BATON ROUGE, La. – With a pair of wins over ranked opponents and an undefeated start to the 2015 regular season, the LSU football team was honored among the university’s athletic programs with the BASF Team Chemistry MVP Award for the month of September.
Undeterred by the cancellation of their season and home-opening contest, the Tigers played two of their three games on the road to close the month of September and came away with key victories to push LSU into the top 10 of the of polls heading into the second full month of the year. No. 6 LSU is currently 5-0 on the season and 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference, heading into a top-10 clash against No. 8 Florida in Tiger Stadium this Saturday night at 6 p.m. and carried live on ESPN.
The Tigers were scheduled to open their season against McNeese State on September 5 in Baton Rouge, but due to rain and lightning the game was cancelled, forcing LSU to hit the road against a conference opponent the next week to open the year. Instead, the Tigers earned their first road and conference victory in the same day, defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville 21-19.
LSU returned to the field, and finally Tiger Stadium, the very next week and paced by Leonard Fournette‘s 228 rushing yards the Tigers raced out to a 24-0 lead by halftime and cruised to a 45-21 win over the Auburn Tigers. LSU racked up 411 rushing yards in the contest against Auburn, the 18th ranked team in the country at the time, earning the team’s eighth consecutive win over Auburn at home.
Another big day for Fournette and the Tigers helped the team stave off the upset-minded Syracuse Orange inside the Carrier Dome in upstate New York, winning 34-24 and ending Syracuse’s undefeated run to start the year. Fournette finished the game with 244 yards – six shy of the school record held by Alley Broussard – and two touchdowns, while Brandon Harris threw for 157 yards and a touchdown in the win.
The Tigers took a 17-point lead late in the fourth quarter after a touchdown pass to Malachi Dupre and a Trent Domingue 37-yard field goal put LSU up 34-17 at that point.
In September alone, LSU took home eight different weekly honors, led by Fournette who earned the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Week award for three consecutive weeks, along with earning the Walter Camp, FWAA and Maxwell National Player of the Week Awards. Ethan Pocic was named the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week after the Mississippi State game, with fellow line mate Vadal Alexander taking home the same award the very next week after the Auburn game.
About BASF
As the world’s largest chemical company, BASF’s manufacturing presence in Louisiana includes operations in Geismar, Zachary and Vidalia, with nearly 2,000 employees and contractors in the state. For more information about careers at BASF, visit www.basf.us/la.