LSU NOTEBOOK: Fans still turn out

By SCOOTER HOBBS
American Press

BATON ROUGE — The official announced attendance of 91,986 at the LSU-Tennessee game might have been a stretch, but there did appear to be 80,000 or more to the naked eye.
Even without the headaches caused by the two recent hurricanes, that’s pretty amazing considering Tiger Stadium’s first Monday night game was a work day and a school night for the fans and only a handful of the 7,000 Tennessee fans who bought tickets were able to make the trip.
LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said he asked last week and was told that roughly 21,000 season ticket holders lived either in the New Orleans area or more than two and half hours from Baton Rouge.
“And that,” Bertman said, “wouldn’t include Lake Charles, which is only two hours away. I asked for that information before we knew Lake Charles would be affected.”
The hurricane aftermath actually added a few Lake Area fans to the mix.
Jason Thorpe and Jeremy Jackson of Sulphur didn’t have tickets last week and had no intention of being at the game before the former evacuated to Hattiesburg, Miss., and the latter fled to Toledo Bend.
Both are big LSU fans and headed for Baton Rouge when a friend in the city told them he had extra tickets — and a place to stay.
“I guess that’s one good thing about the hurricane,” said Thorpe. “No way I could get a ticket to a game like this if it hadn’t been for the hurricane. It wasn’t all bad.”
Pete LaFleur and Jacqueline Lugar of Lake Charles were in the same boat after evacuating to a friend’s house in Baton Rouge.
“I’m happy to be at the game,” LaFleur said. “You have to look on the bright side.”
Dave Boling of Lake Charles evacuated to a relative’s house in nearby Zachary, but made sure his LSU-UT tickets were with him just in case.
His date, Sharon Henry of Bridge City, Texas, also considers herself a huge LSU fan, but evidently is a novice to the SEC.
She came to the game wearing an orange blouse that could have come from the Tennessee gift shop.
A quick stop at the LSU gift shop solved that dilemma, but it was a little hot and humid to be wearing a gold t-shirt over the orange one.
COLORS: Before the game the honor guard included the flags of the states affected by hurricanes — Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas — along with the American flag.
LSU student athletes from the affected states carried the flags of their home states.
Also, the LSU band added a set to its normal pregame show by playing the song, “Walking to New Orleans.”
OVERTIME: It was LSU’s fifth overtime game (the Tigers are 3-2) and also the second straight time that Tennessee has visited Tiger Stadium and had to work OT. LSU beat the Vols 38-31 in OT in 2000, Nick Saban’s first year. None of the five has lasted more than one OT. It was also the second straight year the Tigers have opened the season at home with an OT game as they beat Oregon State 22-21 last year. When LSU settled for a field goal, it was the first they’d ever attempted in an OT. They scored touchdowns in OT victories over Tennessee, Mississippi State and Oregon State. In the only other loss, Ole Miss had the ball first and scored a TD but LSU blocked the extra point and returned it for a 2-point conversion to leave them trailing by four points. But the Tigers came up short having to go for a touchdown. The Ole Miss loss was LSU’s only OT game on the road.
QUICK START: LSU’s offense scored on its first play from scrimmage at home this season when Joseph Addai bounced outside and sprinted 19 yards for a touchdown. It was set up a play earlier when SS Jesse Daniels sacked UT quarterback Eric Ainge, forcing a fumble that was recovered by OLB Kenneth Hollis. It was the first time LSU scored on its first play of a game since 2001 against Tulane (also the home and season opener) when LaBrandon Toefield did it from 28 yards out.
HE’S BACK: Former LSU QB Rick Clausen, who transferred to Tennessee three years ago, came back to haunt the Tigers when he came off the bench to riddle them for 196 yards while completing 21 of 32 passes.
Clausen, who started the Vols’ previous game against Florida, came on after an ineffective Eric Ainge threw an ill-advised interception just before being sacked in the end zone that was a gift for LSU’s Kenneth Hollis to return three yards for a touchdown and a 21-0 LSU lead.
Clausen admitted his demotion last week almost canceled his return to Tiger Stadium.
“It was tough week for myself,” he said. “I called home a few times. I didn’t really want to be here. My family said you’ve got to stay, you never know what might happen. I’m thankful to them and the guys in the locker room. They kept me going and and had faith in me. I’ll always be indebted to those guys.”
TURNABOUT: Tennessee, which hadn’t scored in the second half of its two previous games, didn’t score in the first half Monday but roared back with 24 points in the second half to force the OT.
WELCOME TO TIGER STADIUM, LES: The first noticeable boos of the Les Miles era came after Tennessee tied the score at 24-all with 2:02 remaining. When the Tigers ran two plays up the middle, the cascade began.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: LSU has not had its home opener this late since 1961 when the Tigers beat Texas A&M 16-7 on Sept. 30. Back then the season started later and the schedule was only 10 games ... Before the game LSU was the only one of 117 teams in Division I-A football that had played only one game. Most have played three or four.
NEXT: LSU plays at Mississippi State Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The game is not on network television, but will be carried by LSU’s Tigervision pay-per-view.
“We can’t dwell on this game,” Miles said. “In effect, it’s Tuesday and we’ve got to get ready to play another game.”
With the short week, LSU will be back at practice Tuesday night.

