No. 6 LSU cruises past UAB, 41-10, with five rushing TDs

LSU settled through some early back and forth with UAB to close out its home schedule and a Saturday of top-10 scares in comfortable fashion.

Junior running back Noah Cain scored a career-high three rushing touchdowns in the first half to seize control on a frigid, rainy night in Tiger Stadium.

And junior quarterback Jayden Daniels and the No. 6 Tigers (9-2) cruised to a 41-10 victory with five touchdowns on the ground in all.

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"Mental toughness to me and our team is accountability," coach Brian Kelly said, praising his team's growth during his first season in Baton Rouge. "It's the ability to count on their teammates and themselves to do it the right way, to do their job the right way when it's needed and the right way. And that's taken time, and they did that today."

LSU finished with 565 yards — 299 passing and 266 rushing — for its second-highest offensive total of the season.

Daniels rushed 12 times for a game-high 111 yards and a third-quarter touchdown to begin icing away the game and completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and a fourth-quarter score to complete the job.

Sophomore receiver Malik Nabers led all players with seven catches for a season-high 129 yards to surpass the 600-yard mark for the season and 1,000-yard mark for his career.

Cain carried 13 times for 76 yards and his hat trick to steady the backfield on a 45º evening without teammates Josh Williams, nicked up late last week against Arkansas, or Armoni Goodwin, who Kelly confirmed will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.

Senior John Emery Jr. added 46 yards on nine attempts with a touchdown and a pair of fumbles.

"I don't know that we were lacking confidence at all," Kelly said. "We wanted to bounce back from what we felt was offensively less than our best game. And I think Arkansas had something to do with it, but we had something to do with it.

"Jayden prepared really well, and you could make a case that this was his best game of the year. He pushed the ball down the field vertically, he saw things, he was assertive. I think he was responsible for over 400 yards. Anytime a quarterback does that, it's a pretty good day."

No. 4 TCU (11-0) and No. 3 Michigan (11-0) kicked a pair of late, game-winning field goals in a matter of minutes to escape Baylor and Illinois, respectively, and set the tone for what became "Survival Saturday" for highly ranked teams.

No. 1 Georgia (11-0) slipped past Kentucky, 16-6, and No. 2 Ohio State (11-0) pulled away from Maryland late, 43-30, in another pair of notable finishes.

And — most notably to LSU — No. 5 Tennessee (9-2) tumbled from the College Football Playoff conversation with a 63-38 shellacking at South Carolina.

"When you look across college football today, many teams struggled to put their best version of themselves out there," Kelly said. "This team did that — against a team that, if you listen to people talk, you're supposed to beat 'em. And it requires an accountability that you're intentional in what you do, and you do your job when you're supposed to do your job, and you do it the right way, the way it's been taught.

"I'm so proud of our mental toughness and their ability to do it the right way late in November against a team they're supposed to be."

The Tigers needed no such nail-biting to dispatch of the Blazers (5-6) despite the Conference USA visitors' early fight.

LSU marched efficiently down the field on 79- and 75-yard drives its first two possessions for goal-line scores by Emery and Cain.

UAB stayed on the Tigers' heels into the second quarter.

A 66-yard kickoff return by Jermaine Brown Jr. helping set up a 5-yard touchdown run by fellow junior DeWayne McBride three plays later to tie the game at 7-7.

And a perfect passing drive by junior quarterback Dylan Hopkins led to a 29-yard Matt Quinn field goal on the first play of the second quarter to pull back within 14-10.

Hopkins completed all eight of his passes for 85 yards to that point.

The LSU defense buckled down from there, though, to allow just 41 yards on 18 plays the Blazers' next five possessions: four three-and-outs and a turnover on downs.

"Making big stops and things like that, I feel like the defense has really come together this year," sophomore linebacker Greg Penn III said. "I feel like the younger guys and the older guys are really gelling really well together, and I think we have one of the best defenses in the country."

Hopkins finished 14-for-29 for 158 yards, and McBride's 34 yards on 13 attempts led a 48-yard night on the ground as a team, nearly 200 yards shy of their season average.

Cain's next two end zone trips stretched the margin to 28-10 at the midway mark.

And Daniels added a 2-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter and a 5-yard scoring pass to sophomore receiver Brian Thomas Jr. early in the fourth.

"Going out there and doing our job," Daniels said. "Late in the season, it's not about if we're better than teams, it's about who's the most mentally tough team and who prepared throughout the week."