Three former LSU football coaches will be roaming the sidelines for Mississippi State when the Tigers meet the Bulldogs Saturday night.
MSU offensive coordinator Morris Watts, cornerbacks coach Curley Hallman and tight ends coach Terry Lewis will try to coach the Bulldogs to a victory over their once-beloved Tigers.
Hallman, a former LSU head coach (1991-94), will face the Tigers for the second time as a Bulldog on Saturday. Under Hallman, the Tigers were 16-28 with a 10-21 SEC mark.
After leaving LSU, Hallman became the defensive secondary coach at Alabama (1996-98). He also served as co-defensive coordinator for the XFL’s Birmingham Thunderbolts under Gerry DiNardo, another former LSU head coach (1995-99).
Morris Watts has connections with both LSU and current Tigers coach Nick Saban.
Watts had two stints at LSU, with the first coming in 1983 as the Tigers’ quarterbacks coach. He left LSU for the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions after the 1983 season.
Watts returned to Baton Rouge in 1995 for a four year stint as LSU’s offensive coordinator under former head coach DiNardo. The Tigers averaged 388 yards per game on offense and scored 30 points or more in 21 games under Watts’ direction.
Saban said he considers Watts a close friend. The two coaches met for the first time in 1986 at Michigan State when Watts joined the Spartans’ coaching staff as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Saban was in his third year as secondary coach and defensive coordinator for MSU.
Under Spartans head coach George Perles, Watts and Saban helped MSU to the Big Ten Conference championship and a 20-17 Rose Bowl win against Southern California. Saban left MSU for the NFL’s Houston Oilers the next season.
“I think after a year or two being there [at Michigan State] we won a Rose Bowl and a Big Ten Championship,” Saban said. “We’ve been really pretty good friends ever since.”
Fate brought the two back together in 1999 for another one-year stint with Saban as the Spartans’ head coach and Watts as the offensive coordinator. The Spartans ended the season with a 9-2 record and as the Big Ten runner-up before Saban left MSU to become the head coach at LSU in 2000.
Saban said he respects Watts as both a person and a football coach.
“He and his wife Kay and their children are just good friends of our family,” Saban said. “We’ve done a lot of stuff together for a long time and we just feel like their life-long friends. And I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a coach and as a person that I choose to want to be friends with and have for a long, long time.”
Watts, in his first year as Mississippi State’s offensive coordinator, has the Bulldogs averaging more than 32 points per game, an improvement from last year when MSU averaged less than 19 points per game.
Bulldogs quarterback Kevin Fant said MSU’s improved performance is due to Watts’ demanding coaching style.
“He’s a great coach,” Fant said. “He’s been coaching for 40 years and he really knows the offense and the team well, and he demands a lot out of you.”
Lewis enters his third year as MSU’s linebackers coach. He coached at LSU (1984-86). He is an alumnus of Southern University (1966-69) where he was an All-American on the offensive line. He has more than 30 years of coaching experience with offensive linemen and tight ends, including stints at Southern (1979-80) and Tulane (1987).