Box Score
LSU Game Notes
Utah State Game Notes
LSU Head Coach Nick Saban Quotes
Utah State Head Coach Mick Dennehy Quotes
LSU Player Quotes
Utah State Player Quotes
DEATH VALLEY — LSU running back LaBrandon Toefield scored four touchdowns including a 70-yard run in the final minute of the first half to give the Tigers a 31-14 victory over Utah State on Saturday night here in Death Valley. The win was the 400th home victory in LSU football history (400-154-19).
LSU (2-0) racked up 506 yards of total offense and survived special teams disasters and turnovers to win its sixth straight home game. The Tigers fumbled six times — including three punt returns — and lost three. Utah State fell to 0-2 on the season.
Toefield led the way for LSU, tallying 183 yards on 27 carries and 24 of LSU’s 31 points. He became the first Tiger to run for four touchdowns since Rondell Mealey scored four against New Mexico State on Sept. 28, 1997. He became the sixth player in school history to rush for at least four touchdowns in a game.
The LSU defense held the Aggies to only 91 yards on the ground, including 108 by juggernaut Emmett White on 22 carries. LSU improved to 6-0 in head coach Nick Saban’s two-season tenure at LSU when holding an opponent under 100 yards rushing. The Tigers have done so in both games this season (48 vs. Tulane; 91 vs. Utah State).
LSU quarterback Rohan Davey also completed 13-of-24 passes for 229 yards, while Josh Reed collected five of these for 124 yards.
The Tigers open Southeastern Conference play against Auburn on ESPN2 in Tiger Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 8 p.m. Utah State’s next game is Sept. 15 against nationally ranked Fresno State (3-0).
In the first quarter, Utah State quarterback Jose Fuentes drove the Aggies 70 yards in 15 plays to take an early 7-0 lead. Fuentes was 8 of 11 on the drive for 47 yards including a 4th-and-1 touchdown pass from the 3 yard line to Chris Cooley.
LSU responded on the second play of the ensuing drive, as Davey targeted Josh Reed for 36 yards down to the Utah State 24-yard line with 7:07 to play in the first quarter. After a holding penalty backed the Tigers to the 34, Davey hit tight end Robert Royal for 29 yards to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by LaBrandon Toefield with 5:35 remaining.
John Corbello tacked on the the point after touchdown to tie the game at 7-7.
After stopping the Aggies in three plays, LSU looked to have good field position. However, backup punt returner Ryan Clark fumbled the punt at the LSU 30-yard line to give Utah State the ball. Clark was filling in for return specialist Domanick Davis, who missed the game with a knee injury. The LSU defense stepped up to the challenge and stopped the Aggies on downs at the 25-yard line.
On the next play, Davey connected with Reed on a perfectly thrown seam pattern for 45 yards to the Utah State 25. The Tigers took the ball down to the Aggie 5 on a personal foul when the first quarter came to an end.
Toefield then scored from 5 yards out to give LSU a 14-7 lead with 14:53 remaining in the half. Toefield became the fastest player in school history to score five touchdowns, as he did so in just over five quarters of football.
After a 12-play drive, LSU was unable to convert deep in Utah State and settled for a field goal by Corbello from 34 yards. LSU led 17-7 with 3:58 remaining in the half.
With only 29 seconds remaining in the half, Toefield again showed his nose for the end zone, scampering 70 yards on third-and-6. He finished the half with 114 yards on 12 carries with all three Tiger scores.
Corbello’s kickoff careened off an Aggie and was recovered by LSU. A pass interference penalty was called on Utah State, giving LSU one more chance to score before intermission. But, two shots at the end zone did not pan out.
An uneventful third quarter was highlighted by a fumble by LSU running back Devery Henderson with 4:35 remaining. On a play that looked to be a 96-yard touchdown run, Henderson’s fumble gave the Aggies the ball at the 23-yard line.
Utah State narrowed the gap to 24-14 with a 1-yard run by Emmett White with 2:41 to play in the quarter.
To begin the fourth quarter, cornerback Eric Damond earned his second career interception as he picked off Fuentes at the Utah State 32-yard line. The pick led to a 32-yard pass from Davey to Reed down to the 4-yard line and Toefield’s fourth score of the game.
LSU led 31-14.
With 6:46 remaining in the game, sophomore cornerback Randall Gay came on a blitz and crushed Fuentes, causing a fumble in LSU territory. Jarvis Green recovered the ball at the 32-yard line. With less than three minutes to play, Gay also earned his first interception as a Tiger.
