LSU football blows out South Alabama behind Garrett Nussmeier's career night
BATON ROUGE — Allow Caden Durham to reintroduce himself.
The LSU football freshman running back, who already had his coming out party in the team's road win at South Carolina, provided the early spark with 157 total yards off his first two touches. He scored a touchdown on his first touch, a screen pass that he took 71 yards to the house.
His next touch was a handoff and he broke free up the middle for 86 yards and was 1-yard shy of finding the end zone again. Garrett Nussmeier scored on a sneak the next play and LSU led South Alabama by two scores after two blinks.
No. 13 LSU rode Durham early and added a career high 409 yards passing from Nussmeier en route to blitzing the Jaguars, 42-10, inside Tiger Stadium on Saturday night.
The Tigers (4-1) run their win streak up to four games ahead of an off week followed by a much-anticipated visit from No. 6 Ole Miss, which lost to Kentucky at home earlier Saturday.
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Caden Durham powers LSU football to big early lead
It took Durham three carries to surpass 100 yards on the ground, which he eclipsed less than eight minutes into the game. He took the first play 71 yards to the end zone on the screen pass. He hit the 200 yards from scrimmage mark just 1:37 into the second period.
The freshman tried to make a statement to his coaches that he was LSU's best running back after scoring twice at South Carolina to help the Tigers overcome an early 17-point deficit on the road. While his performance Saturday is against South Alabama, it's how he plays that reveals how much he can help LSU with more playing time.
Durham's showed his vision and patience. And once he set up his blocks, his explosiveness and speed were on full display.
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On the opening defensive series, the Tigers elected to line up in a 4-2-5 with senior safety Major Burns filling the Star position and playing close to the line of scrimmage. That could be attributed to the offensive athleticism and prowess of the Jaguar freshman tandem of quarterback Gio Lopez and running back Fluff Bothwell.
With the extra defensive back on the field, providing the defense with more range from sideline to sideline, LSU was able to limit the damage that Bothwell and Lopez could cause. South Alabama mustered just 333 yards.
It's true the real test will be in a couple of weekends when Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss come to town, but the dress rehearsal against the Jaguars was a huge success for LSU.
LSU safeties get burned on deep throws
South Alabama's first touchdown of the game, which came in the third quarter, Lopez hit Anthony Eager in stride. Eager got a great release off the line and ran right past Burns who was in coverage and caught the 23-yard TD pass.
On the Jaguars' next drive, Eager got a good jump off the snap and sped past sophomore safety Jordan Allen in coverage for a 38-yard gain down to LSU's 9-yard line.
Letting receivers get over the top will be something the LSU secondary will have to work on to clean up the next two weeks before the matchup with Ole Miss, which has a number of receivers that can take the lid off defenses.
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football wins convincingly over South Alabama
