LSU

LSU was already down its typical starting quarterback and two touchdowns by shortly after noon Saturday.

But the Tigers (6-4, 3-5) showed enough fight to outweigh their frustrating moments and battle back against Arkansas, 23-22, for their first win in more than a month and their fourth straight against the Razorbacks (2-8, 0-6).

“Remarkable day for our university, remarkable day for our football team that displayed resiliency, toughness, all the things that make us Tigers,” interim coach Frank Wilson III said. “My pregame speech to our football team said to them, ‘I know you wanna play hard. I know you’re gonna play hard. Here’s what the charge and the ask is: that when adversity hits you, you find a way. You will a way. And you keep on punching.'”

Trailing by six early in the fourth quarter, sophomore quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr., starting in place of an injured Garrett Nussmeier led a go-ahead 92-yard drive, capped by a 12-yard, third-down touchdown to senior tight end Bauer Sharp.

Three different passers, four different rushers and five different receivers chipped into a series of trick or misdirection plays that proved the pivotal highlight in an afternoon on which those weren’t particularly frequent.

“It’s just stuff we practice all week, and we just went out there and executed it — nothing else to it,” said Van Buren, who smiled when asked about the frequency of the gadget plays on one drive: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We kept going back to it.”

The defense held up just in time to force the Razorbacks to settle for a 48-yard field-goal attempt that sailed wide right to a roaring home crowd.

And Van Buren and freshman running back Harlem Berry (St. Martin’s Episcopal) picked up three late first downs to milk the final five minutes off the clock and seal the victory.

“At the back end of the game in a four-minute drill where you have to get a first down — they’re a dangerous football team, and all they need is three to overcome us or to beat us at that point, so we need a first down,” Wilson said. “We get a couple of ’em, and then the game was in Harlem’s hands at that moment, third-and-3 … and he pops a big one. He takes it on his own. He knew that there would be one guy back-side. Go win your one-on-one. That’s what you were born to do. He won his one-on-one, and it helped propel us to victory.”

Van Buren finished 21-for-31 (67.7%) for 221 yards and the late touchdown and rushed 10 times for another 55 yards, including a 35-yard dash into Arkansas territory on the final, clock-eating drive.

Wilson said Nussmeier reinjured his abdomen late this week making a routine throw during practice — “I don’t know if it was scar tissue or exactly what it is from a diagnosis standpoint” — and that the Tigers will continue to monitor his progress, but are uncertain about a potential recovery timeline.

Van Buren, who had played in three previous games this season, was already expected to see playing time in some capacity, but earned his first start in purple and gold after transfer this offseason from Mississippi State.

“It wasn’t about when I knew I was gonna be the starter — every week I prepare like a starter, so it was just a normal week for me,” Van Buren said. “It felt great. This is a hard league to get wins in, so just to go out there and fight through adversity to get the first win, it felt amazing.”

Former John Ehret star Zavion Thomas led all receivers with six catches for 80 yards, and Kentucky transfer Barion Brown caught three passes for 44 yards.

Berry finished with 52 yards on 11 carries, including the final 13-yarder before sliding down shy of the goal-line to allow Van Buren to kneel out the victory. And sophomore Caden Durham had 65 yards on 12 carries, including an early 27-yard touchdown that provided a much-needed spark. The backs also each caught three passes for 24 and 34 yards, respectively.

“I felt like we had a good day, but like (Wilson) said, everybody can do better, so we just take a W and move on to next week,” Durham said. “Me and Harlem are like a 1-2 punch, so whatever I don’t do, Harlem will do it, and whatever he doesn’t do, I’ll do it, so we just mesh together real good.”

LSU took about a quarter to wake up in the 11:45 a.m. kickoff.

The Tigers managed to escape a promising opening Arkansas drive on a Jack Pyburn fumble recovery, but still quickly found themselves down after a blocked punt by freshman Wyatt Simmons and 16-yard return by senior Caleb Wooden netted the Razorbacks a 7-0 lead within the opening minutes.

A second straight three-and-out, a short punt and a quick 52-yard drive doubled the Arkansas lead to 14-0 on an 11-yard scramble by veteran quarterback Taylen Green.

LSU finally picked up its first first down late in the quarter and mounted a 75-yard drive capped by Durham’s 27-yard touchdown run, his fourth-longest gain of the season.

