LSU sophomore quarterback Brandon Harris completed 9-of-14 passes for 71 yards in Saturday night’s win against then-No. 25 Mississippi State University.
That stat line won’t be glorified among other passing performances across the country from week two of the college football season. But in his second-career start, with cowbells buzzing in his ears, what Harris didn’t do was more important that what he did — he didn’t make a critical mistake.
In fact, LSU coach Les Miles said Harris met his expectations.
“Brandon Harris did just what we asked him to do,” Miles said. “Made plays with his arm and his feet.”
By the number of attempts Harris had, especially in the fourth quarter, it looked like Miles and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron had Harris on a leash throughout much of the night. The Bossier City, Louisiana, native handed the ball to sophomore running back Leonard Fournette on LSU’s first four offensive snaps before getting an opportunity through the air.
Harris gave the ball away behind the line of scrimmage 42 total times, including 28 times to Fournette, but the number of rushing attempts is misleading to the play calling against the Bulldogs, Harris said.
Actually, the play calling was aggressive in his mind.
“A lot of pass plays were called at the line of scrimmage, and we had some blitz looks and some things where I don’t think we could have picked it up because we had a lot of guys going out for passes,” Harris said. “At the line of scrimmage, we checked into run plays, and those run plays broke off for 14 yards.”
Harris said he isn’t worried about the coaches’ confidence in him to make plays. His playmaking ability was evident by his five carries for 48 yards. The second-year quarterback, though, executed on a few crucial passing plays early on Saturday.
Facing a 3rd-and-9 on the Tigers’ second possession of the game, Harris instinctively threw the ball into the Scott Field turf, seeing a holding call coming as Fournette tried to release on a screen pass.
The Tigers received an automatic first down to keep the drive alive, which set up a 37-yard touchdown strike from Harris to junior receiver Travin Dural on the ensuing snap. But the play, set up by play action, was negated by a holding call on junior guard Josh Boutte.
Harris showed resolve, following with a 23-yard completion to junior tight end DeSean Smith two plays later. The drive ended with a one-yard end zone plunge by Fournette out of Wildcat but was made possible by Harris’ throw to Smith in tight coverage.
On the third LSU drive, Harris slightly overthrew sophomore receiver Malachi Dupre on a deep crossing route on the first play from the Mississippi State 46-yard line. Dupre was able to extend his body in front of a Bulldog defensive back to haul in the 20-yard toss, positioning Fournette for a 26-yard scoring scamper off the left side on the next play.
Even with an errant pass or two from his new starter, Miles said he thought a 64 percent passing clip was indicative of a solid night under center, especially with what Harris accomplished outside of the pocket.
“I thought he was pretty accurate,” Miles said. “I still think there’s a reception in there for Malachi Dupre with the one that may have bounced on the ground, but I think that’s a deserved reception. If you look at his day, he was very, very accurate, and the things that we asked him to do when it comes to the running game — he did exactly what we asked him to do.”
For Harris, any positive statistics are only a product of execution, which he feels still isn’t completely there after his team’s first game.
“There’s some things we got to clean up within the passing game that not necessarily we didn’t do right this week,” Harris said. “A couple of times, I could have hit the receivers and did some other things and made some more correct reads that [I want to] fix. But, like I said, it’s the first game, and I’m glad we got that first game under us.”