Dak Prescott is doing it again. He is tearing up another SEC defense and leading MIssissippi State to yet another statement victory for a program which has had very few of them in over a century of playing football.

With eight minutes left, the Bulldogs from Starkville are about to hand Texas A&M its first loss of 2014. Prescott has run for three touchdowns and passed for two more to propel the Bulldogs to a ridiculous 48-17 lead. Mississippi State is about to improve to 5-0, break into the top 10 of the polls, and now must be considered seriously for the college football playoff.

Prescott should be wearing purple and gold.

He was an All-State quarterback at Haughton High, a Shreveport suburb. Had Les Miles offered Prescott a scholarship following the 2010 season, I’m sure the kid would have come crawling south on Interstate 49 and east on US 190 to Baton Rouge to play in Tiger Stadium.

Instead, Miles had this pipe dream he had the next NFL superstar, a kid who had been booted from the Georgie program and had to go to Butler Community College in El Dorado (Kansas, not Arkansas) to get right. Zack Mettenberger had a great 2013, but before that, he was useless.

The one great weakness of LSU’s 2011 team? Quarterback. I’m not saying Prescott would have been the complete answer, but he would have been far better than the two LSU had that season, Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson. Lee was better than Jefferson that season, but Miles felt some sort of loyalty to Jefferson, leading to the disastrous decision to start Jefferson in the 2011 BCS national championship game vs. Alabama. The Bayou Bengals then went out and gained 92 yards in a 21-0 loss.

When the late Paul Dietzel coached LSU to its 1958 national champion and Billy Cannon to the 1959 Hesiman Trophy, his recruiting goal was simple: “I want to make every boy in Louisiana come to LSU”. Charles McClendon preached the same mantra. Louisiana is a fertile recruiting ground. LSU is the only major college football program in the Bayou State. Why should any of the top 50 prospects not want to come to LSU:? Sure, they can’t all come to Baton Rouge, but all who want to should at least have the chance.

Too late. The die has been cast. And LSU came out on the wrong end.