LSU Gets 3 Offensive Stars Back Against Buckeyes

Les has got all the Gatorade out of his ears.
He's done with his turkey, maybe even tucked away the gifts by now.
Now, it's back to football.
At practice Friday, LSU coach Les Miles said that quarterback Matt Flynn and running backs Keiland Williams and Trindon Holliday all practiced well. All three were either limited or missed SEC Championship Game with various injuries.
“All three went through the entire practice and played well,” Miles said. “(Matt) threw several balls today that were thrown as well as any balls he has ever thrown.”
"I feel good," said Flynn, who separated his right (throwing) shoulder in the Nov. 23 loss to Arkansas. "I've been throwing a lot in practice. I'm not throwing every pass in practice, but I'm getting back into the swing and throwing well.
"It's not hurting that much anymore. It's getting a lot better each day. I'll be doing everything in the next day or so."
Flynn confirmed that he is also fully recovered from an early season ankle injury.
"My legs feel good, my feet feel good," Flynn said. "I feel I'm going to be 100 percent in the next couple of days.
"Right now I'm feeling as healthy as I have. I'm not wearing the ankle brace anymore, for the first time since the Virginia Tech game."
The Tigers are preparing to face an Ohio State team that has posted an 11-1 overall mark and has the best defense in the nation in terms of yards and points allowed. As a unit, Ohio State’s defense is allowing 10.7 points and 225 yards per contest.

Two players that the Tiger offense will look at to make a difference against the Buckeyes are running back Jacob Hester and wide receiver Early Doucet. H while
Miles was also licking his chops at having a healthy Jacob Hester and Early Doucet, both of which were gimpy late in the season.
“Early and Jacob mean so much to this team,” Miles said. Hester has rushed for 1,017 yards and 11 touchdowns. “Jacob is tremendously competitive, and he’s a guy who has an eye for making a play. Whether it’s a block, carry, reception or special teams play, he has been in the middle of it," Miles said.
Doucet has caught 50 passes for 474 yards and five scores.
“Early gives us great leadership with tremendous ability. I can tell you that we are looking forward to having both of these guys on the field for this game.”

LSU Not Taking Buckeyes Lightly

Phone call from SEC coaches to LSU: "DON'T PHONE IT IN!"
LSU has come all the way up the mountain, at the cusp of a second national title in 5 years, and LSU knows that the league is depending on them.
As the season wore on, injuries to key players mounted and the gap between the Tigers and their opponents closed, especially during a string of matchups against other bowl-bound Southeastern Conference foes. There were narrow victories over Florida, Auburn and Alabama. There were triple-overtime losses to Kentucky and Arkansas. LSU also needed a second-half comeback in its 21-14 victory over Tennessee in the SEC championship game.
Top-ranked Ohio State is a six-point dog to LSU in the BCS Championship. Illinois is on the wrong end of a 14-point spread for its Rose Bowl date with USC. Florida is picked to beat Michigan in the Capital One Bowl, Tennessee over Wisconsin in the Outback, Boston College over Michigan State in the Champs Sports and Oklahoma State over Indiana in the Insight.
The Tigers (11-2) expect key players to be in much better shape by the time the BCS championship game against Ohio State (11-1) kicks off on Jan. 7.
"I know that the lineup shuffles a little bit that way at the end of the year where you've had to play week after week versus quality opponents and it takes its toll," LSU coach Les Miles said Monday, his team's first day at practice after a couple weeks off for final exams.
"There's no question that at some point in time, teams are more healthy and less healthy and it's a testimony to our football team that we win two games with our second-team quarterback. A number of times, our (starting) defensive line is on the sidelines watching and yet this football team finds a way to win," Miles said. "We'll certainly enjoy the rest. We'll certainly improve our health. We're looking forward to returning to freshness, if you will."
Not since 2002, when the Big Ten went 5-2 in a bowl season that included Ohio State’s win over Miami in the BCS Championship, has the conference finished above .500 in the postseason. Last year’s 2-5 mark, punctuated by Michigan’s blowout loss to USC in the Rose Bowl and Ohio State’s debacle against Florida in the BCS Championship, capped a three-year run of futility in which the league posted the worst bowl record of any BCS conference.
One of the most significant injuries involved All-American defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, who played the second half of the season with a sprained right knee. Dorsey was injured on an illegal chop-block against Auburn.
LSU was fortunate to have the next weekend off and Dorsey didn't miss a game, although he was not the same. His ability to explode into the backfield appeared diminished and his role appeared to shift to plugging holes in the line on running plays.
"Injuries do that," LSU defensive tackle Marlon Favorite said. "I'm sure he wanted to rush and push to his full extent, but due to his injury he couldn't, so in his mind he was thinking, 'I have to do what I can.' He did that well."
Dorsey finished as LSU's third-leading tackler with 64 stops, including six sacks and 11.5 tackles for losses. He won a trophy case-full of SEC and national awards.
Dorsey said LSU's defense is eager to send a message of how well it can play when key players are all fresh.
"We're real excited. Everybody started talking down on us when we started giving up points on defense," Dorsey said. "We tried not to listen to that because, I mean, nobody knows what's going on in our locker room. So for us to have an opportunity to be healthy, we can come out and do what we're supposed to do and do what we know how to do."
On offense, LSU's top wide receiver, Early Doucet, was sidelined for most of five games with a groin injury. Starting quarterback Matt Flynn missed an early season start with an ankle sprain and the SEC championship game with a shoulder injury.
Backup quarterback Ryan Perrilloux won both starts in Flynn's absence, but if Perrilloux plays against Ohio State, it will be more by design than necessity.
"A lot of our guys were nicked up. That's the fact of the matter and everyone knows that," said Favorite, who played through injuries to both ankles this season. "You give us time to rest and get back on our feet? This is my first time ever dealing with injuries like this and I feel better already."

