LSU Blows Out Purdue 63-7 in Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and Clinches Ten Win Season

LSU clinches its 17th 10-win season in the program’s football rich history and the first for head coach Brian Kelly in his first season as the Tigers’ head coach. It was a first year full of successes in Baton Rouge for Kelly as his Tigers defeated Alabama, won the SEC West, and has now led the team to ten wins with a 63-7 dominant victory over Purdue in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.

“You know, look, you get these opportunities and you want to be able to celebrate your season, enjoy the Bowls and the atmosphere, and then you want to go play well. And we did that today. We did that today. Our guys executed at a high level. They competed at a high level. We were not at full strength, but that did not stop our guys from putting in the time and the effort.”

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on Citrus Bowl win

From the very start to the very end, the game was dominated by the Tigers on both sides of the football. Offensively, LSU played plenty of both Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier. The two quarterback system worked to perfection as Daniels led three touchdown drives and Nussmeier led two touchdown drives in the first half to give LSU a 35-0 lead at halftime.

Daniels, who made the decision to come back to LSU next season, looked healthy leading the Tigers’ offense down the field as he completed 12 of 17 passes for 139 yards and a 37 yard touchdown pass to Mason Taylor. Daniels also added a hat trick this season as he has accounted for 17 passing touchdowns, 11 rushing touchdowns, and now a receiving touchdown as he caught one from his receiver Malik Nabers on a Philly Special play in the second half. With Nabers’ touchdown pass to Daniels plus both Daniels and Nussmeier’s touchdowns, the Citrus Bowl was the first bowl game that featured three different players on one team that have thrown touchdowns in 25 years.

“I thought he (Garrett Nussmeier) did well. And we made it clear he was going to go in in the third series, and I didn’t know what was going to happen after that. But just made it clear to him, go in, do your job. You’ve got a job to do, get it done, and then we’ll roll after that and see how it goes.

Obviously played a lot more. The way the game was kind of trending, he got even more playing time. But there’s no quarterback controversy. Jayden is the No. 1 quarterback. Garrett will get an opportunity to compete, though.

Look, the most important thing is when you have two really good quarterbacks, you have to have an open mind. You can’t be close-minded when you’re looking at two elite quarterbacks.

So what we have committed to is an open mind and an open process where you can go in and we’re going to give you an opportunity to continue to grow, and then that’s going to allow both of our quarterbacks and Walker to continue to grow as quarterbacks at LSU.”

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on QB plan for the offseason

After getting a lot of playing time in the second half of the SEC Championship Game, Garrett Nussmeier looked sharp completing 11 of 15 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns to only one interception.

With Josh Williams and Armoni Goodwin being out, Noah Cain and John Emery carried the load for the ground game as both running backs combined for 110 yards and three touchdowns with Cain accounting for two of the three. Also, Derrick Davis scored a rushing touchdown himself making it the first touchdown run of his LSU career.

“It’s a team effort. We was gritty. We came out a week early. We could have had any reason to not come out here and play fast. We had some time off, had some fun, but we was locked into understanding what our main goal was, was to come out here and win and get our tenth win.”

“We had fun, but when it was practice time, we practiced executing. When it was game time, we came out, as you can see, and executed at a high level, so that was key.”

LSU WR Malik Nabers on scoring a Citrus Bowl record 63 points

In the receiving game without the efforts of Kayshon Boutte and Jaray Jenkins, who are both getting ready for the NFL Draft, freshman tight end Mason Taylor and wide receiver Malik Nabers were the stars as Nabers led the team with 9 catches for 163 yards and a 75 yard touchdown from Nussmeier while also completing two passes for 50 yards and a touchdown pass to Jayden Daniels. Taylor had his third receiving touchdown this season coming on a 32 yard catch and run while having 5 catches for 88 yards. Brian Thomas Jr. was on a receiving end from Nussmeier and finished with 4 catches for 31 yards. Nabers’ versatile performance as a receiver and as a passer earned him the Citrus Bowl MVP trophy.

“I think it made who I wanted to become. At the beginning of the season wasn’t how I wanted to come out in my sophomore season. We all don’t wish to come out and be emotional like I was.

But you know, to come back and see all my teammates lifting me up through week-after-week, it made me strong and it made me want to perform at a high level with them. So this is like my – I believe my second MVP of my whole, you know, life, and I’m really going to be appreciative of this one.”

