By Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
Every football player has a special ability.
Some are big and strong and have the special ability needed to block pass rushers. Some are large yet quick enough to tackle speedy running backs and quarterbacks. Some are good receivers while others are good rushers and still others are good kick returners. But there are some players who have the special ability to become good at almost every aspect of the game.
From 1992-95, LSU’s Eddie Kennison was one of those players.
Kennison was fast, as evidenced by his NCAA championship performance as a member of the 1994 LSU men’s track and field 4×100-meter relay team.
Kennison could catch. He finished his career with 98 receptions and 10 receiving touchdowns.
And when the Tigers wanted to add a wrinkle to their offense, Kennison could run the ball as well, finishing his three-year career with 140 rushing yards on 21 carries.
But Kennison’s most prized ability to his team was his talent for returning kicks and punts, a talent that was well displayed in LSU’s 44-24 win over Mississippi State Sept. 10, 1994.
With the rain falling and his team trying to secure its first win of the season, Kennison returned a punt 100 yards for touchdown against the Bulldogs in one of the most exciting plays in LSU history.
“I was just trying to make something happen to get the crowd into the game,” said Kennison, who is now playing for the Chicago Bears in the National Football League. “I didn’t know what was going to happen when I got the ball. It just turned out to be a big play.”
The Tigers had started the 1994 campaign with a heartbreaking 18-13 loss to then 15th-ranked Texas A&M and were looking to rebound when they hosted Mississippi State in week two.
The Bulldogs promised to be a formidable opponent like the Aggies the week before, boasting one of the Southeastern Conferences top defensive teams as well as a big, physical offensive line.
Mississippi State opened the scoring in the game early on a 29-yard field goal. The next three scores belonged to LSU though, as Tiger running backs Jermaine Sharp and Robert Toomer each had a touchdown run and quarterback Jamie Howard connected with receiver Chris Hill for another score.
The Bulldogs cut the lead to 21-18 by the half, but LSU continued its offensive assault in the second half while keeping the Bulldogs off the scoreboard until a late touchdown with the game out of reach.
Tiger kicker Andre Lafleur booted a 22-yard field goal late in the third quarter to increase LSU’s lead to 24-18. The Tigers put the game out of reach early in the fourth on a 40-yard TD pass from Howard to Brett Bech with 13:08 left in the game. Toomer added a 25-yard run for a touchdown with 11:07 to play.
As the rain fell, fans began to leave their seats without knowing that Kennison was about to put on a show.
Standing at his own 10-yard line near Tiger Stadium’s south endzone, the Tiger kick returner watched the Mississippi State punt sail over his head and land at the 6-yard line. But instead of letting the ball bounce into the endzone for a touchback, Kennison fielded the punt on the bounce at the 1-yard line. Two Bulldog defenders combined to knock Kennison back six yards before he was able to turn the ball up the field.
Kennison broke another tackle at his own 5-yard line as three Mississippi State defenders converged, knocking each other out of the play. He headed for the west sideline, where he saw open field ahead. But he slowed as he crossed midfield looking for a way to shake past the last remaining tackler. Kennison’s didn’t miss a step though, as Tiger linebacker Pat Rogers laid a wicked block on the Bulldog punter at the 40-yard line before he could angle Kennison out of bounds.
The ecstatic, remaining student fans greeted Kennison in the north endzone as his teammates gathered to congratulate him.
“I was very excited,” Kennison said. “The fans in Tiger Stadium were going nuts and my teammates were all over me. It was a great play.”
The play was “great” enough to garner national attention as Kennison was nominated by ESPN for an Espy Award for the most exciting play in college football during the ’94 season.
But that game was not the first time Kennison had attracted national attention for his play against Mississippi State. In 1993, Kennison’s freshman season, he was named ABC-TV’s most valuable player for his 202 all purpose yards in LSU’s 18-16 win in Starkville, Miss. Kennison never lost to the Bulldogs while a Tiger, beating State again in Starkville 34-16 in 1995.
“I don’t know what it was about Mississippi State and why we always seemed to have their number while I was at LSU,” Kennison said. “I’ve run into a bunch of their guys playing in the NFL and we always talk about how tough LSU always was on them.”