BATON ROUGE — LSU and Tulane both provided their fans with late thrills Saturday on the football field and the two teams were honored by sharing all the awards for the Louisiana Sports Writers Association player of the week as selected by a member panel of the LSWA.
Quarterback Matt Flynn of LSU was selected as the offensive player of the week, while LSU linebacker Ali Highsmith and Tulane defensive tackle Avery Williams shared defensive honors and Green Wave kicker Ross Thevenot earned LSWA special teams player of the week honors.
The Tigers needed a touchdown pass from Flynn to defeat Auburn, 30-24, Saturday in Tiger Stadium while the Wave had to go to overtime to down SMU on the road, 41-34.
Flynn’s 22-yard pass to Demetrius Byrd with one-second left was the difference in the LSU win as the senior set career highs for attempts (34), completions (22) and passing yards (319) and tied a career best with three touchdown passes in the victory. Flynn, the SEC Offensive Player of the Week, directed LSU to scores on five of its six second half possessions as LSU rallied from a 17-7 deficit to record the win, including a nine-play, 58-yard drive to record the victory over Auburn.
Highsmith recorded a team-best 11 tackles for LSU including a sack for seven yards against Auburn as one of the keys to an LSU defense that held Auburn to just seven second half points. Highsmith became more important for the Tigers after LSU lost defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey to injury in the third quarter.
Williams posted five tackles including a sack and two tackles for loss in Tulane’s win over SMU. He also had the game-clinching fumble recovery in the overtime. All five of his tackles were solo tackles. His fumble recovery came against SMU quarterback Justin Willis on the first play of the Mustangs’ overtime possession.
Thevenot, the Wave’s sophomore placekicker from Lake Charles, drilled a pair of field goals and was perfect on five PAT tries in the victory. He hit a 32-yard field goal with six seconds to play in the first half to send the teams to the dressing room at 17-17. He broke the tie on the first possession of the third quarter on a career-long 47-yard field goal. His 11 game points was a career high number in any one game for the kicker.