- LSU Game Notes
- Middle Tennessee Game Notes
- Box Score
- Nick Saban Quotes
- LSU Player Quotes
- Andy McCollum Quotes
- Middle Tennessee Player Quotes
BATON ROUGE — In front of 88,249 on Homecoming in Tiger Stadium, quarterback Rohan Davey passed for 318 yards and LSU scored on its first four possessions to defeat Middle Tennessee, 30-14, on Saturday night.
LSU improved to 6-3 on the season and became bowl eligible. Middle Tennessee State lost its second straight and fell to 7-3 overall.
Davey finished 26-of-37 passing with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Blue Raider quarterback Wes Counts led the attack, passing for 195 yards on 21-of-29 attempts and two touchdowns.
LaBrandon Toefield carried the load on the ground for LSU, rushing 22 times for 83 yards and two touchdowns, while Dwone Hicks carried 16 times for 116 yards for Middle Tennessee.
For the first time this season, LSU won the toss and elected to take the ball against the maligned Blue Raider defense that ranks 76th in the nation in total defense.
Davey connected to Jerel Myers for 8 and 12 yards on back-to-back plays after the Tigers were faced with second-and-19 deep in their own territory. After the first down, Davey marched the team down the field with seven straight completions to five different receivers for 72 yards before LaBrandon Toefield weaved six yards through the right side of the line for his 14th touchdown of the season. However, placekicker John Corbello missed the point after touchdown and LSU led 6-0.
The 12-play, 80-yard drive consumed 5:51.
With 6:55 to play in the first quarter, Howard Green knocked the ball out of Blue Raider running back Avery Hatten’s hands at midfield to give the Tigers possession. On the second play of the ensuing drive, running back Domanick Davis darted through into the Middle Tennessee backfield and bulldozed past three defensive backs for 37 yards down to the Blue Raider 7-yard line.
Two plays later, Davey connected with Michael Clayton at the goalline for a 7-yard touchdown. LSU led 13-0 after the successful PAT.
Middle Tennessee took over at their own 18 and marched down the field led by elusive quarterback Wes Counts. On first-and-10 from the LSU 23, backup running back Rashard Lee lined up at the quarterback position and ran for 18 yards around the left side to set up a 5-yard pass from a scrambling Counts to Tyrone Calico. Brian Kelly tacked on the PAT after the 11-play, 82-yard drive that took 4:02 off the clock. The lead was cut to 13-7.
For the third drive in a row to start the game, the LSU offense seemed unstoppable as Davey continued to pick apart the Blue Raider secondary. Davey hooked up with Reed for 8 and 21 yards before connecting with Myers for the fourth time for 9-yards to the Middle Tennessee 20. On first-and-10 from the 20, Reed took another offering from Davey, broke a tackle and ran to the 5. With the reception, Reed broke Wendell Davis’ single-season receiving yards record with 1,245.
Two plays later, Toefield ran around the right side for a 2-yard touchdown, his second of the contest and his 15th of the season to tie Kevin Faulk (1997) for second place on LSU’s single-season touchdown list. LSU led 20-7 with 12:10 remaining in the first half.
The LSU defense stopped the Blue Raiders on five plays and the Tiger offense took over at the 20.
Davey completed 5-of-6 passes for 77 yards, culminated by a perfectly executed fly route and pass by Davis out of the Tiger backfield from Davey. The 25-yard touchdown pass was Davey’s second of the game and Davis’ first receiving in his three-year career. LSU led 27-7 after the nine-play, 80-yard drive that lasted 4:21.
On the final play of the half, Corbello came up 2 yards short of what would have been a school-record-tying 54-yard field goal. LSU led 27-7 at the half.
At halftime, Darrell Broussard (ISDS/Mass Communications) and Melanie Hebert (Mass Communications) were named the Homecoming king and queen.
On LSU’s first drive of the second half, LSU was forced to punt for the first time after a pair of incompletions. Jones punted 38 yards to the 7-yardline.
The third quarter was punt-packed, as the teams combined for four of them. LSU put the only points on the board, a 42-yard shot by Corbello with 1:45 remaining in the quarter.
Middle Tennessee scored its second touchdown of the game with 5:22 remaining in the game on a 6-yard pass from Counts to Hicks.
Nov. 10, 2001
Tiger Stadium
Baton Rouge, La.