The Tigers wouldn’t find the end zone again for nearly two and a half quarters, but would Arkansas in check with a stout overall defensive performance highlighted by second-quarter interceptions by Harold Perkins Jr. and Mansoor Delane and a third-quarter goal-line stand by Jacobian Guillory (Alexandria), Dominick McKinley (Acadiana), Pyburn, West Weeks and company.

“We just love playing with each other,” Guillory said. “Regardless of the situation. We could be in the shittiest situation possible, but that doesn’t matter because we love playing with each other. We’re playing complementary defense. We don’t care what the score says.”

Three second-quarter field goals by senior kicker Damian Ramos — a 50-yarder and two from 42 — claimed the team’s first lead, 16-14, just before halftime.

Arkansas took advantage of a short, 39-yard field in the back half of the third quarter, though, with a 9-yard Mike Washington run and soaring Green two-point conversion seizing a 22-16 advantage.

But LSU allowed the Razorbacks nothing else the rest of the way and had enough fight and tricks left up its sleeves to end a three-game skid and earn the first win since Wilson took over when the program moved on from coach Brian Kelly on Oct. 26.

“To be in position to lead this team to victory after three weeks of agony, you want so much for those young people who came here with hope, with dreams and aspiration, you want to deliver for them,” Wilson said when asked about become the first black head coach to lead the Tigers’ football program to a win. “You want to put them in position to have success that they recognize that me coming here was not in vain, that this is the place where dreams become a reality, and so so much of what we do, what I do, is to serve the young people here, to serve this institution that very little thought I’ve given to what it is for me personally.”

LSU couldn’t find the end zone Saturday at Alabama with either Garrett Nussmeier or Michael Van Buren Jr. leading the offense.

The new-look Tigers, in their first game under interim coach Frank Wilson III, made a quarterback change early in the second half in search of a scoring spark to complement a solid, shake-back defensive performance.

But, regardless of which passer was taking snaps, the Tigers (5-4, 2-4) couldn’t overcome their own combination and continuation of issues and miscues to upset the No. 4 Crimson Tide (8-1, 6-0) and instead suffered their fourth loss in five games, 20-9.

“I thought some good things did happen, and there’s some things that we’ll continue to need to improve on,” Wilson said. “We have to score touchdowns and not just field goals. I’m glad to see the field goals go through, but we’ve got to be able to score touchdowns. And so we’ll continue to try to remedy that issue for us so that we can score touchdowns. I thought we need to take care of the ball a lot better than we did: three of ’em on the ground, two of ’em picked up by the opponent. And that was the difference in the game for us.

“I told the team pick your heads up. You fought. You competed. There’s no moral victory. But there is a lot to be said for how we played the game.”

LSU finished with a season-low 232 yards, a season-low 173 passing yards and 59 rushing yards, which marked its second-lowest total.

The Tigers’ average starting field position was inside its own 24-yard line with only two of their 11 possessions starting beyond their own 25 and just one beyond their own 40.

And two turnovers, 10 penalties for 74 yards and at least two dropped passes — instances of each miscue occurring in particularly untimely or costly junctures — further contributed to the uphill trudge and touchdown-less performance.

“A couple of ’em were 5-yarders, just procedural deals with some young guys that were antsy to want to go and strike somebody. Others were some that occurred that we’ll need to clean up,” Wilson said of the penalties. “That’s part of the game. When you say to ’em, ‘You’ve got a license to go play and let your personality show,’ and you’re that aggressive, sometimes that’ll happen. So I’m disappointed that they were called. I’m not disappointed that we played with aggression.”

Nussmeier completed his first nine passes and was 18-for-21 (85.7%) with 121 yards on a heavy diet of quick, short passes and was sacked once for a 14-yard loss on his final play of the night.

Van Buren went 5-for-11 (45.5%) for 52 yards in relief, was sacked twice for 20 yards of losses and picked up 21 yards on four positive rush attempts, including one third-down conversion and nearly another.

“I thought (Nussmeier) did some good things early on,” Wilson said. “We moved him out the pocket, and I thought he started the game off extremely well. As we went into the depth of the game, we just thought it was an opportunity for us to change up to throw their defense off, so we went with the change. I don’t know that it was something that he did so bad. We just thought that it would be an advantage in the things that Michael could give us.”

The coach called Van Buren’s performance “solid,” but with clear areas for improvement, including ball security on a late sack-fumble.

