Nussmeier, Durham lead big-play offense for No. 14 LSU in 42-10 win over South Alabama

Updated Sep. 29, 2024 12:06 a.m. ET

Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Garrett Nussmeier threw for a career-high 409 yards, Caden Durham had 217 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns and No. 14 LSU piled up a season-high 667 yards of offense in a 42-10 win over South Alabama on Saturday night.

Durham took a swing pass from Nussmeier 71 yards for a touchdown on the game's first offensive play, broke loose for an 86-yard run to the 1-yard line, and scored on an 8-yard run as LSU (4-1) built a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.

Nussmeier had a 1-yard rushing touchdown in the first and a 5-yarder in the second before throwing a 23-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Anderson to give LSU a 35-3 lead at the half.

“(Offensive coordinator) Joe Sloan is always telling us to start fast,” Nussmeier said. “I don’t know if we thought we were going to start that fast, but Caden made a pair of great plays.”

Nussmeier completed 26 of 39 passes while Durham, a freshman, finished with 128 rushing yards and 89 receiving yards on 10 total touches. Kyren Lacy caught five passes for 107 yards as 11 different LSU players logged at least one reception.

“Clearly we did some great things offensively tonight,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “Over 660 yards of total offense. Characterize it any way you want but Nussmeier, the receivers, Durham — all those guys were high performers tonight.”

Playing its first game since losing preseason All-American linebacker Harold Perkins to a knee injury for the season, LSU got big nights from a pair of other linebackers. Greg Penn had 14 tackles and Whit Weeks had nine in the victory for the Tigers.

South Alabama (2-3) got on the scoreboard early in the second quarter on a 49-yard field goal by Laith Marjan, cutting the deficit to 21-3. The lone touchdown of the night for Jaguars came on their first possession of the third quarter when Gio Lopez found Anthony Eager for a 27-yard touchdown.

Lopez finished 16 of 22 for 171 yards with 33 yards on the ground. Eager had four catches for 91 yards.

“Other than that one drive in the third quarter, I thought we did some good things tonight defensively,” Kelly said. “We have to tighten up some things here and there, but (South Alabama) is a top 15 offense in the country. We have gotten better over the last five weeks.”

Poll implications

Because No. 2 Georgia and No. 6 Ole Miss both lost Saturday, No. 14 LSU may make a small move up in the AP Top 25 next week.

The takeaway

Struggling to get off to impressive starts through the first four games of the season, LSU exploded early and put the game out of reach in the first half. The Tigers outgained South Alabama by over 300 yards and averaged 13 yards a play in the first half.