The LSU football program appeared clean to the CFP committee.
The 13th-ranked LSU football team was nervous in the week leading up to a visit by the ninth-ranked Ole Miss Rebels. Brain Kelly’s locker room was dealing with injuries, potential transfer portal departures, and College Football Playoff hopes on the verge. An early loss to the USC Trojans and a scare against the South Carolina Gamecocks drew the committee’s attention in all the wrong ways.
After a nail-biting victory over Ole Miss, the LSU Tigers can make a statement to the College Football Playoff committee. More precisely, Kelly may hang Garrett Nussmeier’s spotless jersey out to dry after a Saturday night victory in Baton Rouge’s Death Valley. Nussmeier’s white No. 13 didn’t get dirty, but it will be sweaty and sticky from joyous field-storming suds after a thrilling 29-26 overtime win.
Ole Miss has the most sacks per snap in the nation, but they will leave Baton Rouge without laying Garrett Nussmeier down once. Kelly began the postgame press conference by declaring the obvious, as if laying out the jersey and walking away didn’t convey the message: LSU football has a legitimate offensive line.
“What won this game for us was our offensive line keeping (Nussmeier) clean,” Kelly boasted, as reported by Luke Hubbard of LSU Tigers on Rivals. “Making the big plays when they needed to.”
Brian Kelly’s opening statement after #LSU took down No. 9 Ole Miss in OT: pic.twitter.com/KZH2gP3h68
— Luke Hubbard (@Clukehubbard) October 13, 2024
It was a difficult start for an LSU football program under siege. Kelly wants to see more of the execution that led to this game’s overtime going forward.
“That is what we’ve been talking about in terms of beating a Top 10 team,” Kelly told the audience. “Garrett would tell you there are things he has learned. I thought he grew more today than any other time he’d been here. Garrett was not frustrated, and what we saw at the end demonstrated why I believed it was an excellent growth game. He made the plays when he needed to.
Brian Kelly’s LSU football getting better by the snap
That’s because Nussmeier was able to stay upright against a defense that’s used to taking quarterbacks down. Nussmeier agreed with Brian Kelly that this is a learning game. He attempted 16 passes of 20 yards or more and completed only two of the first 14 before connecting on the final two, according to ESPN.
“I probably had one of the worst games in my career tonight,” Nussmeier remarked. “The best part is that I got to learn from it, and we won. I’m excited to get inside the film room and repair the issues and remedy the faults. Hopefully, this will be a significant growth opportunity for me.”
LSU football will next play a rivalry game on the road at Arkansas. Sticking to the fundamentals should give the Tigers (5-1) a chance to defeat the Razorbacks (4-2).
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