LSU WR Malik Nabers on overcoming adversity and earning the Citrus Bowl MVP Trophy

As impressive as the Tigers’ offense was, so was the defense as LSU out gained Purdue 594 total yards to 263. Purdue quarterback Austin Burton, who got the start with Aidan O’Connell declaring for the NFL Draft, struggled against the Tigers’ defense completing 12 of 24 passes for 74 yards and an interception. Three quarterbacks threw interceptions for the Boilermakers as Burton, Michael Alaimo, and Jack Albers all threw interceptions.

“Amazing, right. We drew it up on a napkin, and the guys just – for me, it was fun to watch them play today because they played with great effort, great desire. The will to win these games is obviously important. You’ve got to have that. But they executed a defense that we had only put in for about two and a half weeks, and really proud of their execution and the way they played today.”

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on team’s defensive performance

The Tigers defense, which was without the likes of Ali Gaye, Jaquelin Roy, BJ Ojulari, and Mekhi Garner, had no problems as Matt House’s unit forced three turnovers coming on interceptions from Greg Brooks, Jarrick Bernard-Converse, and finally Quad Wilson, who returned an interception late in the football game 99 yards for the game’s last touchdown to make it 63-7.

“That’s what you look for, guys like getting into the game, guys that don’t usually see the field, younger guys making plays. And to see a play like that, it’s unreal. We just had to have fun, and we just really enjoyed that moment and to see him go out there and make a play like that.”

LSU CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse on Quad Wilson’s 99 yard interception return for a TD

LSU gave up one touchdown, but besides that, the defense was flawless forcing six punts, three interceptions, and two turnover on downs. Major Burns led the Tigers in tackles with six. Greg Brooks had five tackles including a TFL and an interception. Micah Baskerville, Greg Penn, and West Weeks all had five tackles as well. Mekhi Wingo had two TFLs and freshman standout Harold Perkins had 1.5 sacks.

“We wanted to go out there and attack the game plan and execute on every phase, starting with the front or all the way to the back end, we wanted to go out there and just do our job and get this tenth win.”

LSU CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse on defensive performance

The Purdue Boilermakers end the season with an 8-6 overall record and will start the 2023 season with a new head coach after Jeff Brohm has left the program to become the head coach at Louisville. His brother Brian Brohm served as the Boilermakers’ interim head coach and will join his brother at Louisville. The new head coach is Ryan Walters, who was most recently the defensive coordinator at Illinois.

“Yeah, obviously not the performance we were looking for. Very disappointed in the result. You know, a lot of people might have thought this was going to happen, and we were trying our hardest to make sure that it didn’t. Tried to give these guys the best plan we could possible to beat LSU, and we were believing we could do it.

Obviously that did not happen, so very disappointed in the result, but I’m proud of our guys’ effort. I thought that they practiced hard. I thought they actually gave great effort today. We just didn’t have enough to go win the game. We didn’t execute at a high enough level to win the football game or to even be in it. Effort was there but execution was not.”

Purdue interim head coach Brian Brohm on loss

As mentioned earlier, it has been a fantastic start to the Brian Kelly era at LSU as Kelly will end his first season in Baton Rouge with an overall record of 10-4. With the Citrus Bowl win, the #17 ranked LSU Tigers will await to see where their final ranking will be at the conclusion of all the games, but there is no doubt that there is a lot of positivity where this program is going as LSU looks to become a College Football Playoff contender in 2023.

“Probably the relationships with the players and developing new relationships with 115 players and getting to know them. That, to me, in year one, the first time here, you know, you don’t know any of the players and they don’t know you.”

I think our first press conference – I keep saying press conference – our first meeting, said, hey, we’re going to build trust, but it’s going to take time for both sides. And I think that that’s what happened. And I’ll remember that in year one; that process of building trust.”

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on what stands out the most from his first year as the Tigers head coach

Check out some of the photos from the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl as our own Billy Metcalf made the trip to Orlando take these great snapshots for us. The complete photo gallery will be in our digital magazine soon!