LSU-AUBURN quotes

“I saw on some of the previous plays from that formation that (Auburn) was leaving their DBs on us one-on-one. Byrd has great speed — an extra gear — so I just threw the ball up there, and he wrapped up around the DB and made a great catch.” - LSU quarterback Matt Flynn on his last TD pass with literally 1 tick on the game clock.

"We just weren't going to kick it to their returner. We still felt good about it. We didn't make the plays." -- Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville on why they never kicked the ball deep to LSU.

"It was either going to be a touchdown or we kick a field goal, and that was the plan. With one second, I think we timed it out perfectly." - LSU coach Les Miles on the last play of the game.


“God, if I just break that up and time runs out, we win. It just shows the guts and the confidence that coach Miles has in his team to try something like that, late in the game with the time running out. It just shows the confidence in their offense.” -- Auburn defensive back Jerraud Powers, on the last play of the game.


"In the back end of the game, I had a timeout that I could call but I did not expect it to come down to one second," LSU coach Les Miles said. "I didn't have it timed out that far. Certainly it worked right."


"That really surprised me. It was a gutsy call and I think there was only one second left on the game clock. An incomplete could end the game, but they converted and my hat's off to them. They converted and scored so I guess it was a good call." -- Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox


"They (the referees) said they had an illegal formation. They should have worked that out, but they actually officiated it from the instant replay and you can't do that. You can't go to instant replay and look at it. They ruled touchdown, but with a flag on the field you have to work that out before you start looking at it. Unfortunately they did it the way you're not supposed to." -- Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, on a replay that showed six men on the line of scrimmage for LSU, but the flag was picked up.

5 Reasons Why LSU beat Auburn

LSU beat Auburn 30-24 last night in an exhilerating finish that made Death Valley quake like in 1988. Here are 5 honest, objective reasons why LSU won. I'm an LSU fan, but the reasons why are the reasons why. Let's begin:

1. THE OFFICIATING CREW: Let's be real here: This game is dramatically different if two easy calls are made by the refs. Both favored LSU. Midway through the fourth quarter, a Jacob Hester touchdown was allowed to stand after a lengthy review, even though a replay clearly showed LSU had only six men (seven is the minimum) on the line of scrimmage. Not only would the penalty have negated LSU's touchdown, but it would have backed them up 5 yards as well, putting in doubt a TD play. Again, with just under two minutes left, LSU running back Richard Murphy — trying to convert a 3rd and 3 — was tackled at Auburn's 38 and after hitting the ground he bounced forward at the 38 and a half yard line, right where the first down was. The spot was more than generous for Murphy, it was simply crazy. Yet, the SEC replay booth didn't deem the play fit to review and LSU was able to avoid a 4th and short. Would they have gotten it? Probably. But it's unfair not to give Auburn a chance to defend a 4th and short. Incredibly, on both calls, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville refused to challenge the calls, which brings us to the next reason why Auburn lost.

2. TUBERVILLE'S COYNESS: The man can coach, we all know that, but he coached an awfully coy game against LSU. Tuberville is a guy that has to win on his own terms, not by ways he can't stomach. An LSU kickoff return for TD? He couldn't stomach that. A knockdown, dragout grind-em-out running game by LSU? Tubby couldn't stomach losing like that, so he played the game always holding his spades instead of all-out. His refusal to kick deep on kickoffs gave LSU tremendous field position the entire game, including on their game-winning drive. Also, he defied reason by refusing to challenge not one, but TWO questionable decisions by the officials (the Hester touchdown and the Murphy spot). To compound matters, with LSU eating up the clock and inside of a minute he refused to call timeout to salvage any few remaining seconds he team would need if LSU converted.

3. THE RETURN OF DOUCET: Early Doucet, back for extended duty for the first time in six games, had 1 catch in the first half for zero yards. LSU's passing game looked accordingly, too. Brandon LeFell continued to lefail. Demetrius Byrd dropped key passes until the last 20 minutes of the game. But Doucet turned it up in the second half. He led all receivers in the game with seven catches for 93 yardss. A 33-yard pass from Flynn to Doucet in triple coverage for a first down at the Auburn 34-yard line sparked LSU’s first comeback and established momentum for the Tigers receivers.

4. DEMETRIUS BYRD: The LSU receiver feasted on Auburn's DBs in the second half with big catches from Matt Flynn. He finished with 89 yards on just 3 catches, including a 58-yarder in the 3rd quater. Of the last catch of the game, Flynn said he noticed a tendency. “I saw on some of the previous plays from that formation that (Auburn) was leaving their DBs on us one-on-one,” Flynn said. “Byrd has great speed — an extra gear — so I just threw the ball up there, and he wrapped up around the DB and made a great catch.”

5. AUBURN'S RUNNING GAME GOES AWOL: Auburn's tailbacks Brad Lester and Ben Tate had been hurting LSU in the first half, especially Lester, but they couldn't break though the line in the second half. That significantly weakened the Tigers' attack. Three of the team's first four second-half drives went nowhere. Lester gouged LSU for 68 yards on 16 attempts, often times turning and twisting for extra yardage after being hit; the flow of the game dictated that they pound Lester into the LSU line but they never did, instead settling for Brandon Cox throws that were off the mark. That allowed LSU to get back in the game and outscore Auburn 23 to 7 after Auburn took a 24-14 lead.