When Mississippi State rolls into Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday, the Commodores will be ready.

They sure weren’t when the teams met last year in Starkville.

Only managing to put up a scant 107 yards of offense, Vanderbilt (1-1, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) was smothered by Mississippi State and its cowbell-ringing fans in a 17-14 defeat.

“We came out a little flat as a team all together. Offense, defense and special teams, we weren’t ready to play that game last year,” said senior linebacker Patrick Benoist. “We’ve really got to get mentally prepared. We’ve got to get everything sharp and crisp and ready to go.”

The Commodores rode into Starkville with a 5-0 record, on the heels of a thrilling 14-13 win over then-13th-ranked Auburn, and were the toast of the college football world.

They were actually favored to win a conference game and on the road no less.

Instead, the loss began a four-game slide in which the Commodores couldn’t manage more than two touchdowns in any of the games. They wound up 6-6 for the regular season before winning the Music City Bowl.

Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson put the loss down to fundamental problems on his team’s part, not on any difference of talent.

“I thought they did a good job of controlling the ball,” Johnson said. “We had some execution problems on offense and didn’t help ourselves. When you’re not executing on offense and they’re keeping the ball away from you, every series is extremely important.”

Not that Vanderbilt needed any more incentive to win Saturday and avoid falling into a 0-2 hole in conference play.

Benoist has that on his mind more than any idea of avenging last season’s loss.

“It’s just another game on the schedule,” he said.

On the side of the Commodores is the fact that Mississippi State’s defense represents a considerable step down from the stout LSU Tigers. LSU held Vanderbilt to seven offensive points (two scored on a safety), only the third time that the Commodores failed to crack double digits in the past three seasons, in a 23-9 loss.

The Bulldogs (1-1, 0-1) were lit up for 589 yards of total offense by Auburn in a 49-24 rout by the Tigers on Sept. 12. They haven’t won a road game in nearly two years. And the last time they came to Nashville in 2004, Vanderbilt schooled them: 31-13.

Redshirt junior Reilly Lauer, likely to take the place in the starting line-up of injured James Williams at right tackle, offered a simple philosophy for Vanderbilt’s offensive plan.

“We’re looking to take it and pound the ball down their throats pretty much,” he said.

Still running back Anthony Dixon and dual threat quarterbacks Chris Relf and Tyson Lee can present problems on offense. Dixon rushed for 107 yards in last year’s game, the same amount of offense the entire Commodore team was able to muster. Lee passed for just 81 yards, but he also had a touchdown pass and ran several times for first downs to help the Bulldogs control the clock.

“We’ve really got to plug up the holes inside,” Benoist said. “They’ve got a couple quarterbacks who can make some plays. We’ve got to be able to contain them and go out and execute.”