While Mason Katz, Christian Ibarra, and Sean McMullen got their long balls the traditional way by, you know, hitting it out of the park, Raph Rhymes got his in the park. Took no small feat of engineering on his part, requiring an acrobatic flip over Ole Miss catcher Stuart Turner to reach home plate safely. I'll give it an 8.7.

GIF credits go to GIFSECTION.COM.

Because Les Miles in a sombrero.

The internet loves you.

Signed, the internet.

The first round of the NFL Draft has come and gone which saw two LSU Tigers hear their names called. Barkevious Mingo went 6th overall to the Browns while Eric Reid was picked 18th by the San Francisco 49ers. Kevin Minter, who was a fringe candidate for the first round, did not get to hear his name called (nor did Manti Te'o, for that matter). He'll be among the many Tigers waiting to hear their names called in the remaining rounds. The SEC set a new record with 12 players taken in the first round.

The annual National L Club Spring Game concluded Saturday, resulting in the white team (largely the starting offense) winning 37-0. The score doesn't matter really, but the presumed top two quarterbacks, Zach Mettenberger and Stephen Rivers, had a good day. Mettenberger passed for 236 yards while Rivers completed seven of his 10 passes to go along with two scores. Head past the jump for a couple photos and notes.

LSU finds themselves with their best start in school history at 35-3 overall and a pristine 13-2 in conference play. Right now, LSU looks like the closest you can get to a complete team, getting strong pitching from Aaron Nola & Ryan Eades on Friday & Saturday, while the bullpen hasn't let leads go by the wayside. At the dish, LSU is lead by the three-headed monster of freshman phenom Alex Bregman, Mason Katz & Raph Rhymes. Not only that, LSU is the best defensive team in the conference. Head past the jump to see how we think the rest of the regular SEC season will play out.

F Johnny O'Bryant gave the Tiger fan base a bit of a scare this afternoon as supporters and media gathered to hear whether or not the 6'9”, 256lb Cleveland, MS native would declare for the NBA. After careful consideration, prayer, and discussions between family members and the coaching staff O'Bryant decided to stay.

Conference play is in full swing and LSU continues to be the hot team. The Tigers are now 2nd in both major RPI calculators trailing only North Carolina. UNC's southern counterpart South Carolina saw themselves fall out of the top 10 after getting swept by suddently hot Arkansas. Missouri continues to be Missouri and make us wonder why they were added to the SEC, while Texas A&M shoots up the polls with another strong weekend. Head past the jump for full ratings.

This week's report finds not much change from last week at the top, with Vanderbilt taking over the top spot in both Warren Nolan & Boyd's World ratings. Mississippi State, even with losing 2 of 3 to LSU this past week, saw their numbers improve simply due to the fact that LSU was the best team they'd faced by far. Follow the jump for more.

How do you gauge if a team will be a contender in a given season? If said team can win a weekend conference series, at one of the projected better teams in said conference, that would be a pretty good bellweather.

That's just what LSU did in Starkville, MS, this past weekend, taking two of three from Mississippi State to open the SEC schedule. LSU was paced by Mason Katz's stupid hot hitting and Ryan Eades strong pitching on Saturday, winning the first two games 6-4 and 7-3 before falling 10-2 to State on Sunday.

Slight changes in ths week's numbers as the RPI continues to shake itself out. With conference play beginning this weekend, I expect these numbers to move a lot by this time next week. LSU has ceded their top spot to South Carolina, moving down to 3rd in both Boyd's World and Warren Nolan's ratings. The rest of the conference somewhat stays pat, with Arkansas still trying to claw their way back to respectability.