With their sixth win of the season, the Tigers improved to 6-3 and became bowl eligible with two games remaining still on the 2001 regular season schedule. It also ensured LSU head coach Nick Saban of at least a .500 season for the eighth time in as many years as a collegiate head coach. On a 15-yard pass from Rohan Davey in the second quarter, flanker Josh Reed broke the LSU single season record for receiving yardage. Reed broke the 15-year-old record of 1,244 by Wendell Davis set by Wendell Davis in 1986, and accomplished the feat in only 9 games. The catch gave Reed 1,245 yards at the time. He finished the game with 1,311 yards for the season and is now only 47 yards shy of breaking the SEC single season record for yards in a season (1,357 by Travis McGriff of Florida in 1998. For the second straight week and the fifth time in his career, Davey passed for over 300 yards, becoming the first quarterback to pass for 300 yards in back-to-back games since Tommy Hodson recorded the only two 300-yard passing marks of his career in back-to-back games in 1989. The fifth 300-yard passing game for Davey increases his school record to five. Reed also added to his school record of 100-yard games with the 15th of his career (in only 23 career games at the position). It marked the eighth time in nine games this season in which Reed has surpassed the 100-yard barrier. With 318 yards passing, Davey broke the LSU season passing record with 2,659 yards, breaking Tommy Hodson’s single season record of 2,655 set in 1989. He also had 325 yards of total offense, Davey broke the LSU season record for total offense with 2,643, passing Tommy Hodson with 2,604 yards of total offense in 1989. With two rushing touchdowns, LaBrandon Toefield moved his season total to 15, the highest total by a Tiger since Kevin Faulk posted 15 in 1997. Toefield remains on pace to break Charles Alexander’s 24-year-old LSU record of 17 set in 1977. With two touchdowns, Toefield also became the first Tiger since Kevin Faulk in 1998 to record four multiple-touchdown games in the same season. Toefield has three against Tulane, four against Utah State and three against Alabama prior to tonight’s game. Michael Clayton recorded the sixth touchdown of the season in the second quarter, the most by a true freshman since Kevin Faulk recorded six in 1995. The LSU record for touchdowns by a true freshman is 11 by Dalton Hilliard in 1982. With two first half touchdowns passes, Rohan Davey moved his career total to 25, moving from an eighth place tie with Y.A. Tittle, past Josh Booty and into a sixth place tie with Jeff Wickersham. Spreading the wealth ? LSU quarterback Rohan Davey was a perfect 7 for 7 on the opening drive for 72 yards. His seven completions went to five different receivers. The Tigers scored on their opening possession for the second straight week and their fourth time this season ? all four have come on rushing touchdowns by LaBrandon Toefield. The fumble recovery with 6:55 remaining in the first quarter by Bradie James was the second of his career and the first since the Georgia game in his freshman season of 1999. With a 10-yard reception in the first quarter Josh Reed extended his team-leading streak of consecutive games with a catch to 23, dating back to the Alabama game in 1999, his first as a receiver. In addition, Jerel Myers extended his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 10, the second longest streak on the Tigers. Myers has now caught at least one pass in 31 of 32 career games with the lone exception being the Tigers’ 20-9 victory at Ole Miss in 2000. Free safety Ryan Clark mad his 32nd consecutive start dating back to the 1999 season opener against San Jose State. Trev Faulk made his 29th consecutive start dating back to the Georgia game in the fourth week of his freshman season. Jerel Myers made his 31st start in 32 career games with the only exception being the 1999 season finale against Arkansas when the Tigers opened in a three tight end alignment. True freshman Michael Clayton made the second start of his young career when the Tigers opened in a three-wide alignment. Clayton’s previous start was against Utah State on Sept. 8. Randall Gay made his first career start, getting the nod at cornerback. Tonight’s attendance of 88,249 was the seventh largest crowd in LSU history. All five of LSU’s 2001 home games have made the top 10 LSU single game attendance list. Captains for the Tigers were permanent captains QB Rohan Davey, LB Trev Faulk, TE Robert Royal and honorary game captain DT Muskingum Barnes.
“I know everybody is probably upset, but I’m happy. That was a good win for us and a good win for our players. That’s not a bad football team we played, especially on offense. They played hard and I’ve got to give them a lot. I thought we did a really good job in the first half. In the second half, we had a few drops, especially on third down that kind of stalled our drives. I think it affected our consistency a little bit. We never quite put them away. I was pleased with the effort. I was pleased with the attitude the players went into the game with. That’s a fine running back they’ve got No. 33 and No. 24 is not bad either. The quarterback did a good job. I know they are supposed to be whatever they are supposed to be, but they are a pretty good football team for their level. We prepared for this game well and our players played hard our there. It’s not like we played bad in the game. It’s a good win for us. It’s certainly a welcome time for us. To have a bye week, we’ve had five or six guys who have had ankle injuries for two, three, four weeks and they keep playing on them. Hopefully this will give us a chance to get some guys heeled up. We’ll be able to give the players a couple of days off and we won’t practice until Tuesday afternoon. I was pleased with Rohan’s performance. He did a really good job. I thought Josh Reed had another good game. I thought Michael Clayton did as well. I was hopeful we would be able to run the ball a little bit better against these guys. That’s certainly something we’ve got to get better it.”
WINNING SEASON ? BOWL ELIGIBLE
“I’m always happy when we have a winning season and I guess when you are bowl eligible you have a winning season. It’s always good for the program when you have winning seasons. You can build on that. Secondly, when you are bowl eligible and you have the opportunity to go to a bowl game, it’s a great opportunity to develop players on your team. When you play in a bowl game, it’s a lot of fun for the players and a reward for them. I’m very happy for our team that hopefully they are going to be able to get. Certainly, we have a couple of more games and we are going to do everything we can to improve as a team and try to build on the momentum and take those games one game at a time and try to be successful at them.”
