And I don’t mean a team donning the rarely worn purple and gold uniforms for the first time for a day game since, I believe, the Curley Hallman era.
It was a football team with glaring holes in the defense, particularly the secondary and in fundamental tackling, not to mention scheming. Expected.
It was a football team with an offense that would be just fine if not otherworldly like it was this year with a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and now-departed offensive coordinator. Expected.
It was a football team who was likely to do everything necessary to win until the final minute, when crunch time would bring home the ‘L’ and even more blame on the defense going into the off-season. Expected, until…
Until the final 1:36 of the game happened.
With Wisconsin (7-6) driving yet again, sixth-year senior quarterback Tanner Mordecai completed an eight-yard pass to the LSU 19-yard line with just over a minute and a half to play. The ESPN color analyst afterwards said what every Tiger fan had been thinking all day, that the Badger quarterback had simply “roasted” the LSU secondary for four quarters. After LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier had just led the team on a clutch eight-play, 98-yard drive down the field for the Tigers’ first lead at 35-31, it seemed the D was going to let down the offense one more time just for old times’ sake.
By the time Wisconsin had reached the 19-yard line, that Nussmeier to Brian Thomas, Jr four-yard touchdown at the 3:08 mark seemed like ancient history.
And then for three plays, all a sudden, the Tiger front grew claws and maybe something else and played like it was 2011 or 2003. Three ferocious sacks later, the Badgers had lost 36 yards and Nussmeier was lining up in the victory formation at the 45-yard line, the 2024 ReliaQuest bowl safely tucked away.
Tigers win. Tigers win.
Coach Brian Kelly gets to ten wins yet again.
“I think it really stabilizes the program,” Kelly said after the game, his second bowl victory over a Big 10 team in as many seasons. “For us, it’s been recruiting, development, and retention. You can’t do that when you’re 3-9. When you have back-to-back 10-win seasons, and you’re doing it with bowl victories as well, it certainly helps a lot.”
LSU (10-3) led the nation in total offense (547.8 yards per game) and scoring (46.4) in 2023. One of Kelly’s focuses, indeed the central focus, will be revamping a defense that allowed 409.2 yards and 27.75 points per game.
A Great Bowl Game
I have featured Nussmeier twice in my writing, going all the way back to his original commitment in May of 2020, and he didn’t disappoint today. The kid is likeable in a way that Jayden Daniels was likeable. Both are simply a joy to watch play the quarterback position.
LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier Vs Wisconsin:
🐯 31/45
🐯 395 YDS
🐯 3 TDs | 1 INT
🐯 98 Yard GW Drive pic.twitter.com/4oNa1LVf95— PFF College (@PFF_College) January 1, 2024
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LSU had to come back twice from 14-point deficits, once at 14-0 and once at 28-14. The defense was the weakness all season, the central reason the record setting Tiger offense isn’t in Los Angeles or New Orleans right now. It looked like business as usual in the first quarter, as the Badgers blitzed the Tigers for 146 yards and a 14-0 lead.
The Tigers would tie it in the second quarter only to see the momentum shift back quickly with another Wisconsin score. When the Badgers scored again to start the third quarter to make it 28-14, it set up a do-or-die scenario for the Tiger offense and team, and they responded. Even the defense began to make more plays as the game wore on. Few, but enough. Just enough.
One thing is for certain: No. 8 in the purple jersey is on the bus still talking smack to Wisconsin players.
Wisconsin outgained LSU 506 to 492 on the day, with Mordecai tossing it around the field for 378. Tiger receiver Malik Nabers dressed out for the first half in order to break the all-time yards record at LSU, which he now holds with 3,003. The other star of the Tiger receiving duo, Thomas, caught eight balls for 98 yards, while Kyren Lacy collected six for 95 and tight end Mason Taylor had seven for 88.
Moving Forward
The Tiger team looks poised to be perennial contenders as the playoff format expands to twelve teams next year. With conference expansion and the growth of early season marquee matchups, teams will be hard pressed to go undefeated. Here is LSU’s schedule for 2024.
- vs. USC (Vegas Kickoff Classic)
Sunday, September 1, 6:30 pm CT - vs. Nicholls
Saturday, September 7 - at South Carolina
Saturday, September 14 - vs. UCLA
Saturday, September 21 - vs. South Alabama
Saturday, September 28 - vs. Ole Miss
Saturday, October 12 - at Arkansas
Saturday, October 19 - at Texas A&M
Saturday, October 26 - vs. Alabama
Saturday, November 9 - at Florida
Saturday, November 16 - vs. Vanderbilt
Saturday, November 23 - vs. Oklahoma
Saturday, November 30
What a home slate, with LSU welcoming Oklahoma to Tiger Stadium to finish its first year in the SEC. Ole Miss will be formidable next year. Alabama is always good. Throw in new Big 10 teams USC and UCLA and you have quite the appeal–and quite the degree of difficulty. There are likely at least two losses on that slate. With the playoff expansion to twelve teams and tougher schedules across the national landscape, the regular season will likely look a lot more like the NFL. Look for the bracket to be filled with one loss- and two-loss teams, so LSU should be okay.
Provided Kelly fields a defense, that is.
Jeff LeJeune is the author of several books, writer for RVIVR, editor, master of English and avid historian, teacher and tutor, aspiring ghostwriter and podcaster, and creator of LeJeune Said. Visit his website at jefflejeune.com, where you can find a conglomerate of content.
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