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    • LSU football’s wild rally could change Brian Kelly’s tenure
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    LSU football’s wild rally could change Brian Kelly’s tenure

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    • LSU kept its College Football Playoff hopes afloat with a dramatic win over Ole Miss. What does this mean for Brian Kelly? That’s hard to say.
    • LSU jumps over Ole Miss in the playoff pecking order.
    • The LSU defense grows a spine, Garrett Nussmeier comes into action and Lane Kiffin’s Rebels wither once again.

    BATON ROUGE, La. – Think about Saturday evening.

    If LSU scratches and claws and muddies and escapes and claws its way to the College Football Playoff, just think about the night the No. 10 Tigers won a game they never led until the last game.

    If this 29-26 win over No. 8 Ole Miss boosts Brian Kelly’s tenure and proves he’s worth the $95 million investment LSU made three years ago, think about the night his defense grew a spine and his quarterback fought through the tough times.

    And when it was done, LSU fired off enough fireworks that it could have been Independence Day, as fans stormed the field. It doesn’t matter that the Tigers were just a slight underdog.

    This unlikely escape warranted celebration.

    “These moments definitely don’t come around often in life,” LSU linebacker Whit Weeks said. “It was fun.”

    It was a turning point win in Kelly’s watershed third season.

    Or it gave LSU a shot of excitement before the bottom fell out in the second half of the schedule.

    I’m not sure which one it will turn out to be. I could believe it too.

    LSU’s six remaining games are against SEC competition. There’s no longer a game LSU (5-1) can’t win — or a game it can’t lose.

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    And the Tigers could be the second-best team in the SEC, or the seventh-best team in the SEC. I’m not convinced there is much difference.

    “This league is wide open,” LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said. “I think we took a big step tonight.”

    It’s wide open behind Texas anyway.

    LSU football jumps over Ole Miss in the playoff pecking order

    As for LSU’s Heartcats, they’re still a little rough around the edges, but so are most SEC teams. They’re improving, they’re battling, they have a quarterback and some good receivers, and their defense found momentum against a top-10 opponent, and so, who cares, why can’t the Tigers make the playoffs? ? They have about as good a chance as a number of other teams that are within one loss.

    They have a better chance of making the playoffs than Ole Miss (5-2). I know so much.

    “We’re real,” Nussmeier said afterward. “The Tigers are real. I think we proved that tonight. There were problems and there were mistakes, but we found a way to win the game.”

    Kelly raved about LSU’s performance — not because it was perfect, but because it wasn’t, and the Tigers nevertheless hung within striking distance until they finally broke through while Ole Miss conceded. He was excited about a defense that produced six sacks. He raved about his quarterback shaking off two interceptions, plus a slew of incompletions, and throwing touchdown passes on his final two throws.

    “This team keeps getting better,” Kelly said.

    That’s a fair assessment, and the same can be said for Kelly’s 2022 Tigers, who lost their season opener before upsetting Alabama and reaching the SEC Championship Game.

    LSU defeated Alabama that season with a two-point conversion. When given another chance to win a rivalry game with a two-point effort on Saturday, Kelly changed course. He did not want a single action to decide this outcome.

    “I just felt like our guys worked too hard to get back into that game,” Kelly said, “and I didn’t want to go for two in an all-or-nothing situation.”

    So after Nussmeier brought LSU within a point with a fourth-down touchdown dart to Aaron Anderson, Kelly opted for an extra point to tie the game and force overtime.

    Count weeks among those happiest that Kelly didn’t order a 2-point conversion.

    “I was happy to be able to play a little more ball,” Weeks said. ‘Hurry up, we can’t play again until next Saturday. I like playing football more.”

    LSU’s defense, which played well throughout the second half, validated Kelly’s decision.

    As the crowd reached the decibel level it had not reached all night, the Rebels moved backward during their overtime possession and needed a 57-yard field goal to salvage points.

    Mission accomplished for LSU’s defense. And then…

    “It’s time,” LSU wide receiver Kyren Lacy said.

    Also saving time.

    Nussmeier threw to Lacy on the first play of LSU’s overtime possession.

    Return completed.

    Garrett Nussmeier delivers for LSU in clutch

    The more the Tigers played, the better they looked.

    The game remained scoreless after the first quarter, but LSU was fortunate not to trail 17-0. Ole Miss’ Tre Harris dropped what should have been an 81-yard touchdown pass, and that costly fall was minus two red zone trips in the first quarter that yielded no points.

    “We controlled most of the game,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said. “… They are a good team, and we are a good team, but we should have won that game.”

    Which must make it all the more maddening for Kiffin that the Rebels lost.

    Ole Miss has spent a pretty penny – bundles of pennies, in fact – to improve its defense via a transfer, and while the unit has undeniably improved, that means doubling down on its failure to make winning stops at critical moments.

    Just two weeks ago, Kentucky used a fourth-and-7 completion to keep a drive alive that ended with a game-winning touchdown.

    Nussmeier needed two fourth-down completions to tie this game, and then one 25-yard strike to Lacy to win it.

    “We’re a rough bunch. We will fight until the end,” Weeks said. “We knew the whole game, we’re not losing this ball game.”

    If Weeks knew that while Ole Miss controlled much of the game, believe in his confidence. And believe the resilience of the Tigers.

    This is the night Kelly’s term started. Or not.

    But it’s certainly the night LSU pulled off a most unlikely comeback, keeping its playoff hopes alive and putting Ole Miss’ own aspirations on life support.

    Blake Toppmeyer is the national college football columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

    Subscribe to read all his columns.

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