The win is significant for the SEC after losses by Alabama and Texas to non-conference opponents.
LSU’s defense, a previous weakness under coach Brian Kelly, appears to be much improved.
The victory establishes LSU as a potential national championship contender.
CLEMSON, SC — Weeks from now, while we’re deep into a crazy ride of a college football season, we’ll look back and marvel at how LSU saved the SEC season out of the gate.
And set itself up for a national championship run.
‘These are big wins, there’s no doubt,’ LSU coach Brian Kelly said after a 17-10 victory over No. 6 Clemson.
He had no idea how big before it all unfolded.
Because while LSU was grinding out a top five win on the road, No. 1 Texas and SEC king Alabama were trying to understand how it all went wrong. When told of the Texas loss to Ohio State, and Florida State’s win over Alabama, LSU linebacker Whit Weeks said, ‘Really? Wow.’
He picked up his bag to headed for the bus after a critical win, and turned and said, ‘Wait, how bad did Alabama lose again?’
Bad, really bad.
That’s what makes this LSU win so important to a conference desperate to regain its footing in a quickly shifting environment on the field. The Big Ten has won the last two national championships, and each time the SEC hasn’t even made the final.
Then there’s LSU, which hadn’t won a season opener in Kelly’s first three seasons, and hadn’t won on the opening week of the season overall since 2019 ― when a guy named Burrow was throwing darts all over the place. So yeah, this was big.
Kelly told anyone who would listen this offseason that this was his best LSU team. What he didn’t say was this team had characteristics unlike any he has had in Baton Rouge.
Tough. Smart. Resilient.
In one gut-check of a game, LSU distanced itself from Kelly’s three previous teams with undeniable grit and fortitude. And the Tigers did it with defense.
That’s right, defense.
The one thing that has kept LSU from reaching its potential under Kelly now looks like the one thing that could make this team so dangerous this fall.
‘We want the game in our hands,’ said LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker.
This from a defense that two years ago wasted a Heisman Trophy season from quarterback Jayden Daniels, and last year had one of the worst statistical defenses in program history. It took all of 60 minutes on the field to change that tune.
Clemson and its high-powered offense had 261 total yards, including a lousy 31 rushing yards on 20 carries. By the time it was over, by the time a fourth-down throw was deflected by blitzing linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. (remember him?), LSU had held Clemson to just nine minutes of clock time in the second half.
No matter the circumstances, the LSU defense kept coming. The offense fumbled at the negative 24 on the second drive of the game, and the defense forced a field goal. The offense then fumbled again at the end of the half, this time on a fourth and two from the Clemson 12.
All Kelly did was look up at the scoreboard as the teams ran off the field, glaring at the reality staring back at him from the scoreboard: Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s teams were 115-11 when leading at halftime.
‘I told our guys, well, it’s going to have to be 115-12,’ Kelly said. ‘Because there was no other choice.’
Just like there was no other choice for the defense with Clemson driving late in the game. Kelly put the defense through the identical two-minute situation numerous times during fall camp, forcing them to figure ways of making stops.
This defense – rebuilt through critical additions from the transfer portal – then went out and saved a critical season opener. And maybe the SEC’s reputation. For a day, at least.
Because after Florida State humiliated Alabama, and Ohio State exposed Texas and hyped quarterback Arch Manning, there wasn’t much left for the big, bad SEC on opening weekend.
The conference that holds itself above all others was in danger of three losses in marquee non-conference games, and a bunch of wins against nobodies. By nobodies, I mean one opponent’s mascot was actually “Sharks.”
And no, Adam Sandler was nowhere to produce the carnage.
But LSU did show up in a big game, a line in the sand game where it had to clearly declare where it was headed under Kelly. A team that reaches almost there with a useless bowl win, or a program that rolls into big games and squeezes the life out of them.
So it should come as no surprise that the unit Kelly worked on more than any this offseason, was the group that saved the day.
By the time Clemson’s high-powered offense took the field with 1:46 to play, it had barely reached 200 yards of offense. The final drive ended when Perkins Jr. forced an errant throw at the LSU 15.
It was one of many forced errors by the defense, and specifically, the pass rush. That, everyone, is what big boy football is at its core.
It’s a game of will and want.
Football is finding your inner fortitude, and backing up words with action. It’s not running your mouth for social media likes or viral moments ― and then folding in crunch time.
Earlier this summer, Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos did just that when he said Nick Saban wasn’t around anymore at Alabama. So Tide star linebacker Deonte Lawson responded at SEC Media Days, on the biggest stage of the offseason, by declaring, “all disrespect will be addressed accordingly.”
The only “addressing” in the SEC came from LSU in front of a raucous and wild stadium in the Lowcountry, one that was juiced for this thing for months. LSU took big blows from Clemson on both sides of the ball early on, but kept grinding, kept figuring ways to stay close until it figured out the Clemson defense in the second half.
Because the one thing that Kelly made sure wouldn’t let him down again kept punching back.
Impact players from the transfer portal (including edges Jack Pyburn and Patrick Payton, and defensive backs Mansoor Delane and Tamarcus Cooley) have changed the way LSU plays defense. So has the return of Perkins Jr., to his freshman form.
All it took was the LSU offense, the one staple under Kelly that hasn’t wavered in three seasons, to figure out Clemson’s defense. Once quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who finished with 230 yards passing, started making big throws, even an obviously blown call that negated a touchdown pass wasn’t enough to stop this train.
‘This was a momentum builder, a confidence booster,’ Nussmeier said.
For LSU, and the suddenly shaky SEC.
For a week, at least.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.