The Mississippi State Bulldogs will get their New Year’s Day started with a matchup against Iowa in the Outback Bowl.

Coach Joe Moorhead has a lot of experience with the Hawkeyes, as he beat them each of the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Penn State.

During a press conference on Saturday, Moorhead was asked which SEC team is most similar to Iowa, and he named the LSU Tigers, particularly on offense (transcript via ASAPSports.com):

Q. Watching film, who does Iowa remind you of, and who does Mississippi State remind you of?
COACH JOE MOORHEAD: To compartmentalize a little bit, offense, would be similar to an LSU type with some traditional 21 and 12 personnel groupings, physical offensive line. Quarterback can beat you with his arm. Obviously an excellent tight end and some game breaking receivers. So certainly being able to defend the run, you know, the quick gain, the quarterback movement stuff.

Then defensively, we were discussing that as an offensive staff. I don’t know if there’s one that really sticks out. We see a bunch of three down in the conference, four down, but certainly from a production standpoint, you know, giving up 17 points a game, just over a hundred rushing, I don’t even know if it’s 300 total yards, Iowa’s defensive production stacks up with anybody in the country.

Moorhead knows his squad has its work cut out for it, particularly going up against Iowa’s impressive defense.

It sounds like he’ll be watching a lot of tape of Mississippi State’s loss to LSU this year, though, to try to prepare for some of the things the Hawkeyes may bring to the table.