QB ROHAN DAVEY
“It was a good win. Middle Tennessee was a good team, they fought hard and fought all the way to the end. We played well in the first half but offensively we slacked off in the second half for whatever reason. We didn’t really finish them off the way we wanted to our should have. Overall it was a good win. I am happy with the offense right now. We have a great running back and great receivers, we just have great skill guys overall. To play pitch and catch with them is just a matter of making the right reads and taking what the defense gives you. That is what we have been doing the past couple of weeks.”
On setting the single-season passing mark
“It is a great accomplishment, I am happy for it, to go down in the history books. This is a place that I have been at since 1997. This kinda puts my stamp on it so to speak. I am really happy about it.”
“Coming into the game we wanted to get off to a good start on offense. We wanted to get a lot of points on the board as quickly as possible. We wanted to let our defense play and do whatever we could to stop the no-huddle they run. They score a lot of points and so we had to come out early and set the tone. In the second half we came out flat and they really played hard the whole game, but we knew that they would do that. We knew they would blitz us, but we put it together in the fourth quarter and got the win.”
WR JOSH REED
“It is a beautiful thing when we can spread the ball around the field and Rohan can get a lot of guys some touches. It was really fun out there tonight.”
On setting the single-season receiving mark
“It is a great honor. I owe it all to my teammates. None of this would be possible without them. We played a real good team tonight and played hard for 60 minutes and got the win. It feels real good to come back home and get a win. It was homecoming so this was pretty much for the fans. It does not stop here though because we still have some games left to play.”
Safety Damien James
“This was a really big win for us. We had a great week of practice and played hard. In the first half, we played together as a team. In the second half, we didn’t play like we should have played. Overall I was pleased with our effort.”
“I feel really good about finishing up the final two games of the season at home. We are going to come out and prepare hard for Arkansas. It will be great to finish up the season at home on two good winning notes. Anything can happen from here on out.”
Free Safety Ryan Clark
“We were consistent tonight and played a good game. It was nice to have a good effort after a really tough SEC road game. We proved tonight that we didn’t have a letdown. We came back and played good back to back games.”
“It was great to be back home. To play well at home for the fans was a good feeling.”
“We did not take this team lightly. They have a very good offense. Overall it was great to get a W.”
Linebacker Bradie James
“We expected them to come out and throw a few different things at us. They liked to exercise the tempo. We had some mishaps, but settled down.”
“I am very happy that we have a bye week coming up. We are a little banged up so this will be nice, especially with a big two game stretch coming up. We have to take it one step at a time.
“We achieved one of our goals tonight by having a winning season. We have a lot of things to build on, and it’s is time to go out on a strong note with these last two games.”
“I’m proud of our kids. They came here against one of the top teams in the country, one of the better-coached teams in the country and they battled. They came out and played hard and we just got beat by a very good football team.”
“We got beat by a team that came out ready to play, and that’s a compliment to their staff. Their players came out and did a good job, but I’m also proud of our guys. Our guys got something to them and they played hard, but we didn’t execute well enough.”
“We didn’t get off the field on third downs in the first half, but Rohan Davey and Josh Reed and the receivers and (LaBrandon) Toefield and those guys aren’t just an average football team. They are one of the top teams in the SEC and they showed why today.”
Middle Tennessee Player Quotes
QB Wes Counts
(On being able to move the ball, but not scoring)
“That has basically been our story against these teams. We can move the ball up and down the field, then we have one bad play. We can’t overcome second and long and third and longs. If we would have gotten four or five yards on first down then things might have been different.”
“They were playing a little closer to the line. They know that if they press the guys they wouldn’t allow us to do things offensively. The knew exactly what we were doing all night. They had a good game plan against us and it took away the things we like to do. You have to give them all the credit in the world. They are a great team.”
FS Michael Woods
“A big part of the game was the missed opportunities we had in the first half. We have to come out and make the tackle whenever we can. The missed tackles really hurt us. They were killing us with the in outs and the out routes. We had to get our people dropping out the zone and they picked us apart with those kind of routes.”
“We have been down before but we thought in the second half we could come out and win this ballgame. In the second half we had great effort on offense and defense and that’s what we should have been doing the whole game.”
RB Dwone Hicks
“What we did was get a hat on a hat. I was able to find holes and break tackles. There was a lot of times we went out there and dropped passes and fumbled the ball. We missed reads and failed to execute but if can correct that I think we will be O.K. I was just trying to go out there and run as hard as I can. I wanted to show what we can do and what I can do personally.”
“I didn’t get an opportunity to go to an SEC school but I love playing in front of these crowds. I love playing in front of crowds like this. I am still happy at where I am at and I am enjoying the success I am having.”