BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU head coach Brian Kelly has bagged his first win over a top-10 team.
The Tigers allowed Ole Miss touchdowns on their first two offensive possessions, then outscored the Rebs 28-0 in the second half on the way to a 45-20 win.
LSU defeated Ole Miss for the 6th time in the last 7 games in the series. After the game, the student section stormed the field at Tiger Stadium to celebrate.
The Tigers, with the win, moved to 4-1 in the SEC West. Ole Miss and Alabama are both 3-1 in league play.
So, after the game, a reporter asked the following.
“Why has this happened after the Tennessee game?”
Kelly said after watching the film of LSU’s 40-13 loss to Tennessee, he felt the Tigers “were not that far off.” “I coached a bad game,” said Kelly.
“Went for it too much on fourth down.”
The Tigers rang up 500 yards of offense against the Rebels. Ole Miss had 200 yards of offense in the first quarter, but only 204 the rest of the game.
Jayden Daniels rushed 23 times for 121 yards and 3 touchdowns. He set an LSU record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a season, with 9. Daniels had 13 rushing touchdowns in three seasons at Arizona State.
“We have found our rhythm,” said Daniels.
“The biggest thing in the offensive unit is trust, and we all trust each other. I am going to give them the ball where they can go out there and make a play and they trust me to put me in the right spot.”
LSU freshman linebacker Harold Perkins had 5 tackles, including a sack, a tackle for loss, 1 pass breakup, and 2 quarterback hurries.
“I noticed him on film, he was the best linebacker in the country out of high school,” said Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart.
“He is very talented. They set up him as a spy and a rusher and he made some big plays.”
Daniels completed 21 of 28 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns.
LSU rushed 48 times for 252 yards.
The key play in the game was late in the third quarter. On second and goal at the LSU 9, Dart was pressured by linebacker Micah Baskerville, and intercepted by Joe Foucha in the endzone. LSU protected a 24-20 lead.
LSU scored 21 fourth-quarter points on TD runs from Daniels of 11 and 17 yards, and a 1-yard rush by Williams with 2:05 to play.
“We got pushed around,” said Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin.
“That was not a good feeling at the end of the game, obviously.”
LSU, 6-2, hosts Alabama Saturday, November 5th at Tiger Stadium.
It will now be a battle of two ranked teams.