HOUSTON, Tx. – It was a weird night in Houston, as Kansas State beat LSU 42-20 in the TaxAct Texas Bowl, but it’s one that Lutcher native Jontre Kirklin will never forget. As fans online were burning down in the first half, saying LSU should have never played in the game, the camera panned over to Kirklin celebrating his first career TD with his teammate Jaray Jenkins and showed the wide-reciever turned quarter sporting the biggest smile we’ve seen in the last two years.
That shot reminded us what it was all about and why tonight was bigger than an LSU loss, forcing their first losing season since 1999. It’s a game that these kids love, and some of them wanted one more chance to suit up for the Tigers. It allowed us to take a step back and take a breath and watch the end of this era of Tigers football unfold.
In highschool Kirklin passed for 7,500 yards, with 3,000 rushing yards and 147 career touchdowns. Not a bad career for a high school quarterback, but 2016 was the last time that Kirklin had taken game snaps behind center. That led to what should have been expected, a very run first and low scoring output from the Tigers. But hey, hats off to Kirklin for being able to pull off 138 passing yards and three touchdowns. The defense played very well on first and second downs early on, but was seemingly butter on third and fourth downs. An early lead for Kansas State was just too much for LSU to come back against without a true quarterback.
The night wasn’t lost on everyone, as some of LSU’s future stars showed up and played well. The man who will always be mentioned because of his name, Pig Cage, started at nickel for the Tigers, and shot into the backfield multiple times for some big plays. He ended the night with three tackles for losses, and a sack. BJ Ojulari was really fun to watch play, constantly in the backfield disrupting plays. Actually, all of that young defensive line played fairly well for a while tonight. Ojulari was asked about their experience and he expressed how this game did nothing but help the young guys on the roster.
“They got their shot and we played very well,” Ojulari said. “Going into next year, we’re going to have a lot more experience with the younger guys, and just going into a new program, we have to continue to build the LSU name and legacy.”
The highlight of the night for many was an early interview with Brian Kelly, in which he expressed a plan for the near and far future for his LSU team. LSU went into this bowl game with less than 40 scholarship players, which is indicative of the situation that Kelly is walking into. Kelly knows that very well and addressed it. He made mention of how this will be a rigorous rebuild that will be rough early on. He reiterated how important the transfer portal will be in this first year, but after that the focus will be on building through freshman players and recruiting elite, high-school talent.
To many people’s delight, Kelly also brought up the “AccentGate”, joking that he “didn’t get his southern accent right.” Of course this is in reference to how Kelly said “family” in his halftime address at the PMAC. The interview did not close out without him making twitter go crazy again by saying “I’m from Boston, we don’t have strong accents.”
In terms of the future of the program, there’s one more thing that should not be understated about this month. Interim Head Coach Brad Davis is staying with the program, and he just spent a month where he faced more adversity than some coaches face in a year. He said after the game that the experience he gained during this time was “invaluable.” He gained more respect for the position of the head coach, but also realized how much assistant coaches actually matter to the process.
The players seem to really respect him, and having him stick around for the next few years after this will be a great thing for LSU. He ended his press conference with “I’m sorry for letting you guys down.” He obviously didn’t take the opportunity for granted and tried his hardest. Not a lot of coaches could have won tonight, especially with it being their first game as a head coach. Davis will be around football for a long, long time.
Yes, the game may not have gone exactly how the fans wanted, plenty of people will complain that they did even play. However, the coaches and players that were made available to us all seemed to be very glad that they did play.
“We’re Fightin’ Tigers. We’re not going to back down from nobody. If we’ve got 11, we’re going to go play,” Kirklin may have had his last ride, but his mindset gives hope for the future of the program.
