LSU Stops the Skid With 24-17 Win over Vanderbilt

BATON ROUGE, LA

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly might have staved off the pitch forks and firing squads at least for another week. Prior to last Saturday night's victory, LSU had lost 3 games in a row. But then, Vanderbilt comes to Baton Rouge.

Even though their history goes all the way back to 1902, LSU-Vanderbilt certainly would not be called a rivalry by any definiton. LSU leads the series overall 24-7-1.  The last time Vanderbilt won in Baton Rouge was 1955.  Disneyland had just opened in Anaheim California. McDonald's opened their first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.  Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States.

And LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly wasn't going to let that statistic change under his watch.  There's been a lot of talk the past several weeks about whether or not Brian Kelly is a good fit for LSU, and in his postgame press conference, Kelly complimented his team for turning off the noise. 

“Obviously they had to listen to the noise that’s out there about LSU football and the indictments that are made, unfortunately, so early in this program’s development,” Kelly said. “But the players didn’t listen to it, the coaches didn’t listen to it, proud of them the way they prepared this football team.” 

One player who turned off the noise, literally, was LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier. Nussmeier had his best game in weeks throwing for 332 yards and a touchdown and no interceptions 

“I don’t really listen to the noise to be honest,” Nussmeier said. “I deleted social media off my phone, I really don’t care what people say, what Twitter coaches have to say, I’m worried about this program and my responsibility as a leader of this program.” 

Earlier in the week, a players only meeting was held as the Tigers worked to snap a three-game losing streak. 

Running back Josh Williams, who wears the 18 jersey signifying leadership, was one of the players who led the soul-searching meeting. He also led by example as he played extremely hard, rushing for 90 yards and two touchdowns. Williams also had 61 yards receiving. 

“We just let them know what the deal was and how we felt going forward into the week,” Williams said. “Every day was very focused, very tight-knit and deliberate on what we wanted to do for the game plan, and it worked out for us.” 

 

It was almost looking like another week of "more of the same" when Vanderbilt scored on an early 63-yard touchdown pass on their very first offensive play. But the Tigers defense settled in after that and held the Commodores to 245 total yards the rest of the way. 

“We just kept it simple tonight, I mean we don’t need all of this, we got the players that can do all this, that we can shut this down right now and get the stop and get off the field,” said defensive end Bradyn Swinson. “It was literally five plays we ran today.” 

 

LSU is now 7-and-4 on the season and will finish out the regular season this Saturday night against Oklahoma, who will have some confidence as well. The Sooners pulled off a stunning upset over Alabama beating the Crimson Tide 24-3. 

There’s still more work to do for LSU football as it works at becoming an elite program.