Sullivan, LSU's 6-foot-7 mismatch, recalls his Hail Mary grab
BATON ROUGE, La. — In need of an offensive spark, the LSU coaches turned to their 6-foot-7, 232-pound mismatch.
Stephen Sullivan, a junior wide receiver who started eight games for the Tigers a year ago, is now a part of a deep and talented rotation at the X and Z positions. He spent part of fall camp lined up as a tight end and is now making the case to earn more snaps at his original position.
Case made.
Sullivan was the recipient of a 40-yard bomb from quarterback Joe Burrow as time expired in the first half of LSU’s 31-0 defeat of Southeastern. Burrow chucked up the long ball to his left, where Sullivan outstretched a trio of defensive backs and somehow corralled the ball and came down with the catch.
“The next thing, you know, Coach Mickey (Joseph) said to go out wide,” Sullivan recalled. “We practice that all week. Every Thursday, we go through (it) in the last few plays before we end practice. I put myself in practice and do what I do. It definitely gave us some energy, it gave us something, a little fire to come out in the second half, and I think it showed.”
Sullivan turned Saturday into his Thursday, but this week of practice was not as successful.
Thee junior wide receiver has been taking snaps with the Hail Mary practice team for two years. It’s nothing new — more of the same really. Yet this week in particular, the Donaldsonville product had dropped a couple of deep balls at the end of Thursday’s situational practice.
It pays to have a short memory.
“Oh man, Stephen does things like that in practice with me going against him and him making big plays,” cornerback Greedy Williams said. “Get him the ball and he’s going to make a play, that’s all.”
There might be some foreshadowing there.
Sullivan finished the game with two receptions for 54 yards, and of course, that 40-yard score. It marked his first two catches through two games on the season.
Sullivan was one of six receivers with a grab in the win over the Lions and brought in both of his two targets from Burrow. The difficulty of the Hail Mary reception paired with the momentum it brought to the team going into intermission was an eye-opener for coach Ed Orgeron.
“It worked,” Orgeron said after the game. “We were flat the whole night, then our guys came in with a little enthusiasm. We were looking for a spark on offensive. We needed to make a big play to get the crowd into it. It’s our job to get the crowd into it.
“Stephen is an excellent player and I look forward to getting the ball in his hands more.”
Orgeron and offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger will have an opportunity to feed their big-play power forward on Saturday when No. 11 LSU travels to Auburn for its first SEC game of the season.
When the team returns to the practice field on Monday, it will again focus on those trademark Hail Mary tosses. The same goes for Thursday, and it’ll be on Sullivan to convince the coaching staff to find alternative ways to allow the jumbo-sized playmaker to put his mark on the offense.
“Every opportunity I get,” he said, “I’ve got to make the most of it.”