I said absolutely. I reached out to my friends Verge Ausberry, Ronnie Haliburton and many others that made this day special.
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Syracuse’s tradition is based on its stellar running backs from the past, the great Jim Brown, Heisman Trophy victor Ernie Davis and Floyd Little, a three-time All-American in the mid-1960s. The Carrier Dome field is named in honor of Davis, the first black player to win the coveted trophy (1961), and Little, now an administrator at Syracuse, watched from the chancellor’s box. The sophomore phenom also had an 87-yard touchdown sprint called back by a formation penalty.
It’s probably not going out on a long limb to say the people of Baton Rouge are thrilled with the decision, too. Trent Domingue’s field goal pushed LSU’s advantage to 10-3 with 9:44 remaining in the third quarter.
Seth Russell and the No. 5 Baylor Bears have their edge back, just in time for the two-time Big 12 champions to start conference play.
Starting from its 40, Syracuse put forth its only scoring drive of the half, spanning 33 yards in nine plays and ending with a 43-yard field goal by Cole Murphy. Then again, we aren’t even sure if Auburn is an FBS team. LSU returned it for a touchdown and a 17-3 lead just before the midpoint of the third quarter. Running back Leonard Fournette leads the show with 387 rushing yards and six touchdowns in three games. “We have characteristics of a dominant team, but we didn’t dominate this opponent”.
The biggest play of the day was a broken play.
Freshman quarterback Zack Mahoney completed 16-of-38 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns in his first start for the Orange. But he also threw a third touchdown pass, this one to Dontae Strickland late in the fourth quarter.
That score came after Fournette’s long TD run was nullified by a false start. Next play, 15 yard pass interference penalty (Kevin Tolliver) negates an interception by Rickey Jefferson. On a few occasions, he missed open receivers, typically by underthrowing them.
Fournette became the first LSU running back ever to rush for two consecutive 200-yard games, and for the second straight week, Twitter is taking notice.
“We have to be multi-dimensional and have some balance, pass the ball and run the ball”, said Dupre, who had four catches for 73 yards. The Tigers went back up by seven in its opening drive of the second half, as kicker Trent Dominigue connected for a 21-yard field goal.
Assuming LSU can avoid a letdown and overcome the pitfalls of traveling, the Tigers should be a sound play today for bettors when they visit Syracuse at 12:00PM ET. In fact, a Syracuse safety and cornerback had him well covered as quarterback Brandon Harris’ pass floated down toward him.
Lenard Tillery had a 16-yard scoring run for Southern (2-2). Midway through the second quarter, a Syracuse defender appeared to wrap up Harris for a sack. It was under-thrown a bit, but still it was a great pass, and Dural got it for a 51-yard gain to the Syracuse 11-yard line. In an era that is all about the passing game, Fournette was the No.1 ranked recruit coming out of high school in 2014.
The Warhawks (1-2) didn’t have a first down in the first 23 minutes and were held to 9 yards rushing. They lost 51-14 to Georgia three weeks earlier. That was the storyline Saturday, as Syracuse, sitting atop the ACC standings with a 3-0 record, attempted to go 4-0 for the first time since gas was.25 cents.
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Two passes off the mark by Mahoney and a direct snap to Frederick netted only two yards.
