BATON ROUGE, La. – Remember Saturday night.
If LSU scratches and claws and muddies and escapes and fights its way into the College Football Playoff, remember the night the No. 10 Tigers won a game they never led until the final play.
If this 29-26 overtime win over No. 8 Ole Miss galvanizes Brian Kelly’s tenure, and he proves himself worth that $95 million investment LSU made three years ago, remember the night his defense grew a spine and his quarterback fought through the tough times.
And when it was finished, LSU fired off enough fireworks that it could’ve been Independence Day, while fans stormed the field. Never mind that the Tigers were just a slight underdog.
This improbable escape warranted celebration.
“These moments don’t come often in life, for sure,” LSU linebacker Whit Weeks said. “It was fun.”
It became a turning-point victory in Kelly’s turning-point third season.
Or, it provided LSU a gulp of excitement before the bottom falls out in the second half of the schedule.
I’m not sure which it’ll prove to be. I could believe either.
LSU’s six remaining games are against SEC competition. There’s not a game remaining LSU (5-1) can’t win – or a game it couldn’t lose.
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And the Tigers could be the SEC’s second-best team or its seventh-best team. I’m unconvinced there’s much difference.
“This league is wide open,” LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said. “I think we took a huge step tonight.”
It’s wide open behind Texas, anyway.
LSU football leapfrogs Ole Miss in playoff pecking order
As for LSU’s cardiac cats, they’re still a little rough around the edges, but so are most SEC teams….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/inside-lsu-footballs-wild-comeback-112309246.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2024-10-13 11:23:09
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