He emphasized that the change Saturday was not necessarily indicative of the quarterback depth chart heading into next week’s home game against Arkansas.

“I haven’t put that kinda thought in it right now,” he said. “Right now I just want to be there for our players to let ’em know we’re gonna be all right, to pick their heads up and we’re standing by you, we’re in this thing together. Decisions of depth moving forward, we’re not at that stage right now.”

LSU became just the third opponent in Alabama’s nine games this season to hold quarterback Ty Simpson and company out of the end zone for their first two possessions.

But the Tigers’ own longest opening possession of the season, 10 plays for 48 yards, slipped away for a missed field goal, and they fumbled their second possession away into a short field, a 45-yard Conor Talty kick and a 3-0 Crimson Tide lead.

Nussmeier and company pieced together a nine-play, 55-yard response to tie the game on a 37-yarder by Damian Ramos early in the second quarter.

But LSU’s offense would moved backward a combined -3 yards on back-to-back three-and-outs.

And Simpson hit on a series of explosive plays the rest of the half — 32 yards to Josh Cuevas, 31 yards to Germie Bernard and 53 yards to Lotzier Brooks — to open up a 17-3 halftime lead on a pair of red-zone scores.

“We came out kinda flat, I’m gonna be honest,” Simpson said on the ABC postgame broadcast. “We need to keep on growing. They had a good scheme and two weeks to prepare. But, hey, our defense kept us in it. They did a great job. And we were just resilient, right? Every week, we just keep on fighting and finding a way. Credit to the guys, and a win’s a win.”

Sophomore running back Daniel Hill was the first player to crack the goal line with a 4-yard run and dive through traffic, still early in the second.

After the teams traded scoreless possessions, the Tigers had an chance to answer the 10-3 deficit — whether before halftime, or milking some clock and hoping to be more aggressive with the first possession of the third quarter.

But the Crimson Tide forced a quick three-and-out and ultimately doubled the margin with a 13-yard strike from Simpson to Ryan Williams.

“I thought (new play-caller Alex Atkins) did a good job in managing the game, managing the clock,” Wilson said. “There was one (instance) on me in the second quarter that I would have not, if I could take it back, given them the ball back. But I thought he did a really good job. I thought our entire offensive staff did a really good job of doing what our players could do, protecting our offensive line and their vulnerabilities.”

LSU marched the opening possession of the second quarter 48 yards to Alabama’s 8-yard line before a third-down sequence of a delay of game, timeout to avoid a second straight penalty and then the long Nussmeier sack derailed the drive into settling for a Ramos 44-yarder.

And junior linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. swiped a fumble early in the fourth quarter to help the Tigers pull back within 17-9 on a 37-yard Ramos kick.

But LSU’s final two possessions — a three-and-out and a sack-fumble for a 10-yard loss — netted 2 yards on seven plays, with the Crimson Tide effectively closing the door in between with a 44-yard Talty field goal.

“I thought our defense played extremely well,” Wilson said. “You take away some of those big plays that we gave up. They weren’t necessarily drives that they just took down the field, but they did get behind us a couple of  times. I thought (defensive coordinator) Blake Baker and our defensive staff did an outstanding job game-planning ’em. I thought they gave us opportunities to be able to compete.”

Perkins led the defense with nine tackles, a sack, a hurry and the forced and recovered fumble.

Fellow linebackers West Weeks and Davhon Keys added seven and five tackles, respectively, including one each behind the line of scrimmage, and veteran defensive end Jack Pyburn finished with five tackles, including one for loss, and a team-high two hurries.

Cornerbacks Mansoor Delane and P.J. Woodland and safety A.J. Haulcy were all credited with pass-breakups.

“I thought (the players) did a good job of managing that,” Wilson said of the turbulent couple of weeks, including LSU moving on from coach Brian Kelly, offensive coordinator Joe Sloan and athletic director Scott Woodward. “I thought you look at us in our preparation, you look at us in our pregame, you look at how we played this game, that wasn’t team that had quit in ’em. That wasn’t a team that was submissive or not willing to fight back.

“It just wasn’t our day, unfortunately, to capitalize or to win the football game. But I thought our kids handled the two weeks well. I thought they did some things well. When you’re playing against a team like this and you have opportunities, you have to seize the moment, and we fell short on doing that.”