As he ran toward the left corner of the end zone, juggling the ball before finally securing it, LSU junior kicker Trent Domingue blacked out.
“I’m not really sure what happened after that,” Domingue said. “I just know I ended up on the other side of the field, and I almost forgot to kick the extra point, which was also difficult because I was pretty tired from that run.”
Oddly enough, the fourth-and-13 fake field goal pass from senior holder Brad Kragthorpe, which statistically went down as a 16-yard rushing touchdown, was Domingue’s idea.
“How many bobbles were there?” LSU coach Les Miles asked. “I want you to know my heart was fluttering with each bobble.”
In a tie game of a top-10 showdown with then-No. 8 University of Florida, Domingue’s ingenuity and Miles’
penchant for risk taking were exactly what LSU needed to walk away with a 35-28 win Saturday night at Tiger Stadium.
Moreover, the Tigers (6-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) scoring a go-ahead touchdown with trickery from special teams, especially against the Gators (6-1, 4-1 SEC), is shrouded in irony.
The situation draws similarities to a play five years ago in a top-25 clash between Florida and LSU. Facing a fourth-and-three and trailing 29-26, former Tiger kicker Josh Jasper picked up a bouncing, overhead pitch from holder Derek Helton to scamper five yards for a first down.
The fake set up a game-winning touchdown pass with six seconds left, which Domingue said he remembers watching. But unlike Jasper and Helton, who were surprised by the call, Domingue and Kragthorpe were the ones making Miles look like the mastermind.
Miles didn’t have to think about the suggestion long, though.
“Right whenever it turned to fourth down, I said the play, and I brought it up to [Miles], put it in his mind,” Domingue said. “He sat there and thought, and I saw a light bulb flick over his head, and he said, ‘You got it. Just go for it.’”
Domingue said the field goal unit practices the play a handful of times every week, but he’s never actually touched the ball with his hands in live action. The former soccer player didn’t start playing football until he was a junior at St. Paul’s High School in Covington, Louisiana, so the nerves were evident.
The place kicker said he doesn’t know what sparked him to propose such a gamble, considering the position LSU was in at the time.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Tigers drove inside Florida’s 15-yard line, looking to revive a stagnant third quarter of offense. But three plays from the 13-yard line netted a loss of three yards. At that point, LSU just needed points in some way.
Miles and Domingue, both of whom talked about the play earlier with Kragthorpe, saw the opportunity for more.
“I told Kragthorpe, ‘We are not throwing that thing unless you master it,’” Miles said. ‘“If you don’t throw it well, better than what has been thrown, I am not throwing it.’ But they did.”
The lateral from Kragthorpe has its own form of irony because he was ruled short of the goal line on a fake field goal run against the University of Notre Dame in the 2014 Music City Bowl in Nashville. It appeared Kragthorpe had extended the ball far enough for a touchdown, but the officials said otherwise. LSU ended up losing the game by a field goal.
Miles claims Kragthorpe scored on that play, but “nobody realized it.” Regardless, even the starting quarterback is happy for one of his backup.
“For a guy who hadn’t warmed up, he gets right in there, and he flicks a perfect pass to Trent,” sophomore quarterback Brandon Harris said.
Then, there’s the irony of the play coming from the special teams units, a less-than-stellar phase of the game for the Tigers all season.
Already in Saturday’s game, LSU allowed Florida to score its first touchdown via a muffed punt and allowed a punt return for a touchdown from freshman wide receiver Antonio Callaway to even the game at 28 in the third quarter.
Domingue, who is 7-for-7 on field goals this season, acknowledged the oddity of the group providing the key play for the Tigers. Even more strange was Domingue watching a highlight on Friday of former Tiger punter Brad Wing running a fake punt for a touchdown against Florida in 2011, which was called back due to the first use of an excessive celebration penalty in college football.
In the Miles era of LSU football, Domingue said none of this should come as a surprise, even if he didn’t realize what the play meant until after the game.
“He’s got a bunch of stuff up his sleeve,” Domingue said. “They call him the Mad Hatter for a reason.”