by Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
The record, capacity crowd of 91,682 in Tiger Stadium waited for the precise moment. The stadium wanted to burst. The game saving pass attempt from Tennessee quarterback A.J. Suggs was swatted away on fourth down in overtime and suddenly a first-year head coach was lost in the throng.
Welcome to Baton Rouge, Nick Saban.
LSU head football coach Nick Saban has been a part of some big football games in his life. Some of them, he admits, have been bigger than LSU’s 38-31 overtime victory over heavily favored and 11th-ranked Tennessee. But according to Saban, at no time in his coaching career has he been part of a scene like the one in Tiger Stadium after Saturday’s win.
“I always wondered why we had so many cops around here,” he said. “Now, I know why.”
But Saban said he didn’t mind the actions one of the thousands of LSU fans who swarmed the field and tore down the goal posts in the minutes following LSU’s victory. In Saban’s mind his biggest win so far as Tiger coach is for everyone who has ever sat in Tiger Stadium.
“I feel really good about the state of Louisiana and all the people who support us,” he said. “The fans out there today were fantastic. It was really an emotional lift for us to have a crowd like we had today.”
The comments came from the same Nick Saban who faced the ire of football fans across the nation as he led his team off the field after a 13-10 loss to the University of Alabama-Birmingham just one week earlier.
This week, a smiling Saban actually cracked a joke before he made his opening comments in his post-game press conference.
“This feels much better today than it did last week,” Saban said as he chuckled.
Saban beamed like a proud papa, but was quick to spread the credit for the win to his team.
“I’m awful proud of our players, they played their heart out today,” he said. “They worked awful hard and they made a lot of progress.”
Progress may be the understatement of the year. Gone from this week’s game for the Tigers were the 113 yards of penalties and the dropped passes and the six turnovers which contributed to the LSU loss a week earlier.
The Tiger offense turned the ball over just one time against Tennessee. LSU committed four fewer penalites than the week before, while being able to recover from its mistakes. And the passes that were dropped against UAB wound up securely in the hands of the skillful LSU recievers.
Tiger quarterback Rohan Davey took the opening snap of the game for the first time in the 2000 season Saturday without batting an eye. Davey completed 23-of-35 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns.
His favorite target was Tiger receiver Josh Reed, who hauled in seven of Davey’s balls for 146 yards and three TD’s.
Reed said he wasn’t concerened with the career-best numbers he put up, he ws just happy he and his teammates were able to celebrate when it was all over.
“We got it done, that’s all I know,” Reed said. “We got the ‘W,’ that’s all I know. We played with a lot of emotion. We wanted to get a victory in SEC play.”
The Tiger rushing attack played a big part as well, compiling 142 yards on a Tennessee defense which was ranked fifth-best in the country against the run. LSU tailback LaBrandon Toefiled was the cheif ground-gainer with 120 yards on 15 carries, including a 74 yard TD scamper in the second quarter. Toefield said confidence was the key to the team’s offensive performance.
The LSU defense did its part as well, holding the vaunted Tennessee ground attack to just 86 yards and no touchdowns. But it was one tipped pass by LSU cornerback Damien James in overtime that sealed the Tiger win.
“That’s just the way the game went,” Saban said. “We just out fought them and I was really proud of our players for doing that.”
Reed said Saturday’s game was just the beginning of what he hopes is a string of LSU victories starting with the Tigers next game on the road at Florida.
“Our confidence is really high,” he said. “We are just looking forward to playing next week.”