- Tonight’s attendance of 87,756 is the fifth-largest in Tiger Stadium history, and the largest crowd to ever see Utah State play, breaking their previous record of 86,117 in 1999 at Georgia.
- LSU gained 504 total yards, the first time LSU has broken the 500-yard mark since gaining 680 in last year’s season opener with Western Carolina.
- LSU’s 275 yards rushing are the most by an LSU team since gaining 350 against North Texas in 1999 and marks the second straight week and third time under Nick Saban LSU has rushed for 200 or more yards.
- LSU improved to 2-0 for the sixth consecutive season, the longest streak since going 2-0 for eight consecutive seasons from 1923-30.
- Saban is the first LSU coach to go 2-0 in each of his first two seasons since Russ Cohen went 2-0 in both 1928 and 1929.
- The Tigers played an independent team for the first time since losing at Notre Dame in 1998. The Tigers will play independent Central Florida next year in Death Valley.
- LSU is now 4-0 against teams from Utah, going 2-0 against both Utah (1974 and ’76) and Utah St. (1993 and 2001).
- LSU is now 3-2 under coach Nick Saban in their purple jerseys. The Tigers wore the dark jerseys in tonight’s game to honor the great LSU teams of the 1980s. LSU did not wear purple jerseys in the entire tenure of former coach Gerry DiNardo (1995-99), but won games last year against Houston and Georgia Tech in the Peach Bowl wearing purple, while falling to UAB and Florida.
- Sophomore TB LaBrandon Toefield’s four-TD effort makes him the first Tiger to rush for four TDs since Kevin Faulk set the LSU record with five at Kentucky in 1997. Faulk and Toefield are the only LSU rushers to score seven rushing TDs over a two-game span, as Faulk scored two at Alabama in 1997 one week after the five-TD outburst; Toefield scored three last week against Tulane.
- Toefield became the sixth LSU player to rush for four or more TDs in a game, joining Faulk (see above), Charles Alexander (1977 vs. Oregon), Dalton Hilliard (1984 at Kentucky), Harvey Williams (1990 vs. Miami of Ohio) and Rondell Mealey (1996 vs. New Mexico St.).
- With seven TDs on the season, Toefield is now tied for the national scoring lead with Middle Tennessee State’s Dwone Hicks. Hicks and the Blue Raiders visit Death Valley on November 10.
- Toefield is the first Tiger to score three or more TDs in back-to-back games in the modern era (since 1937) of LSU football.
- Toefield also became the first LSU player to score seven TDs in the first two games of a season. The previous record for most TDs in the first two games of a season was five by Carlos Carson in 1977, as he caught five TD passes in the second game of the ’77 campaign against Rice.
- Toefield rushed for a career-high 183 yards on 27 carries, eclipsing his record of 120 yards last year against Tennessee. Toefield also gained 119 yards against Mississippi St. last year. Toefield is the first Tiger to gain 180 yards rushing in a game since Kevin Faulk gained 201 against Alabama in 1998.
- Junior WR Josh Reed now has a catch in 16 consecutive games (including the 2000 Peach Bowl), dating back to the Alabama game in 1999.
- Reed also caught 5 passes for 124 yards, giving him his ninth 100-yard receiving game in his last 16 games, and he is now four games shy of the LSU record for career 100-yard receiving games, which is 13 held by Wendell Davis (1984-87).
- For the first time in his career, Reed was deep to return a punt in the third quarter, but the punt bounded into the end zone for a touchback. Reed had a later 18-yard return nullified by a penalty.
- Senior FS Ryan Clark started in his 26th consecutive game, dating back to the first game of his sophomore year in 1999. Junior MLB Trev Faulk also extended his consecutive starts streak to 23, dating back to the 1999 game at Georgia. Both streaks include last year’s Peach Bowl against Georgia Tech.
- With regular kickoff and punt return man Domanick Davis out with a knee injury, Clark lined up to return a punt for the first time in his LSU career. However, Clark fumbled and Utah St. recovered at the LSU 27. Clark returned a blocked punt for a TD in 1999 at Mississippi St., but that marked the first time he lined up deep as the return man.
- Junior WR Jerel Myers has now started 16 consecutive games and 25 of the 26 games (including the Peach Bowl) in his career. The only game in which he did not start was the 1999 season finale against Arkansas when LSU opened with three tight ends under interim coach Hal Hunter.
- Myers has now caught a pass in 25 of the 26 games in which he has played in his career, with the only game in which he did not catch a pass coming last year at Ole Miss.
- Junior QB Rohan Davey has now thrown 78 consecutive passes without an interception dating back to last year’s game with Florida.
- Sophomore FS Damien James recorded his first career sack in the second quarter.