Twitter Updates Throughout The Game:

1st Quarter:

2nd Quarter:

3rd Quarter:

4th Quarter:

Final Stats:

Offensive Cumulative Stats:

STATLSUPurdue
NET TOTAL YARDS594263
NET RUSHING YARDS22594
Rushing Attempts3236
Average Per Rush7.02.6
Rushing TDs40
Yards Gained232126
Yards Lost732
NET PASSING YARDS369169
Completion-Attempts27-3819-42
Completion Percentage71%45%
Avg Per Completion13.78.9
YAC19583
Passing TDs41
Drops (%)0 (00%)1 (02%)
TOTAL 1ST DOWNS2617
Rushing 1st Downs106
Passing 1st Downs169
Penalty 1st Downs02
TOTAL PLAYS7078
Avg Yds/Play8.53.4
Rushing-Passing32-3836-42

Offense Efficiency Comparison:

STATLSUPurdue
RED ZONE ATTEMPTS6-71-1
Red Zone Points427
RZ TDs Rush-Pass4-20-1
RZ FG Made-Att0-00-0
RZ Turns10
3rd Downs7-124-18
4th Downs2-33-7
Penalties6-465-35
Fumbles-Lost1-01-0
Pts Off Turns130
POSSESSION TIME28:3937:41

Special Teams Comparison:

STATLSUPurdue
Punts-Avg2-51.56-42.8
Inside2001
Field Goals0-00-0
Kick Returns1-223-61
Punt Returns1-112-35

Defensive Comparison:

STATLSUPurdue
TACKLES6150
Solo Tackles5146
Tackles for Loss71
TFL Yards-35-6
Pass Breakups71
QB Hurries10
Sacks40
Sacks Yards-28-0
Takeaways FR-INT0-30-1
Forced Fumbles10
Fumble Recoveries00
FR Yards00
Interceptions31
INT Yards1220
TDs INT-FR1-00-0

LSU Passing:

#PLAYERC-AYDSTDIC%RTG
5DANIELS,J12-171391071158.7
13NUSSMEIER,G11-151732173200.9
14HOWARD,W2-47005064.7
8NABERS,M2-25010100475
PASS TOTALS27-383694171

LSU Receiving:

#PLAYERNOYDSTDLNGAVGTGTC%YACDR
8NABERS,M916317518.112751160
86TAYLOR,M58813217.6683400
11THOMAS JR.,B4311107.8667150
2LACY,K25704528.5540130
24IBIETA,L2150107.536740
21CAIN,N25032.5210020
5DANIELS,J15155110000
4EMERY JR.,J13033110000
33NICHOLAS,J12022110050
9 RECEIVERS2736947513.737731950

LSU Rushing:

#PLAYERATTYDSTDLNGAVG
5DANIELS,J66703711.2
21CAIN,N8582147.3
4EMERY JR.,J7521297.4
12DAVIS JR.,D6301125
14HOWARD,W3170235.7
36DEMAS,N12022
6 RUSHERS322254377

LSU Punting:

PunterNOYDSAVGLNGI2050+
BRAMBLETT,J210351.55301

LSU Field Goals:

KickerTimeDistResult
TOTAL0-0LONG OF 0

LSU All-Purpose Yards:

PlayerTotRushRecKORPRIR-FRTDs
NABERS,M16301630001
WILSON,Q990000991
TAYLOR,M880880001

LSU Defense:

#Player (Starter)TotTkSoloSackTFLIntBrUpQBHFF
28M.Burns (DB)66000100
3G.Brooks Jr. (S)54011000
23M.Baskerville (LB)54000200
30G.Penn III (LB)54000000
33W.Weeks53000000
13J.Foucha (DB)44000100
15S.Ryan44000000
24J.Bernard-Converse (CB)33001000
40H.Perkins Jr. (LB)3211.50011
90J.Guillory (DL)3200.50000
5J.Ward (DB)22000000
68F.West Jr.21000000
92M.Wingo (DL)22120000
93Q.Wiggins22000000
6M.Jones Jr.10000000
17Z.Carter11110100
19J.Allen11000000
27L.Welch11000100
35S.Jones (DE)11110000
36D.Brown11000000
37H.Faust11000000
44S.Roy11000000
50E.Jones11000000
94P.Malbrue10000000
16Q.Wilson00001000
91K.Bush00000100
TOTALS6151473711

LSU Punt Returns:

ReturnerNOYDSAVGLNGTD
CLAYTON JR.,G11111110

LSU Kick Returns:

ReturnerNOYDSAVGLNGTD
CAIN,N12222220

LSU Team Stats By Quarter:

1stRushPassCAITotYAvg3rdsPens
1st811-5913-909-13-01496.23-51-5
2nd85-5610-15910-10-021514.32-21-1
3rd76-6111-1136-11-117410.21-24-40
4th310-494-72-4-05641-31-15
Total2632-22538-36927-38-15948.57-127-61

LSU Scoring Summary:

