In the final non-conference game of the 2024 season, the LSU Tigers offense dominated South Alabama 42-10 with 667 total yards of offense. 423 yards came in the first half, the most in a half since the 2019 College Football Playoff semifinal against Oklahoma in Atlanta.
On the first play of the game, quarterback Garrett Nussmeier connected with true freshman running back Caden Durham in the flat before taking off 71 yards for a touchdown just 21 seconds into the game. After a quick stop defensively, Durham took a handoff 86 yards down to the one-yard line as the Tiger Stadium faithful erupted for the dominant 157 yards from scrimmage by Durham.
“Pleased with the guys and their effort tonight,” head coach Brian Kelly said postgame. “The whole mindset of coming in here to Tiger Stadium and playing the kind of football that you want to play. As the season begins to take shape into an SEC schedule. Offensively, we did some great things tonight, running the football, throwing it for over 667 yards of total offense You can characterize it any way you want, but Nussmeier, the receivers, Durham, all of those guys were high performers tonight.”
Defensively, LSU was dominant early on in the first half, keeping the 15th-ranked offense in the country off the scoreboard in their first six possessions. The Tigers only allowed 3 points in the first half on a late field goal. In the second half, Gio Lopez was able to move the football on the LSU defense including a 27-yard touchdown to Anthony Eager to make it 35-10.
“The backers played well,” Kelly said about the defense. “Penn and Weeks, that combination, they’re very active in their assignments. They were all over it. There’s a lot of misdirection there. They got us on a couple of plays early on with some plays we hadn’t seen before, there was some misdirection there, they have really good schemes, and we had to settle down.
“Those two guys played very, very well. It’s also important to point out we’re really doing a nice job upfront. We’re not giving up running lanes that put our backers in a position where they can’t go downhill and make some plays, so that the front six, and front seven, did a pretty good job today.”
LSU now sits at 4-1 heading into their bye week, where Kelly says it’ll be a work week for the team.
“We’re gonna register all of our guys to vote on Monday, voter registration day,” Kelly said. “Make sure that that’s done. From there it’s not really a recovery week. We’re gonna practice. We still have some real work to get done.”
LSU will return to Tiger Stadium on October 12 to welcome sixth-ranked Ole Miss to Baton Rouge for a primetime SEC matchup.