New Mississippi State coach Mike Leach didn’t waste any time making a statement in the SEC, with a 44-34 victory at LSU on Saturday.

In typical Leach fashion though, he all but shrugged off the upset.

“It’s better than average, I’ll tell you that,” Leach said on CBS Sports. “There’s a lot of ghosts in this stadium. We played LSU because New England, Green Bay and the Chiefs had somebody scheduled. But I’m proud of our guys, I thought we played real well. I thought we stuck in there during tough times and won the game.”

He continued this sentiment later with reporters, as the Bulldogs edged out LSU on third down 8-of-16 versus 5-of-17.

“Forget first and second,” Leach said, per Tyler Horka. “Let’s just get to third and long.”

About QB K.J. Costello’s 623 passing yards, Leach said, he “wasn’t perfect” but he “kept swinging. I thought his composure in this game was outstanding.”

Leach also shared why MSU threw a lot of deep balls.

“Going into the game, thought they’d play looser than they did,” he said, per Ross Dellenger. “It turned out they didn’t play so loose and the space was getting crowded and so we had to go over the top.”