- Sophomore CB Randall Gay recorded his first career interception in the fourth quarter. Fellow sophomore CB Erin Damond recorded his second career pick and his first since last year against Kentucky.
- Sophomore WR/RB Devery Henderson’s 35-yard kickoff return in the opening quarter was a career long.
- Junior college transfer DT Toran Williams saw his first action along the Tiger front in the fourth quarter.
- On LSU’s first touchdown, the Tigers had all four tight ends listed on their depth chart on the field at once: Robert Royal, Joe Domingeaux, Eric Edwards and Marcus Spears. Toefield scored from 1 yard out to tie the game at 7-7.
- For the third time under Saban, LSU won despite allowing a 100-yard rusher, as the Aggies’ Emmett White carried 21 times for 108 yards. LSU is now 3-3 under Saban when an individual gains 100 yards rushing against them.
- However, LSU held the Aggies to just 91 net yards rushing, improving LSU to 6-0 under Saban when yielding fewer than 100 yards on the ground.
- Tonight’s attendance of 87,756 is the largest crowd ever for a USU game. The previous high was at Georgia in 1999 with a crowd of 86,117. The last time USU was in Tiger Stadium in 1993, the crowd was 57,316 or 30,000 fewer than tonight.
- TE/FB Chris Cooley recorded the first touchdown of his career in the first quarter.
- For the second straight time this season, Utah State has scored the first points of the game. (USU kicked a field-goal on its opening drive of the game against Utah.
- LB Robert Watts and TE/FB Chris Cooley made their first career starts.
- In the opening drive of the game for Utah State, the Aggies had five players rush or receive the ball which was as many at last week’s game at Utah total.
- Utah State is 0-1 on the season when scoring first.
- TE J.R. Suguturaga had five receptions during the 2000 season and none in USU’s first game last week at Utah. He matched last year’s total tonight.
- RB Emmett White moved into eighth-place on the USU career rushing list. He entered tonight’s game with 1,511 yards.
- LB Tony Newson did not play in the first 10 minutes of tonight’s game due to an ankle injury and recorded a tackle on his first play.
- Utah State has been outscored 37-3 in the second quarter in its first two games this year after outscoring its opponents 10-7 in the first quarter.
- USU is now 0-2 all-time against LSU and 1-7 all-time against schools from the SEC.
- USU has lost three straight road games dating back to last year.
- USU has now started a season 0-2 for just the second time in the last six years.
- USU fell to 1-32 against ranked teams all-time.
- QB Jose Fuentes attempted 37 passes before throwing an interception tonight after throwing three pickoffs against Utah last week.
- Fuentes moved into USU’s top 10 in career completions (entered with 221 and Chico Canales had 237).
- Fuentes has thrown for at least 200 yards in seven straight games dating back to last year.
- P Steve Mullins recorded a 50-plus yard punt (59 yarder in the third quarter) to record a 50-yarder in 18 of 24 games.
- RB Emmett White recorded the 15th rushing touchdown of his career and first this season.
- White rushed for 100 yards for the seventh time in his career.
- WR Kevin Curtis caught 11 passes last week against Utah to lead the nation and pulled in 12 tonight.
- QB Jose Fuentes attempted 52 passes in tonight’s game. His career-high was 56 attempts at Boise State last year.
LSU Head Coach Nick Saban Quotes:
“The way to assess this is winning ugly and that?s what I call this. Anytime you can play less than what you feel is your best and still be able to win, I think that?s a good sign. We certainly did a lot of good things on the field today. LaBrandon Toefield had an outstanding day running the ball. We put the ball on the ground 6 times and lost 3 fumbles. That?s probably the reason why we couldn?t put the ball away.
“Defensively, I think we were confused early in the game by a lot of different formations. Once we settled down, I think we played okay. We still had a lot of opportunities to make stops on third down and didn?t do it. We should have been able to make those and I think we need to make those in the future.
“It?s good to see Randall Gay out there and get his first significant playing time. He had a really good game. He played because of Robert Davis? injury. That?s (Davis) the guy with the most significant injury. The doctors will have to check him. I don?t think it?s bad, but it is a knee (injury).
“We didn?t do the things on special teams that changed the game around that I would like to see in terms of vertical field position. We certainly missed Domanick Davis back there.
“We made some great big plays on offense and I think we?re going to have to be able to do that and we?re going to have to be more consistent on defense to be the team we want to be. This kind of game is sometimes scary as a coach because you feel the other team is dangerous because of the unknown. We knew what this team did, but we really didn?t know this team. I think they (Utah State) competed well on the field. It was a lot tougher game than what our players thought which is why we say none of them are ever easy. We never shut the door like we could have.”
