By Hunt Palmer
Statistically speaking, LSU’s running game has sputtered through two weeks.
The Tiger offense’s 113.5 yards per game on the ground ranks dead last in a 16-team SEC. Its 3.66 yards per carry ranks fourteenth.
Running backs John Emery Jr., Josh Williams, Kaleb Jackson and Caden Durham have carried the ball 41 times in two games, and 25 of those have gone for three yards or fewer. Only four have been 10-plus yard gains.
After a spotty rushing effort in the opener against Southern Cal, LSU figured to get things on track versus a smaller FCS defensive front from Nicholls State. That didn’t happen.
Tiger tailbacks carried 14 times, and eight of those were stopped for two yards or less. Only one went for a gain of more than 10 yards.
Head coach Brian Kelly dismissed significant concern on Monday.
“I think the most important thing was this sense that we were out-physicalled, and that simply wasn’t the case,” Kelly explained. “From an offensive standpoint, we threw the football because that’s what was required in this game. They were in a seven and an eight-man front, and we needed to throw the football. We were not going to run into extra hats….just to flex and say, ‘we’re the bigger guys.’”
The Tigers threw the ball 38 times on Saturday night, opting to run just 21 times. The results were positive. For the second game in a row quarterback Garrett Nussmeier threw for over 300 yards. He produced six passing touchdowns, only the fourth time in program history that had been done.
“I told (offensive coordinator) Joe Sloan, I said, ‘I do not want this to be about, well, we have to run it to show everybody that’s we’re big and bad and we have an offensive line,’” Kelly continued. “If they protect like they have, and we haven’t given up a sack in two games, and let Garrett Nussmeier throw the ball against Cover 1, we have great receivers, and we’ll beat you that way.”
LSU rolled up 44 points on the Colonels. In the opener in Las Vegas LSU produced 421 yards and held the ball for 33 minutes. Red zone woes contributed heavily to the final tally of just 20 points.
Often, the running game creates red zone success. After two weeks, LSU is one of only 11 teams in the country without a rushing touchdown. Only seven teams have run it fewer times than LSU.
“If South Carolina comes out in three down (linemen) and plays Cover 2, I guarantee you we’re running the football,” Kelly said. “But when you’re loaded in there, and there’s eight guys on the line of scrimmage, and you’re just saying, ‘I can’t block them all,’ what sense does it make (to run the ball) in those situations. We’ll pick our spots.”
LSU has audibled out of some called runs. Nussmeier, a fourth-year player and son of an offensive coach, has autonomy to make changes to the play call at the line of scrimmage depending on the defensive alignment he identifies.
Kelly said that happened a handful of times Saturday night.
“We have four balls that we threw out on the perimeter that were (called) runs,” Kelly explained. “When that ball gets thrown out on the perimeter, you see (Aaron) Anderson catch the ball on a quick perimeter throw, those are run plays that he’s throwing out of because there are too many guys.
“Some of those run plays, we have hitch routes attached to it. The run is called, but because there are too many guys, we have free access throws. I think we had 23 or 26 runs, I think we probably called in totality maybe 36 or 36 run plays, but they were checked out of because of the particular looks.”
Nussmeier is tied atop the nation’s lead in touchdown passes, and LSU has averaged 400 yards per game. Early returns on the Tiger offense have hardly been poor. Entering the season, though, LSU figured to lean heavily on an offensive line that returned four veteran starters as opposed to a first year starting quarterback and a wide receiving corps missing its top two options from 2023.
Kelly’s insistence that the statistical imbalance is by design does make sense to an extent. Eventually some offensive balance should be expected, but Kelly said that may not show up purely in terms of yards.
“Balance to me is being equally as good at running it as throwing it,” Kelly said. “There’s no sense here of our offensive line is not physical enough or can’t knock people off the ball. When we needed to, we did that. I feel really good about that.”
