GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
More often than we realize, football is a very simple game. The winners frequently have bigger and faster players. Makes sense, right?
Such was the case from the outset of LSU’s 42-10 win over South Alabama Saturday night. On the Tigers’ first two offensive plays, true freshman tailback Caden Durham caught a short pass and sprinted to a 71-yard touchdown, then ran for 86 yards to the 1-yard line to set up another touchdown and 14-0 lead with 10:47 to play in the first quarter.
LSU coach Brian Kelly was asked what Durham “did so well to start the game with those two touches?”
He paused, and you could almost see the wheels turning.
“Uh, ran fast,” Kelly deadpanned for a few laughs.
“You set me up for it,” he said.
Durham is very fast. A track star from Duncanville High in the Dallas area, he has been clocked at a 10.28 in the 100-meter dash and may compete for LSU.
Another simple thing about football is that no matter how fancy offensive coordinators get or think they are, they can only do one of two things on a play – run or pass. Nothing else matters in a way. And through most of this season, opposing defenses have been loading “the box” – the area closest to the line of scrimmage – with players to stop the run.
That is how South Alabama opened the game Saturday with just three defensive backs outside the box in the perimeter and the other eight near the line.
“We were expecting three deep and that configuration,” Kelly said.
And offensive coordinator Joe Sloan called a new pass play.
“We get him (Durham) out on the perimeter and get him the ball,” Kelly said. “We’ve done a really good job of putting him in a position to be successful. You had great blocks on that play, and then the rest is he’s just got elite speed.”
South Alabama adjusted on LSU’s next series for a pass as opposing defenses are finally starting to do. This is because quarterback Garrett Nussmeier has passed so well this season for so many yards (No. 4 nationally with 1,652) and so often (No. 2 nationally with 198 attempts). Durham’s 86-yard run happened when South Alabama was thinking pass, and Sloan called a run up the middle.
“They were in a configuration to stop our passing game,” Kelly said. “He was the beneficiary of a pretty fair box in terms of run, and then he uses his elite speed.”
If Ole Miss, Arkansas, Texas A&M and Alabama in the coming weeks decide to focus on Nussmeier with good reason, look out for Durham and his speed. The No. 13 Tigers (4-1, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) host No. 12 Ole Miss (4-1, 0-1 SEC) on Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC after an open date this weekend.
Durham finished with 128 yards on seven rushes and 89 receiving yards on three catches against South Alabama in just a half of play as he left with a toe injury that is not serious.
Just South Alabama, yes, but LSU’s offense is showing it can pass and run. Durham rushed for 98 yards on 11 carries in the win at South Carolina. Before that, he had all of five rushes for four yards in the Tigers’ first two games. On the season, he has rushed 29 times for 244 yards (8.4-yard average) with three touchdowns and caught six passes for 130 yards (21.6-yard average) and two touchdowns in just three games and a half.
“As I said earlier in the year, we were worried about the run game because we were getting loaded boxes (to stop the run),” Kelly said. “Now, we’re getting a defensive structure that is trying to prevent the passing game. And it’s giving us fair looks in the run game, and you saw what happened.”
The cat-and-mouse game will continue, because of Durham’s swift emergence. Too bad, he did not get a single touch in the 27-20 loss to USC. Ahead of him on the depth chart at the time were sixth-year senior John Emery Jr., sixth-year senior Josh Williams and sophomore Kaleb Jackson. Emery was lost for the season with a knee injury the week after the USC game, and Durham eventually got his chance.
“I think he’s a freshman who was working through that playbook and trying to understand the nuances of the game,” Kelly said. “And just feeling more comfortable. Through his play, when he was given the opportunity at South Carolina, he made it happen. He’s earned it through an opportunity that was given to him.”
And, uh, Durham took it and ran with it.
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