LSU football coach Les Miles had been fielding questions for the past two weeks about where the LSU offense was hiding.
Many of those questions were answered Saturday night, as sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson accounted for three touchdowns and true freshman Russell Shepard ran for a 69-yard score to propel LSU (6-1, 4-1) to a convincing 31-10 win against Auburn (5-3, 2-3).
“We still want to run the football with balance and have the ability to do both,” Miles said. “We always want to be 50-50. If the opponent wants to stop our run, we want to have the opportunity to throw the football.”
Jefferson threw a 14-yard fade route pass to junior wide receiver Terrance Toliver to open up the scoring after a 3 minute, 9 second drive aided by three Auburn penalties. Jefferson finished 21-of-31 for 242 yards and rushed for his first touchdown of the season.
Shepard woke up the LSU running game Saturday night with his burst between the tackles with 1:09 left in the third quarter.
“Tonight I was really a running back,” Shepard said. “When I was running I was thinking to myself, ‘This cannot be true.'”
Toliver was Jefferson’s favorite target throughout the night, catching nine passes for 86 yards and his seventh receiving touchdown of the season. The eight passes he caught in the first half were a career high.
—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]
FINAL: LSU scores early and often in 31-10 victory against Auburn
October 23, 2009