
On a topsy-turvy Saturday in college football, where upsets were occurring, the LSU Tigers put together a solid performance to beat a good Vanderbilt team 24-17 in Tiger Stadium.
It was the Tigers’ first win in five weeks, and it came a few days after losing the nation’s top overall recruit in the 2025 class, Bryce Underwood, to his home state of Michigan.
There’s been a lot of talk if Brian Kelly is the right man for the job and in his postgame press conference, Kelly complimented his team for turning off the noise.
“Obviously they had to listen to the noise that’s out there about LSU football and the indictments that are made, unfortunately, so early in this program’s development,” Kelly said. “But the players didn’t listen to it, the coaches didn’t listen to it, proud of them the way they prepared this football team.”
LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier had his best game in weeks throwing for 332 yards and a touchdown and no interceptions
“I don’t really listen to the noise to be honest,” Nussmeier said. “I deleted social media off my phone, I really don’t care what people say, what Twitter coaches have to say, I’m worried about this program and my responsibility as a leader of this program.”
Earlier in the week, a players only meeting was held as the Tigers worked to snap a three-game losing streak.
Running back Josh Williams, who wears the 18 jersey signifying leadership, was one of the players who led the soul-searching meeting. He also led by example as he played extremely hard, rushing for 90 yards and two touchdowns. Williams also had 61 yards receiving.
“We just let them know what the deal was and how we felt going forward into the week,” Williams said. “Every day was very focused, very tight-knit and deliberate on what we wanted to do for the game plan, and it worked out for us.”
The game plan was also simplified for the defense, who got off to a rough start by allowing a 63-yard touchdown pass on Vanderbilt’s first offensive play. But the Tigers defense settled in after that and held the Commodores to 245 total yards the rest of the way.
“We just kept it simple tonight, I mean we don’t need all of this, we got the players that can do all this, that we can shut this down right now and get the stop and get off the field,” said defensive end Bradyn Swinson. “It was literally five plays we ran today.”
LSU is now 7-and-4 on the season and will finish out the regular season this Saturday night against Oklahoma, who will have some confidence as well. The Sooners pulled off a stunning upset over Alabama beating the Crimson Tide 24-3.
There’s still more work to do for LSU football as it works at becoming an elite program.
But for the next week, they can do their work with a lot less noise and chatter about buyouts and hot seats.
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