Smith scores 25 as Red Raiders beat LSU in Big 12/SEC match
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Zach Smith led Texas Tech with 25 points as the Red Raiders downed the LSU Tigers 77-64 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday. More
LSU Tigers football
Pitt’s Matt Canada hired to be LSU’s new O-coordinator
LSU has ended weeks of speculation by hiring Matt Canada to be the Tigers’ next offensive coordinator.
Lane Kiffin’s name had been connected to the job recently, but the Alabama offensive coordinator took the Florida Atlantic head coach position.
“When I first sat down with (athletic director) Joe Alleva and we mapped out a plan for LSU football, we agreed that we were going to demand excellence on both sides of the ball,” Orgeron said in a statement. “We want a defense that’s impenetrable and an offense that’s exciting and unstoppable. Anyone who wants to play football at the highest levels is going to want to play at LSU.”
A two-month search for this? How far has LSU fallen?
BATON ROUGE – Close your eyes and imagine it is a year ago when then-LSU coach Les Miles was about to be fired, and someone tells you that the next coach is going to be LSU defensive line coach Ed Orgeron.
Now, open your eyes.
Orgeron – a career journeyman coach, a failed head coach and a somewhat successful short term head coach at USC and LSU – is LSU’s next football coach.
“I’m the search,” LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said two months ago after firing Miles.
“I’m worried,” I said.
Well, I’m still worried.
Alleva first started looking for a new head football coach more than a year ago and started thinking about looking for a new head football coach when he came here in 2008. And this is it?
This is an embarrassment.
Texas’ search and hire lasted a few days, and it’s going to get the coach LSU has been thinking about maybe hiring for two months – Houston’s Tom Herman, a bright rising star at 41.
Herman could have been LSU’s first true offensive head coach hire in history. Instead, it hired a defensive line coach whose new offense got shut out against Alabama, which allowed an average of 36 points to Ole Miss and Arkansas this season, and managed three points through more than a dozen goal-line plays in a 16-10 loss to Florida two weeks ago.
According to Kirk Bohls, an extremely credible reporter who covers Texas for the Austin American-Statesman, Herman’s agent Trace Armstrong told LSU it could hire Herman for $6 million. “And LSU said no,” Armstrong said, according to Bohls.
Maybe, that’s not true. Herman, who coached at four Texas colleges (Texas as a graduate assistant, Sam Houston State, Texas State and Rice) before becoming Houston’s head coach two years ago, was probably going to Texas no matter what LSU offered. But LSU should have offered the $6 million or $7 million.
And LSU should have offered Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher $8 million. He may still have stayed, but you have to get the money out there. You have to try.
But LSU did not max out. Instead, in the end, it took a Black Friday approach to this search and ended up with a bargain, but this could be a nightmare in the long run.
Orgeron’s yearly salary will be about $3.5 million, which means LSU will save $1 million the coaching swap between Orgeron and Miles. And Orgeron can throw a large salary at Alabama offensive coordinator and old USC buddy Lane Kiffin, who makes $1.4 million at Alabama. LSU now has a lot of money left over. It does not owe Orgeron a…
Ed Orgeron LSU’s ‘backup plan’ if Tom Herman falls through
LSU is keeping Ed Orgeron in its back pocket if their bid to hire Tom Herman fails.
“If Herman says yes, he’ll be LSU’s coach,” a source told ESPN. “If not, all signs point to Coach O.”
Herman has…
LSU, Guice stuff A&M full of yards in 54-39 victory
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Derrius Guice stuffed a Texas A&M turkey full of yards and touchdowns Thursday night while Leonard Fournette could only watch on television back home with his ankle injury.
Guice, LSU’s No. 2 tailback, filled in for the injured Fournette and then some as he broke the school record for yards in a game set by Fournette just last month by gaining 285 yards on 37 carries while scoring four touchdowns to lead the No. 25 Tigers over No. 22 Texas A&M, 54-39, in front of 102,961 at Kyle Field.
“He’s no surprise to us,” said Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, who watched Guice gain 79 yards on 10 carries in a 19-7 win over the Aggies last season. “He’s a home run hitter.”
