Despite a record breaking performance from freshman running back Leonard Fournette, the No. 22 LSU football team fell to Notre Dame, 31-28, in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee.
Fournette broke the LSU single-season rushing record for a freshman with his 143-yard rushing performance, which included two touchdowns, but it was not enough to secure the win for LSU (8-5, 4-4 Southeastern Conference).
“It’s frustrating to not get the win because playing for the seniors it was a great feeling,” Fournette said. “They taught all of us a lot, and it hurts not to get the win [for them].”
Fournette provided the highlights everyone has come to expect from him, and he kept the Tigers in the game despite LSU’s defensive struggles against Notre Dame sophomore quarterback Malik Zaire.
On the first possession, Zaire led the Irish on a touchdown drive that spanned 15 plays and 66 yards and took eight minutes off the clock. Zaire exposed the Tigers’ defense with his feet, tallying 44 rushing yard on his first drive alone.
But Fournette answered by capping off the Tigers’ 76-yard drive with an eight-yard touchdown run with five seconds remaining in the first quarter.
After Zaire finished another Irish scoring drive with a seven-yard touchdown run with 11:04 remaining in the second quarter, Fournette tied the game up on the ensuing kickoff with a 100-yard kickoff return for a score.
“Our coaches were excited, we’ve been waiting all year for that,” Fournette said. “Overall, the team was excited about it. I was excited about it. In practice I run a hundred yards every time I get the ball, just practicing for when my time comes and it finally came.”
Fournette is the first LSU player to return a kickoff for a touchdown since former Tiger defensive back Mo Claiborne returned a kickoff 99 yards against West Virginia on Sept. 24, 2011.
With 6:14 remaining in the third quarter, Fournette made history with an 89-yard touchdown run, breaking the LSU single season rushing record for a freshman and becoming only the second LSU player to break the 1,000-yard rushing mark as a freshman.
While Fournette exploited Notre Dame’s defense, LSU’s defense struggled to contain Zaire and former starter senior Everett Golson.
Coming into the game, LSU’s defense did not make two entirely different game plans for Zaire and Golson because of they both share a dual-threat nature to their game.
“We expected the same game plan they had,” said sophomore defensive tackle Christian LaCouture. “We had the same game plan because they can both run and throw the ball. We both thought they were relatively similar. We’re just going to have to look at film.”
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly rotated each quarterback to optimize his strengths, which was particularly effective in the Irish’s first drive in the second quarter.
Kelly put in Golson to start the drive and Golson led the Irish into the red-zone, then Zaire re-entered the game to punch it into the end-zone with a seven-yard touchdown run.
“Golson was certainly the passer, and Zaire was the runner,” said LSU coach Les Miles. “I think they executed their offense well.”
Along with struggling with the rotation quarterbacks, LSU’s defense could not get the Irish off the field on third down, which allowed Notre Dame to extend drives.
Throughout the season, LSU has been one of the best in the SEC at getting opponents off the field on third downs, allowing opponents to convert only 33.3 percent of third down attempts. The Irish bucked that trend, converting on 11 of their 17 third downs.
“It was amazing to me,” Miles said. “We pass-rushed, and we’d go by a guy, and he’d simply roll out to the right and hit a guy in the curl. You know, first down. Even when we got to the quarterback, he let it go…It wasn’t characteristic of our defense.”