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.”