Utah State Head Coach Mick Dennehy Quotes:
“First of all, I still haven?t changed my mind about this being a great experience for my players. I feel that our guys had a great chance to see what it?s like to play in a first time facility and against a big-time program. To us it was a big game and obviously I?m disappointed about the outcome.”
“I?m really pleased with the effort that we played with, but if we?re going to have a chance to beat teams like LSU, or Fresno State, or any of the other schools on our schedule, we?ve got to come closer to playing mistake-free football. The bottom line is, we made too many mistakes.”
“I love the kids to death because of their effort tonight, and I thought that they played a darn good football team eyeball to eyeball and didn?t take a step backwards. We can?t turn the ball over and we can?t give up so many big plays on defense as we did tonight against anybody, let alone LSU.”
Running back LaBrandon Toefield
“I had some fun tonight out there, but I wish this was next week instead of this week. It wasn?t just me, the line did a great job tonight. All the guys tonight- the tight ends, the receivers- everybody did a great job. Even though we had a lot of mistakes, and this wasn?t one of our best games. We?ve got a lot to work on- we made a lot of mistakes, and it was a sloppy game. We have to come out next week and practice hard. If we come out next week and do the same thing the score will not be what it was tonight . On the 70 yard run)- The receivers did a great job blocking the safety, so it was me and the cornerback one on one. I just out ran him, I just didn?t know he had that speed. Everybody did a great job, especially the front five. The receivers also did a great job of blocking downfield.”
Quarterback Rohan Davey
“We started out pretty well, we kindof tailed off at the end from the offensive standpoint. We have a lot of things we need to improve on next week. A win is a win, it was good to get this one under our belt going into next week?s conference game. We knew we had to make plays, so we made plays, I think the offensive line did a great job, they made holes for us to run through, and the defense did a great job of bending but not breaking.”
Free Safety Ryan Clark
“I think the guys didn?t really play well, including myself. We did not dominate the defensive front. I can promise you that next Saturday it?s going to be a different story. Coach Saban asked us yesterday how we wanted to go into Southeastern Conference play and certainly we wanted to be 2-0.”
“We did not dominate defensively like we wanted to, but we came out with a win and that?s what matters most.”
Linebacker Bradie James
“We have a lot of work to do to get ready for next week. I?m glad this type of game happened early. We promise you it will be a different story going into the Auburn game. It doesn?t matter who you?re playing, you just have to play hard every game. Next week will be a greater task for us, but we certainly will be ready.”
“After a win like this, we have a lot of improvements to make. We?re still making a lot of mental errors and giving up big plays, but that?s why we play 11 games. We?re happy that we found a way to win today.”
Cornerback Erin Damond
“We were just average tonight and I really didn?t play well at first. We had a few jitters early on in the game, but once we had our mind right, we were ready to go. We?re 2-0 going into SEC play and everybody?s healthy. It?s seems as if nobody can stop us except ourselves.”
Chris Cooley, TE
“It was awesome to play in the stadium. There are so many people and it?s so loud. It was great to be here.”
“We weren?t intimidated. We came out and played as hard as we could against them. We have to finish our drives. We moved the ball up and down the field on them and if we could just finish our drives, we could have won this game.”
Our offense was a lot crisper and we finished plays. We got in the red-zone and we didn?t get it done and that?s where it hurt us.”
Tyler Olsen, DE
“I think there was a lot of good things we can take and use from this game for the next couple of weeks. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times and that was kind of discouraging. We know we are a better team than that and if we play to our potential then we can make things happen.”
“The first touchdown was great to start out with. You feel like you are on top of the world, especially in a situation like this. We?re down here in the SEC and there?s a lot of opportunities to make a name for ourselves.”
“They have a lot of speed and that?s one thing we try to pride ourselves with. Unfortunately, they did get outside a few of those times and we weren?t able to stop them completely. That will be something we will go in on Monday and work on and stop those little things from happening anymore.”
Jesse, Busta, LB
“They have a very good back and good wide receivers. They have a good quarterback and offensive line. As far as the offensive outfit, they have a great offense out there. Take away a couple of those big plays we gave them and defensive wise we played pretty good as far as holding them. We made them drive the field and we either got a turnover or field goal out of it. We just can?t give up those big plays. That?s what killed us last week and that?s what killed us this week.”
“They put a surge on us and that?s what our coach told us all week. That?s when we had to hold them and unfortunately we kind of didn?t and let them go in the second quarter. In the second half we came out and held them to a touchdown. In the second half we played good but we need to come out from the beginning.