QtrClockScoreTypePlayDriveScore
107:01TDRUSHJ.Emery Jr. 1 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)
10/63/5:260-7
101:06TDRUSHN.Cain 9 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)
8/67/3:140-14
213:03TDPASSM.Taylor 32 yd reception thrown by J.Daniels
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)
5/62/14:240-21
208:23TDRUSHN.Cain 9 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)
5/70/4:040-28
201:07TDPASSB.Thomas Jr. 10 yd reception thrown by G.Nussmeier
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)
5/87/2:040-35
309:21TDPASSJ.Daniels 5 yd reception thrown by M.Nabers
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)
9/45/3:060-42
303:15TDPASSM.Nabers 75 yd reception thrown by G.Nussmeier
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)
1/75/9:120-49
408:47TDRUSHD.Davis Jr. 12 yd rush
PAT kick by E.Mata (GOOD)
7/55/2:587-56
400:40TDINTQ.Wilson 99 yd interception return
PAT by (FAIL)
7-62

Purdue Passing:

#PLAYERC-AYDSTDIC%RTG
12BURTON,A12-2474015067.6
1ALAIMO,M4-1137113676.4
11ALBERS,J2-632013344.8
2YASEEN,A1-12600100318.4
PASS TOTALS19-421691345

Purdue Receiving:

#PLAYERNOYDSTDLNGAVGTGTC%YACDR
8SHEFFIELD,T75612681070130
45MOCKOBEE,D3260118.7560380
2YASEEN,A22101310.52100110
3TRACY JR.,T2130106.5210050
9RICE,M21007545030
86KLARE,M12002020110000
91BUECHEL,B112012121100100
89PIFERI,P1110111133330
4BURKS,D000005001
8 RECEIVERS191691268.93949831

Purdue Rushing:

#PLAYERATTYDSTDLNGAVG
45MOCKOBEE,D1348083.7
3TRACY JR.,T4260146.5
1ALAIMO,M515083
28BRANDT,R17077
99SULLIVAN,J15055
4BURKS,D14044
37WAHLBERG,J24042
37LAHEY,C12022
11ALBERS,J11011
38DOWNING,D1-100-1
8SHEFFIELD,T1-300-3
12BURTON,A5-1405-2.8
12 RUSHERS36940142.6

Purdue Punting:

PunterNOYDSAVGLNGI2050+
ANSELL,J625742.84710

Purdue Field Goals:

KickerTimeDistResult
TOTAL0-0LONG OF 0

Purdue All-Purpose Yards:

PlayerTotRushRecKORPRIR-FRTDs
SHEFFIELD,T74-35602101
MOCKOBEE,D7448260000
TRACY JR.,T59261320000

Purdue Defense:

#Player (Starter)TotTkSoloSackTFLIntBrUpQBHFF
0B.Hampton (DB)86000000
10C.Allen (S)66000000
20O.Brothers (LB)66000000
12J.Grigsby43000000
21S.Kane (S)44010000
37J.Wahlberg44000000
43K.Douglas (LB)21000000
91C.Brevard22000000
1R.Taylor (DB)11000000
24C.Childers11000100
28R.Brandt11000000
35A.Stevens11000000
44K.Jenkins (LB)11000000
46S.Humpich11000000
58B.Deen (DL)11000000
90L.Johnson (DT)11000000
92M.Omonode11000000
93P.Boyd Jr.11000000
96K.Sydnor11000000
97S.Fakasiieiki11000000
7J.Brown (CB)00001000
TOTALS5046011100

Purdue Punt Returns:

ReturnerNOYDSAVGLNGTD
SHEFFIELD,T12121210
SOWINSKI,A11414140
TOTAL23518210

Purdue Kick Returns

ReturnerNOYDSAVGLNGTD
HAMPTON,B12222220
TRACY JR.,T12020200
BURKS,D11919190
TOTAL36120220

Purdue Team Stats By Quarter:

1stRushPassCAITotYAvg3rdsPens
1st15-177-42-7-0211.81-43-25
2nd79–414-699-14-1652.82-51-5
3rd511-427-193-7-1613.41-40-0
4th511-3914-775-14-11164.60-51-5
Total1836-9442-16919-42-32633.44-185-35

Purdue Scoring Summary:

QtrClockScoreTypePlayDriveScore
413:53TDPASST.Sheffield 16 yd reception thrown by M.Alaimo
PAT kick by M.Fineran (GOOD)
9/75/4:227-49