100 years in Tiger Stadium in front of 100,000 fans, LSU wins the game of the ages that will live on for another 100 years to come!
“Well, just an incredible atmosphere tonight. I thought our game operations created an incredible environment with 100 Years of Tiger Stadium. Hats off to them. I thought they made the stadium environment unique and electric and what you want for a gameday event. And then, the two teams played up and lived up to it. Certainly, many people were expecting a similar shootout to last year. I did not think that would be the case. I thought this would be much more about opportunities that were going to have to come by and be taken advantage of.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly
When people talk about Tiger Stadium’s greatest moments, they will remember the Halloween Run, the Earthquake Game, Jones to Davis, Flynn to Byrd, Daniels to Taylor, and now, you can add Nussmeier to Lacy to that list as that connection between QB1 and WR1 would be the game winning touchdown in overtime 29-26 over Ole Miss.
“We knew we were going to get a one on one matchup on the backside so it was on me to win my one on one matchup. Garrett trusted me and threw me a ball so I went to get it It was a blessing. It’s a moment I will never forget.”
LSU WR Kyren Lacy
Garrett Nussmeier was not perfect and had one of his worse statistical performances completing only 22 of 51 passes (43%) for 337 yards and two interceptions, but he was perfect when it mattered most as two of his three touchdown passes were the final two passes he threw including the game winning score to Kyren Lacy.
“Though I had struggles in this game, I know I will learn from it, and more importantly, we were able to able to win. I look forward to correcting my mistakes, getting into the film room, and fixing those things. This could be a huge moment for me to take my game to the next level.”
LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier
Down by a touchdown with three minutes left to play in the game, Nussmeier etched his name into LSU Football lore by converting two fourth down throws with one to Mason Taylor and the other for the game tying touchdown to Aaron Anderson with 27 seconds left to tie the game at 23.
Lacy finished with five grabs for 111 yards and a touchdown. Taylor had five grabs for 43 yards and Anderson had three catches for 81 yards and a touchdown.
While the offense will get the headlines, it was the defense that kept its offense within striking distance the entire game.
Whit Weeks was all over the field with 18 tackles, a sack, two TFLs, a force fumble, and a pass breakup. Bradyn Swinson was relentless with eight tackles, two sacks, 2.5 TFLs, and two pass breakups. Major Burns had eight tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 TFLs, a forced fumble, and two pass breakups. Then, finally, Zy Alexander stepped up defensively with five tackles, a pass breakup, and an interception.
“I mean we stayed together. They got it in the plus side of the field I don’t know how many times. We had a bend, don’t break mentality and we were able to get the job done that way. This defense today, I mean I am so proud of us because for years that I have been here now, this is the closest we’ve ever been as a defense. I mean, there was never a doubt in any of our minds we weren’t going to win this ballgame.”
LSU LB Whit Weeks
Jaxson Dart finished completing 24 of 42 passes for 284 yards and a touchdown. Dart was under heavy pressure for the majority of the game being sacked six times and being hit plenty of other times. Cayden Lee was his top target with nine grabs for 132 yards while Tre Harris was still effective with seven grabs for 102 yards and a touchdown, but left the game in the fourth quarter. Ulysses Bentley IV added 107 yards and a touchdown on the ground for Ole Miss.
“You know it’s a hard one, obviously. I feel for the players in the locker room. They played really hard and you have to give them credit too. That last drive in regulation, you know we lead the whole game until that last 30 seconds of the game. We were doing some things right and they made some really big plays. Quarterback made a great scramble drill play. There were a couple of fourth down conversions. To put it in overtime, it should have never gotten there. We should have finished it when we had the ball up four. We had a chance to make it two scores. We didn’t do that and we put ourselves in a much harder situation.”
Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin
For all of the talk offenses for this matchup, it was the defenses that stepped up in what was a wacky first quarter. Ole Miss had a couple of opportunities early to put points on the board, but came away with nothing. A dropped touchdown, a missed field goal, and a fourth down stand by LSU’s defense after an Ole Miss interception kept it a scoreless first 15 minutes of play.
In the second quarter, Ole Miss was able to build on an early 3-0 lead as Bentley’s 50 yard touchdown run to give the Rebels a 10-0 lead. After five unsuccessful drives by LSU’s offense, the passing game was finally able to find its rhythm with Nussmeier hitting on three consecutive passes including a 12 yard touchdown to Trey’Dez Green to pull the Tigers within three points at 10-7.
Ole Miss responded by going on a 11 play, 75 yard drive, which resulted in an incredible touchdown grab by Harris, who caught the football over Major Burns to give the Rebels back a 10 point lead at 17-7
With 1:20 left to go until halftime, Nussmeier starts off with another nice drive and it looked as if the Tigers would pull within three points at 17-14 with a Zavion Thomas touchdown catch. However, it was ruled incomplete after Thomas could not haul it in. Ole Miss held to a field goal to make it 17-10.
It seemed as if Ole Miss would run the rest of the clock out in the first half, but a fumble forced by Whit Weeks and a recovery by Dominick McKinley gave the Tigers another chance with the football. Damian Ramos made another field goal to make it 17-13 at halftime.
After an exchange of field goals, LSU kept hanging around to make it only a touchdown game to set up a thrilling final three minutes and overtime finish.
The game was also the second longest ever in Tiger Stadium history going over four hours in length with the only game being longer than that is the three overtime loss against Arkansas back in 2007.
The #13 LSU Tigers improve to 5-1 on the year and 2-0 in the SEC. With this win, it catapults the Tigers into the SEC Championship race and more importantly, back in the College Football Playoff race.
“In many ways, I think our guys need to get used to it because their preparation is as good as any group that I’ve had, and that preparation was not giving us the kind of performances that I thought it would. I was frustrated with that earlier in the year. The preparation was outstanding, but we were not seeing it in the performances. They were not as sharp as I thought they would be, and now it is starting to translate a little bit better. I think a lot of it has to do with them just not being distracted and really staying focused on what they need. This is a team that is getting better each and every week and sometimes that happens.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly on what the win means moving forward
Sometimes, it just takes a little Tiger Stadium magic to put everything together for this LSU squad.
Next up, LSU will hit the road to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. It is the first of a two game road trip for the Tigers going to Fayetteville and then College Station to take on Texas A&M.
Check out the photos from Billy Metcalf!
1st Quarter:
2nd Quarter:
3rd Quarter:
4th Quarter:
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