by Ryan Rogers
LSUsports.net
BATON ROUGE — Damien James knocked away a Tennessee fourth-down pass in overtime after Rohan Davey capped a heroic quarterbacking effort with a 25-yard touchdown pass to tight end Robert Royal on the first play of overtime to bring Death Valley onto the field to rip down the goal posts, 38-31, over the 11th-ranked Vols.
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Game Notes
Nick Saban Quotes
LSU Player Quotes
Phillip Fulmer Quotes
Tennessee Player Quotes
Overtime Recap
After LSU scored on its first play from scrimmage in overtime, Tennessee took over in the north endzone. A 9-yard pass to the 16-yard line and a 5-yard run to the 11 gave the Vols a 1st-and-10. After an incomplete pass on first down, Tennessee got down to the four yard line on pass from A. J. Suggs to Cedrick Wilson.
Then, on 3rd-and-3 and then again on 4th-and-3 at the 4 yard line, Suggs’ passes into the end zone were broken up by James to end the game.
The record crowd of 91,682, which kept the Tigers in the game throughout, stormed the field and torn down both sets of goal posts. Contrary to rumors circulated in the Volunteer State this past week, Death Valley was alive, awake and unyielding for 60-plus minutes of football on this night.
LSU improved to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in Southeastern Conference play, while Tennessee fell to 2-2 overall and 0-2 in league play.
Davey finished the game completing 23 of 35 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns. LaBrandon Toefield led the team in rushing with 120 yards on 15 carries. Josh Reed led the Tigers in receiving with seven catches for 146 yards and three touchdowns.
Suggs led the Vols to a valient comeback in the game which included two touchdowns and two-point conversions in the fourth quarter. Suggs finished the game 37-of-59 for 319 yards and three TD’s. Travis Henry led the Vols on the ground with 20 carries for 89 yards. David Martin caught 12 passes for 73 yards to lead Tennessee in receiving.
The two teams combined for 865 yards of total offense (LSU, 460; Tennessee 405). LSU averaged 7.2 yards per play, compared to Tennessee’s 4.6.
Second Half Recap
Rohan Davey engineered what would have been one of the greatest drives in LSU history. However, Corbello’s 46-yard field goal attempt with no time remaining in the game was blocked and the game went to overtime.
With only 1:30 left to go in the game Tennessee drove the ball down the field 59 yards for a game tying touchdown score. Suggs found Parker open in the endzone for a 16-yard touchdown strike. He then found Parker n the roll foe the two-point-conversion, tying the game at 31-31 with 1:24 remaining in the contest.
In the second half Tennessee began to dominate the contest out-gaining LSU 105 yards to 1 yard of total offense at one point.
Ryan Clark made a magnificent interception late in the game
Tennessee tried to catch the LSU secondary sleeping with a trick play call, the double pass. Suggs threw a screen pass to wide receiver Eric Parker who then threw the ball downfield under intense pressure. The throw was off-target and Clark made the interception.
After LSU turned the ball over due to a Toefield fumble, Tennessee drove down the field and scored a touchdown, cutting the LSU lead to 24-12. A.J. Suggs found tight-end John Finlayson wide open in the endzone on a play action pass. The Volunteers attempt for two points failed.
Tennessee continued to chip away at the Tiger lead with a 55-yard drive, which resulted in a 46-yard field goal by Wall. LSU led 24-15 with 5:01 remaining in the third quarter.
LSU responded with a 53-yard touchdown pass to Josh Reed. Davey successfully continued to lead a determined Tiger team. The score capped of an 82-yard drive in which LSU converted on three crucial third downs. Tennessee had all the momentum on its side and was threatening to take control of the game.
Tennessee wouldn’t give up however, the Volunteers got a big play out of Donte’ Stallworth on a spectacular 46-yard reception to keep the drive alive. The Volunteers scored when Suggs hit fullback Will Bartholomew in the flat for a 16-yard score. Tennessee’s attempt for two points was good and LSU led 31-23 with 9:01 remaining in the game.
First Half Recap
Davey made his first start of the season at quarterback replacing Josh Booty. His inspiring play has lifted LSU early in the first half. At halftime, Davey was 11-for-15 for 133 yards and two touchdowns. A 32-yard run by Davey on the first drive of the game set up a career-long 47-yard field goal by John Corbello to give LSU an early 3-0 lead.
The LSU defense has forced the rocky-tops to hit rock bottom. LSU has stopped the Tennessee running game, allowing only 53 yards on 16 carries. Tennessee has rotated A.J. Suggs and Chris Clausen at quarterback. Neither found a rhythm thus far.
On the first drive of the game, the Tigers had an opportunity to score a touchdown on the drive, however Reed dropped a would-be touchdown pass in the endzone.
