Auburn — the last two weeks while Guice was hobbled.

Against the Gators, the wide receivers had 105 yards on 10 carries, accumulating 49 percent of the rushing yards on 21 percent of the carries and scoring the Tigers’ only rushing touchdown.

Against Auburn, the wide receivers had just five carries, but totaled 80 yards and again had the only rushing touchdown.

On Saturday, though, the wide receivers rushed three times for 14 yards.

Utilizing receivers on speed sweeps is a staple of coordinator Matt Canada’s offense, but the long-term success of the run game is more dependent on a healthy and effective Guice than any thing the wide receivers can do.

Guice’s performance against the Rebels suggests the long-term prospects are pretty good.