LSU (7-4, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) finished the regular season with a flourish, totaling 622 yards as quarterback Danny Etling also played his best game as a Tiger, completing 20 of 28 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns. It was the second most total yards ever for an LSU road team. The Tigers gained 630 in a win over Ole Miss in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1987. And all 622 came against former LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis, who is still embroiled in a lawsuit over his contract buyout with LSU.
“We couldn’t get off the field on defense in the second half,” said Sumlin, who watched Chavis’ defense allow 34 points and 346 yards in the second half. “It wasn’t third down. It was getting off the field. There were issues. It was first and second down.”
It was just about every down.
The Tigers took a 7-0 lead with 13:16 to go in the first quarter on Guice’s first touchdown – a 45-yard scamper. He added another 45-yard touchdown early in the third quarter for a 27-10 lead, then scored on a 6-yard run for a 34-10 lead with 7:45 to play. He scored his last touchdown on a 1-yard run for a 54-33 lead with 4:59 to go.
Fournette had set the game rushing record on Oct. 22 against Ole Miss when he shook off his season-long ankle injury after missing the previous game, gaining 284 yards on 16 carries with three touchdowns against the Rebels.
Guice, who suffered two critical fumbles inside the 10-yard line in the 16-10 loss to Florida last week and ran the wrong way on the ill-fated last play of the game from the Gators’ 1, held onto the ball…
LSU vs. Texas A&M: Score and Twitter Reaction
No Leonard Fournette, no problem. Behind the rushing attack of Derrius Guice and the arm of Danny Etling, LSU thumped Texas A&M, 54-39, Thursday night at Kyle Field.
Guice set an LSU single-game rushing record with 285 yards while scoring four touchdowns on the ground, as ESPN CollegeFootball noted:
Derrius Guice just passed Leonard Fournette to set the record for most rush yards in a single game in LSU history with 285 yards. pic.twitter.com/NGYnO9pUA7
— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) November 25, 2016
Etling added 324 yards through the air with two touchdowns as the two made history, per ESPN Stats & Info:
This is the first time in LSU history that the Tigers have had a 300-yard passer and 200-yard rusher in the same game.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 25, 2016
Without its star running back, Fournette—who didn’t travel with the team due to an ankle injury—LSU entered the game with an uphill battle on the road.
But Guice was quick to show he could carry the backfield, rumbling through the Texas A&M defense for a 45-yard touchdown on the Tigers’ first drive.
It was a perfect jolt for Yahoo Sports’ Dr. Saturday after a Thanksgiving feast:
That didn’t take long for LSU… Derrius Guice with a 45-yard TD run.
WAKE UP FROM YOUR FOOD COMA AND WATCH FOOTBALL
— Dr. Saturday (@YahooDrSaturday) November 25, 2016
ESPN’s Carley McCord was buying the early hype:
— Carley McCord (@CarleyMcCord) November 25, 2016
He had been doing this all season, though, as Billy Embody of Scout.com broke down how valuable he’s been:
Derrius Guice is now the 12th player in #LSU history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
Does so averaging nearly 8.4 yards per carry.
— Billy Embody (@BillyEmbody) November 25, 2016
Texas A&M answered through the air with 6:05 left in the first when quarterback Trevor Knight hit Christian Kirk with a 36-yard touchdown to help tie things up.
Battling a shoulder injury, Knight looked fine to CBSSports.com’s Brad Crawford:
One of the best throws I’ve seen in the SEC this season right there from Trevor Knight. Dropped it in there to Christian Kirk.
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) November 25, 2016
Knight threw for three touchdowns along with 211 yards before injuring his knee in the fourth quarter and leaving the game. Jake Hubenak attempted seven passes in Knight’s absence, completing three for 73 yards.
That touchdown to Kirk was all the success the Aggies would see in the first half, though, as LSU dominated the second quarter.
After a pair of Colby Delahoussaye field goals put the Tigers up 13-7, LSU linebacker Devin White stripped Trayveon Williams at A&M’s 20-yard line to give the Tigers a short field with 43 seconds left.
Just 11 seconds later, Etling hit Malachi Dupre to help put LSU up 20-7 at the half. Just like…