Tennessee answered LSU with a 47-yard field goal of its own by Alex Walls. It capped off a 39-yard drive in which Tennessee led by running back Travis Henry. The Volunteers earned 27 yards rushing on the drive. The drive was halted by a holding penalty on the Volunteers.
LSU opened up a 3-3 game when Davey connected with Josh Reed for 16-yard touchdown pass. It capped an impressive 77-yard drive in which LSU executed flawlessly, both running and passing the ball.
Toefield rumbled down the field 74 yards for LSU’s second touchdown. His run was the longest of his career and the longest rushing touchdown for LSU since 1998 against Idaho when Kevin Faulk ran for 81 yards.
Tennessee settled for a second field goal after the LSU defense tightened up halted a good looking Tennessee drive. Walls converted on a 36-yard field goal after Tennessee drove 45 yards. LSU led 17-6 with 7:15 remaining in the first half.
Josh Reed continued his streak of big plays with a 31-yard touchdown reception. Reed caught a swing pass in the flat and got to the sidelines where he then coasted into the endzone. The score capped a 57-yard drive and gave LSU a 24-6 lead.
- Tonight’s crowd of 91,682 is the largest ever at Tiger Stadium, and the largest to witness a football game (college or professional) in the state of Louisiana. The new record of 87,188 was set at LSU’s season opener this year against Western Carolina, and the record prior to Tiger Stadium’s expansion was 86,598 for the LSU-Tulane game at Tulane Stadium in 1973.
- The game marked Rodney Reed’s first career start (at left guard) and Louis Williams’ first career start at center. Williams has now started at four of the five interior line positions during his LSU career (all except right guard).
- The captains for LSU were Fred Booker, Brandon Winey and Williams.
Rohan Davey’s 32-yard run on the second play of the game is the longest rush of his career, and the longest by an LSU quarterback since Herb Tyler had a 52-yard run against Kentucky in 1997. Davey threw for four TDs (three to Josh Reed) on the evening, the most by a Tiger QB since Tyler threw four against Kentucky in 1997. John Corbello’s 47-yard field goal in the first quarter is his career longest; his previous best was a 43-yarder last year against Kentucky. It’s also the longest field goal by an LSU kicker since Wade Richey hit a school-record 54-yarder against Kentucky in 1996. LSU’s defense has now held its opponents scoreless on the opening drive in 10 consecutive games. Josh Reed has now caught a pass in every game since being converted to a wide receiver against Alabama last season. He also has four 100-yard receiving games since that conversion (this year vs. Western Carolina, Houston Auburn and Tennessee and last year vs. Houston). Reed caught three TD passes in the game, making him the first Tiger to make three TD catches since Sheddrick Wilson against Rice in 1995. Reed now has six touchdown catches on the season, the most since Wilson in 1995, as Wilson was the only LSU player to have more than five in a season in the 1990s. The last players to have more than six were Tony Moss and Eddie Fuller with nine each in 1989. Reed now has four 100-yard receiving games since moving to receiver prior to last year’s game. Reggie Robinson extended his streak of games with at least one to 22. Robinson’s streak is now the longest active streak on the team. Jerel Myers also extended his consecutive games with a catch streak to 16. LSU has not allowed a first-quarter touchdown in their last six games, dating back to last year’s game against Houston. LaBrandon Toefield’s 74-yard touchdown run is the longest run from scrimmage by a Tiger since Kevin Faulk‘s 81-yard touchdown run against Idaho in 1998. Toefield’s 120-yard effort is the first time a Tiger has rushed for over 100 yards since Rondell Mealey rushed for 118 yards against North Texas last season. It is the first 100-yard game against a SEC opponent since Faulk rushed for 201 yards against Alabama in 1998. The 24 first-half points by LSU is the most the Tigers have scored in the opening half against Tennessee in 25 all-time meetings, breaking the previous high of 17 they put up in 1982, 1988 and 1989. The Tigers’ 24 points in the first half is the most against an SEC team since 28 against Mississippi State in 1996, and the most in any half of a conference game since posting 43 at Kentucky in 1997. Howard Green and Trev Faulk registered their first LSU sacks, only the second and third LSU sacks this season. This is LSU’s first win over Tennessee since a 34-9 win at Knoxville in 1988, and the first in Tiger Stadium since a 20-10 win in 1974. LSU is now 3-7-2 all-time against the Vols in Death Valley and 4-18-3 all-time in all games. LSU broke a six-game losing streak against SEC East foes, dating back to a 1997 win at Kentucky. LSU is now 7-17-1 against the East since the league went to division play in 1992.
LSU HEAD COACH NICK SABAN QUOTES
“I’m awful proud of our players, they played their heart out today. They worked awful hard, and they made a lot of progress. I’m really proud of the way they played. I always say for 60 minutes, but I guess we had to play for a little more today. And they did it.”
