Doom and gloom surrounded the LSU football program a couple of weeks ago after suffering a third consecutive loss to Florida. But after a convincing 37-17 win over Oklahoma in the regular season finale, Tigers Coach Brian Kelly was talking about playing for a championship.
“You can have your opinions and that’s fine that’s why you guys have a pulpit to do that , I have a better perspective of it, I don’t listen to what you have to say, and we are going to build it the way we know we are going to build it and I’ll see you in the national championship game,” Kelly said.
LSU will not play for a meaningful championship this year with an 8-4 record, but Kelly is more confident than ever that the Tigers are close to playing for one after finishing the regular season on a two-game winning streak.
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When the Tigers lost to Florida 27-16 on November 16th, criticism of Kelly reached an all-time high in Baton Rouge. A few days later, their prized recruit for the Class of 2025, quarterback Bryce Underwood, de-committed from LSU after Michigan made him an NIL offer he could not refuse.
But LSU tightened up its chin straps and played with immense pride over the last two weeks in victories over Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, two teams that beat Alabama.
“We had five freshmen and two sophomores on defense today, playing their tails off, so again, we are taking receipts, and we’ll see you at the national championship, this team is building, we’re excited about them and we are really proud of them,” Kelly said.
Linebacker Davhon Keys is one of those freshmen, as he had ten tackles and a sack in the win over Oklahoma. Freshman defensive tackle Dominick McKinley had two sacks and four tackles.
Freshman running back Caden Durham rushed for 80 yards on 11 carries, including a 50-yard run to set up a field goal.
And there’s more help on the way. Kelly said with the addition of the 2025 recruiting class that will sign later this week and arrive on campus next semester, they will have 37 freshmen in their winter conditioning program for the first time.
“When you are talking about the foundation of your program, coupled with keys players coming back that’s what’s pretty exciting, when we are finished with this roster, it will compete at the highest level,” Kelly said.
One of those key players that Kelly is expecting to come back is Garrett Nussmeier.
The Lake Charles native had one of his best outings, despite fumbling the ball on a sack that led to an Oklahoma touchdown. Nussmeier threw for 277 yards and three touchdowns, he also used his legs a little bit, picking up a key first down in the second half on a seven yard run.
It looked like Nussmeier was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury in the first half when he took a blind side hit from Oklahoma’s Mason Thomas. Nussmeier missed the remainder of that series and the following one, but he was determined to finish the rest of the game.
“LSU means a lot to me, it means the world to me, I bleed these colors no matter what anybody has to say about me, there was no way that I was going to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, let those seniors go out without me playing and so there was really no option in my head.”
Nussmeier takes some criticism from the LSU fanbase. It’s what happens when you are following two Heisman trophy winning quarterbacks.
But LSU fans got a look at what it looks like without Nussmeier. AJ Swann replaced Nussmeier and missed badly on a couple of throws and called a timeout when LSU didn’t have one as the Tigers had to settle for a field goal after Durham’s 50-yard run.
When Nussmeier got back in the game, he connected on two deep balls to Chris Hilton on touchdown passes. The deep pass, a part of the LSU offense that’s been missing this season, because of Hilton’s lengthy injury, finally showed up in the regular season finale.
LSU fans will remember Kelly’s postgame press conference. Kelly talked about collecting receipts from those who said the program was going down the tubes, well LSU fans are also holding on to receipts and if Kelly doesn’t deliver on his championship game promise, they’ll let him know about it.