Kelly gets his first win over Saban, LSU on doorstep of SEC West title
Brian Kelly would never admit it publicly but LSU punter Jay Bramblett knew.
“This (beating Alabama) is one he's always wanted,” said Bramblett, the only Notre Dame player to transfer to LSU after Kelly left the Fighting Irish at the end of last November to become the Tigers’ head coach.
Bramblett was a kid growing up in Tuscaloosa when the hometown Crimson Tide coached by Nick Saban destroyed Kelly’s unbeaten 2012 Notre Dame team in 42-14 in the BCS national championship game.
By the time Kelly and the Fighting Irish got a rematch in 2020, Bramblett had a ringside seat as Notre Dame’s punter in a 31-14 College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Saban and the Tide.
In both games, Alabama’s superior athletes at just about every position was obvious. Notre Dame never got closer than a two-TD deficit in both games.
It’s why Bramblett may have been the least surprised person on an unforgettable Saturday night in Tiger Stadium when Kelly chose to go for a successful Jayden Daniels to Mason Taylor two-point conversion in overtime that gave the No. 10 Tigers a 32-31 victory over the No. 6 Crimson Tide.
When LSU quarterback Daniels stunned Alabama with a 25-yard TD run on the Tigers’ first play in overtime after Alabama took a 31-24 lead scoring on its first extra period possession, Kelly was suddenly in a place he’d never been before.
One play away from beating Saban and college football’s benchmark program for the first time.
“Before the game started,” Kelly said “if you asked me `Hey. I’m going to give you one play and if you’re successful on that one play you beat Alabama,’ I would have taken that 100 times out of a 100 times.“ I knew we had a real good play we hadn’t used and they hadn’t seen.”
After Daniels’ TD, LSU lined up to run a two-point conversion play before Alabama called a timeout.
“We had another play called before the timeout,” said Daniels, who enjoyed another brilliant performance accounting for 277 of LSU’s 367 total offense yards and three TDs (one rushing, two passing). “Coach Kelly came in the huddle and said to me, `You want to be on the move?’ I said, `Yeah.’
"I was going to try to do it with my legs, but it was there. He (Taylor) made the catch and the rest is history.”
Kelly dialed up a play called “Montana High Escape” that put tight end Taylor in motion from right to left with a stop and turn back to the right and sprint as Daniels rolled right giving him several options.
.“It’s kind of those catch-all plays that gets your best player on the perimeter where he can make multiple decisions,” Kelly said. “Let’s get him moving, give him multiple options and he’ll kind of sort it out and make the necessary play.”
Daniels took the shotgun snap, ran five choppy steps to his right and threw a strike to Taylor who caught the ball at the 1-yard line and dove just inside the goal line pylon.
“It’s a play we run in practice every week,” said Taylor afterward in the media interview area, still clutching the ball that provided LSU with its first victory in Tiger Stadium over Alabama since 2010. “I saw the person guarding me was coming from the inside, so all I had to do was catch the ball and lean (into the end zone).
“I just wanted to make sure the ball was in my hands. I couldn’t hear anything. My legs just went numb.”
As soon as Taylor got to his feet, it seemed most of the lower bowl of the sellout crowd of 102,231 emptied on the field for an almost 30-minute post-game celebration.
Kelly, accused by some LSU fans of being too stoic, was admittedly emotional afterwards. His 13½-point underdog Tigers climbed to 7-2 overall and into the driver's seat of the SEC West race at 5-1 with remaining league games at Arkansas next Saturday and at Texas A&M Nov. 26.
Yes, he had finally beat Saban. But moreso, he thought about taking over a program with just 39 scholarship players, cobbling together a recruiting class with 15 transfers and 15 freshman signees and getting everyone to understand his process of building a winning team.
Even after the season-opening 24-23 loss to Florida State when LSU had a game-tying extra point blocked that would have sent the game to overtime, Kelly felt the best was yet to come.
“I knew after the Florida State game that we were going to get better,” Kelly said. “I knew this football team was going to be a better team in November. I knew this team had fight in them, I knew they would battle. To watch their growth has really been fun.”
LSU's acceleration of improvement In the last three games has become the talk of the college game.
Arizona State transfer Daniels has emerged as one of the most dangerous run-pass option offensive threats in college football. He’s confident with his throws and he’s unflappable when he gets sacked.
After Alabama QB Bryce Young temporarily sucked the air out of the LSU faithful when he scrambled out of a maze of tacklers and threw a 41-yard TD pass to Ja’Corey Brooks for a 21-17 Tide lead with 4:44 left, Daniels basically said “hold my beer.”
On the third play of LSU’s ensuing possession, he ran 31 yards to the Alabama 39. Four plays later, he feathered in a 7-yard TD toss to Taylor between two Tide defenders for a 24-21 lead (after a PAT) with 1:47 left.
Taylor, who had 3 catches that produced 8 points and 36 yards, is one of LSU’s four true freshmen starters who rose to the occasion in front of the biggest mass of humanity they’ve ever played before.
True frosh linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. had 8 tackles, 1 tackle for loss including a sack, broke up pass and had 3 QB hurries as he more often than not successfully spied Young all night.,
Also, bookend true freshman offensive tackles Will Campbell and Emery Jones helped limit Alabama to 4 sacks, an amazing feat considering the Tide has NFL first-round draft quality pass rushers coming off the edges.
“They have a mental toughness that is unusual for their age and lack of experience,” Kelly said of Campbell and Jones. “Campbell gives up a sack and he comes to the sideline and he can explain to me precisely what happened and the steps that he's going to take that it never happens again for the rest of his life.
“I'm like `We're good, we're good. Just get to the next play.'”
And now it’s to the next game for the Tigers at Arkansas (5-4 overall, 2-3 in the SEC West), a team that started the season 3-0 but is just 2-4 since.
A combination of an LSU win over the Razorbacks and an Alabama victory at Ole Miss would clinch the West Division title for the Tigers. Georgia can lock up the East Division with a win at Kentucky.
If LSU and Georgia advance to the Dec. 3 SEC championship game in Atlanta, it will mark the fifth time the Tigers and Bulldogs have met in the title game. LSU has won three times in 2019, 2011 and 2003 – all years that the Tigers went on to play in the national championship game.
But Kelly and the Tigers have yet this season to look past their next immediate opponent.
“We put ourselves in a position where in November we're contenders for the SEC championship,” Kelly said. “We're gonna enjoy this win over the next 24 hours, and then we're gonna get ready for Arkansas.”
After LSU players fought to get off the field flooded with deliriously partying fans, it was Bramblett in the post-game celebration who reminded Kelly why he should relish the win.
“When we walked in the locker room,” Bramblett said, “I was like `We finally got (beat) him (Saban).’ He (Kelly) loved it.”