“There were times out there when things didn’t look good, and we made big plays.”
“I feel really good about the state of Louisiana and all the people who support us. The fans out there today were fantastic. It was really an emotional lift for us to have crowd like we had today. There are a lot of people in the athletic administration who work to help the program be what it is. Those people sometimes get overlooked, and I just feel like there a lot of people in Louisiana that deserve something like this.”
“We had al lot of players play very well out there today. Tennessee has got a lot of good football players. I told the players at half time that when you beat a team like this, like when we beat Michigan and Ohio State, those players never die. They believe they can win, they think they can win, and they are going to keep playing. And we are going to have to keep playing.”
“That’s the way the game went. We just out fought them, and I was really proud of our players for doing that.”
“Our ability to overcome adversity and do some tough things certainly got challenged tonight. And I’m really proud of the way our players handled it.”
DONNIE JONES — LSU PUNTER
“It was great. Every one played hard for 60 minutes and beyond. We’re going to celebrate for 24 hours and then get ready for Florida next week.”
KYLE KIPPS — LSU DEFENSIVE END
“It was unbelievable. The crowd was right on the sideline. It was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. We got after them and made the play to win. (ON THE RUSH) — We worked on that all week. They were doing a lot of three-step drop. Every chance we could, we made some plays when we needed to. (THE DIFFERENCE) I don’t really know. We were just after it as hard as we could. We’ve been doing that all season, but it just seemed to work out for us this week. We need to keep doing that all week. Tennessee had a young quarterback and we knew that we wanted him to make the decisions to win the game and try to take the ball out of Travis Henry’s hands and make the quarterback win the game.
JOSH REED — LSU WIDE RECEIVER
“We got it done that’s all I know. We got the W that’s all I know. We played with a lot of emotion. We knew that we had to come in here tonight and it was do or die. We wanted to get a victory in SEC play. We thought that would help us get back on that winning track. Our confidence is really high and we are just looking forward to next week.”
REGGIE ROBINSON — LSU WIDE RECEIVER
“The win meant a lot to us because last week was a bad week for us. We came back to play against a great Tennessee team.”
FRED BOOKER — LSU CORNERBACK
“Damien James came up with some big plays at the end. They really went at him. The offense came out and did their job. They did what they had to do. They put it in the end zone. Rohan , he got the team going. He kept the momentum going all night. No matter what the situation we were in, he came up with a big play. That’s the kind of leadership we need back there. (COMPARING TO FLORIDA WIN IN 1997) — This was much better. Back then we were all young. It was our win. That one was ours. It’s one we can enjoy and take credit for.”
LABRANDON TOEFIELD — LSU RUNNING BACK
“The past couple of games I’ve been running and getting in the secondary and trying to run over everybody. I wanted to try something new so I tried to stiff arm. It seemed like he didn’t want to tackle me anyway. I just pushed him out of the way and kept going. Rohan was a leader. When we get in the huddle we can’t even put our head down, he’d tell us to get your head up. It’s just the little things that he did that makes him a complete quarterback.”
QUOTES FROM TENNESSEE HEAD COACH PHIL FULMER
“I have to give a lot of credit to the LSU players and their coaching staff. I owe them a tremendous amount of congratulations for their effort tonight. They played exceptionally well, and were coached and ready to play in this game.”
“This goes to show how much of a factor that emotion plays in this game that we call football. I also want to complement our kids for their second-half effort. The way that we got back into the game and tied it up. I thought that it showed a lot of character.”
“It was definitely a great football game tonight. From our standpoint, there was enough mistakes made to lose three ball games. We have to go back to work. I have to coach the team better, and listen better. Youth is not an excuse.”
“It was a great experience for our players that had not been in this kind of setting before. We are going to play a bunch of these types of games before the season is over. We will grow from this game tonight as a team. This is our second really tough loss of the season already.”
“With the right type character, and the right type coaching, we can learn from the losses as well. We will get better, and I expect that we will. We ran into a very motivated team tonight. This LSU team had their pride hurt last season when they lost their homecoming game to a team that shouldn’t have beat them.”
“We sure didn’t see them coming tonight. Our team hadn’t been told.”
DB Teddy Gaines
(About the Robert Royal touchdown in overtime) — “They weren’t doing anything unexpected. We came out kind of flat. It took a couple of plays for us to realize we had a ball-game on our hands. I guess that is just how it goes sometimes. They just kept converting third downs on us.”
WR Eric Parker
“It hurts you in your heart. But that’s the nature of football. You win some, you lose some. We showed a lot of maturity being down and coming back like we did.”
“We came up short again like we did against like Florida. We have to capitalize and take control of the game.”
“The mood at halftime was that there was another 30 minutes of football to play. Anything can happen in college football.”