BATON ROUGE, La. — So many of Garrett Nussmeier’s teammates and LSU staffers mobbed him that it took a few minutes before he even realized the fans had stormed the field.
He fought through a sea of hugs and slaps on the helmet and shoulder to meet receiver Kyren Lacy — he knew before the snap he was going to him with the game on the line — to celebrate a winning touchdown that ignited a party in Baton Rouge.
It sent a crowd that simmered all night boiling over onto the field.
It took overtime but the Tigers ended the night in swampy, sweaty jubilation, with star tackle Emery Jones Jr. dancing on his way into the locker room after teaming up with fellow star tackle and future draft pick Will Campbell to surrender zero sacks against a team that entered the game with 24, three more than any team in the country.
No. 13 LSU 29, No. 9 Ole Miss 26.
“This is who we are now. This is who we wanted to be,” Nussmeier said. “The Tigers are real. We proved that tonight.”
KYREN LACY WALKS OFF OLE MISS IN OVERTIME 😱
DEATH VALLEY IS ALIVE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GfPiSh0Qx8
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 13, 2024
The Tigers didn’t lead until Nussmeier’s touchdown ended the game. They lost their season opener against USC in Las Vegas. They rallied from down two touchdowns at South Carolina last month to win when the Gamecocks missed a field goal as time expired.
They entered the field as a home underdog. They left it atop the SEC standings as one of three unbeaten teams in conference play.
“We’re a gritty bunch,” said linebacker Whit Weeks, who made an astounding 18 tackles, a feat coach Brian Kelly said is almost impossible in the modern game of college football.
Now, at the midpoint of their season, Kelly’s team is well within reach of a spot in the College Football Playoff and trip to Atlanta.
It took every bit of 60 minutes – and then some – to do it. LSU trailed by 10 in the second quarter and needed a pair of fourth-down conversions on the final drive just to force overtime.
The second came on fourth-and-5 when Nussmeier found Aaron Anderson over the middle for a 23-yard score to finally claw the Tigers back even with the Rebels in the final minute.
GARRETT NUSSMEIER TIES IT UP WITH 27 SECONDS REMAINING 😳
INSTANT CLASSIC IN DEATH VALLEY 🍿
📺 ABC/ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/KDSPl0CI6p
— ESPN (@espn) October 13, 2024
Nussmeier called Saturday “one of the worst games” of his career.
Kelly had a different interpretation.
“I thought he grew more today than at any time that he’s been here. That was a growth game for him,” Kelly said.
Garrett Nussmeier on how he played and the game-winner to beat Ole Miss: pic.twitter.com/nEOlCNABy0
— Wilson Alexander (@whalexander_) October 13, 2024
Nussmeier threw a first-quarter interception and had three more first-half drives that went deep into Ole Miss territory that resulted in no points or a field goal.
The first play of a second-half drive that began with an interception by Zy Alexander was another Nussmeier interception, a forced ball deep downfield to Lacy that Ole Miss picked off easily.
But the final two drives — with LSU’s always high hopes hanging in the balance — featured Nussmeier at his best, completing a pair of fourth-down passes to move the chains before unleashing the game-decider downfield to Lacy. They’d been eyeing a 1-on-1 matchup all season. When Nussmeier saw he got it, he knew the ball was going downfield to Lacy on the first and only play LSU’s offense ran in overtime after Ole Miss kicker Caden Davis made a 57-yard field goal to open the extra frame.
Nussmeier trusted his top target and Lacy rewarded him.
“It’s a moment I will never forget,” Lacy said.
Nussmeier’s touchdown pass to tie the score left Kelly with a decision: Go for two and decide the game with one play or send it into overtime. He chose the latter.
“I just felt like our guys worked too hard to get back in that game that I didn’t want to go for two as an all-or-nothing situation,” Kelly said.
He trusted his team, just like Nussmeier trusted his receiver. And he trusted his defense, which pushed Ole Miss back with a tackle for loss and a pair of penalties that required a difficult kick just to get on the board in overtime.
“I was glad to get to play some more ball. We don’t get to play again until next Saturday,” said Weeks, who said the team felt all night on the sideline they were going to win.
Now, the Tigers are reaping the benefits with no limits on what might lie ahead in a wide-open SEC race with Texas as the favorite. Georgia and Alabama are right behind but have looked far from invincible. And Texas A&M is the actual leader in the standings, but the meat of the Aggies’ schedule lies ahead, including a date with LSU in College Station in two weeks.
Now, after Nussmeier’s late-game heroics, the Tigers are one of just three SEC teams still without a conference loss at midseason.
“Their preparation is as good as any group that I’ve had. And that preparation was not giving us the kind of performances I thought (we would have). I was frustrated with that early in the year,” Kelly said. “Now, it’s starting to translate a little better. … This is a team that’s getting better each and every week.”
Nussmeier, a first-year starter in his fourth year in the program, is a rarity in a college football world where blue-chip quarterback recruits transfer far more often than they don’t, especially if their path to the field doesn’t open up within a season or two. But sitting behind a Heisman Trophy winner a season ago pays off in tight moments like the ones LSU survived on Saturday, in the process denying an old rival a chance to carve out its own path to Atlanta and the Playoff and celebrate its first win in Death Valley since 2008.
“Everybody is feeling bad,” Ole Miss safety Trey Washington said.
“To put it in overtime, it should have never got there,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said.
But it did, because of a defense that stiffened with the game on the line and Nussmeier finding a way to find receivers when the game hung in the balance.
Now, after an unforgettable night in Baton Rouge, despite the mistakes and flaws that marred the first half and required another comeback, no dream for what the second half of the season might hold is impossible.
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(Photo of Kyren Lacy celebrating after catching the winning touchdown in overtime: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