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 OT
----------------- -- -- -- -- -- [ - ] -----
Tennessee........... 0 0 7 17 6 [ 6 ] - 30
LSU................. 7 14 3 0 3 [ 3 ] - 27

Scoring Summary:
First Quarter
LSU - Joseph Addai 19 yd run (Colt David kick) — 1 play, 19 yards, TOP 0:06.
Second Quarter
LSU - JaMarcus Russel 1 yd run (Colt David kick) — 4 plays, 70 yards, TOP 1:20.
LSU - Kenneth Hollis 3 yd interception return (Colt David kick)
Third Quarter
UT - Bret Smith 8 yd pass from Rick Clausen (James Wilhoit kick) — 11 plays, 61 yards, TOP 3:30.
LSU - Chris Jackson 42 yd field goal — 6 plays, 25 yards, TOP 1:51.
Fourth Quarter
UT - Rick Clausen 1 yd run (James Wilhoit kick) — 13 plays, 75 yards, TOP 5:31.
UT - Gerald Riggs Jr 1 yd run (James Wilhoit kick) — 2 plays, 2 yards, TOP 0:42.
UT - James Wilhoit 28 yd field goal — 9 plays, 52 yards, TOP 3:22.
OVERTIME
LSU - Colt David 31 yd field goal — 5 plays, 12 yards.
UT - Gerald Riggs Jr 1 yd run (No kick) — 6 plays, 25 yards.

Team Statistics
2005 LSU Football
UT LSU

FIRST DOWNS................... 21 13
Rushing..................... 6 5
Passing..................... 11 6
Penalty..................... 4 2
NET YARDS RUSHING............. 70 98
Rushing Attempts............ 34 33
Average Per Rush............ 2.1 3.0
Yards Gained Rushing........ 110 131
Yards Lost Rushing.......... 40 33
NET YARDS PASSING............. 250 158
Completions-Attempts-Int.... 28-51-2 14-28-1
Average Per Attempt......... 4.9 5.6
Average Per Completion...... 8.9 11.3
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS........... 320 256
Total offense plays......... 85 61
Average Gain Per Play....... 3.8 4.2
Fumbles: Number-Lost.......... 4-2 3-2
Penalties: Number-Yards....... 14-97 11-71
PUNTS-YARDS................... 8-309 8-312
Average Yards Per Punt...... 38.6 39.0
Net Yards Per Punt.......... 27.4 36.5
Inside 20................... 2 3
50+ Yards................... 1 0
Touchbacks.................. 0 0
Fair catch.................. 2 1
KICKOFFS-YARDS................ 5-325 5-319
Average Yards Per Kickoff... 65.0 63.8
Net Yards Per Kickoff....... 43.6 45.0
Touchbacks.................. 3 1
Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD. 3-20-0 5-90-0
Average Per Return.......... 6.7 18.0
Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD 4-74-0 2-47-0
Average Per Return.......... 18.5 23.5
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD.. 1-26-0 2-3-1
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD. 0-0-0 0-0-0
Miscellaneous Yards........... 0 0
Possession Time............... 35:30 24:30
1st Quarter................. 9:43 5:17
2nd Quarter................. 8:42 6:18
3rd Quarter................. 7:31 7:29
4th Quarter................. 9:34 5:26
OT Quarter................. 0:00 0:00
Third-Down Conversions........ 6 of 16 2 of 13
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 1 of 1 0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 5-5 3-4
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 2-18 4-32
PAT Kicks..................... 3-3 3-3
Field Goals................... 1-1 2-2

Individual Statistics (Final)
Rushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg Avg
-------------------------------------------------
Gerald Riggs Jr 24 97 8 89 2 22 3.7
M. Hardesty 2 4 0 4 0 3 2.0
Erik Ainge 2 0 9 -9 0 0 -4.5
Rick Clausen 6 9 23 -14 1 8 -2.3
Totals... 34 110 40 70 3 22 2.1

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long Sack
-------------------------------------------------
Rick Clausen 32-21-1 196 1 25 3
Erik Ainge 19-7-1 54 0 16 1
Totals... 51-28-2 250 1 25 4

Receiving No. Yds TD Long
----------------------------------------
C.J. Fayton 8 61 0 16
Chris Hannon 6 55 0 14
Robert Meachem 3 44 0 25
Bret Smith 3 38 1 25
Gerald Riggs Jr 3 20 0 10
Jayson Swain 2 15 0 8
Cory Anderson 2 9 0 5
Chris Brown 1 8 0 8
Totals... 28 250 1 25

Punting No. Yds Avg Long In20 TB
---------------------------------------------------
B. Colquitt 8 309 38.6 50 2 0
Totals... 8 309 38.6 50 2 0

Punts Kickoffs Intercept
All Returns No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.Lg
--------------------------------------------------
Gerald Riggs Jr 0 0 0 1 17 17 0 0 0
Lucas Taylor 3 20 20 2 45 25 0 0 0
I. Johnson 0 0 0 1 12 12 0 0 0
Jonathan Hefney 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 26 26
Totals... 3 20 20 4 74 25 1 26 26

Field goal attempts
----------------------------------------
James Wilhoit 4th 02:02 28 yds - Good

FUMBLES: Tennessee-Gerald Riggs Jr 3-1; Erik Ainge 1-1. LSU-JaMarcus
Russel 1-1; Skyler Green 1-0; Joseph Addai 1-1.
LSU
Rushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg Avg
-------------------------------------------------
Joseph Addai 16 93 9 84 1 21 5.2
Shyrone Carey 5 13 3 10 0 5 2.0
Jacob Hester 2 6 0 6 0 5 3.0
Justin Vincent 3 6 1 5 0 4 1.7
Skyler Green 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
JaMarcus Russel 6 13 20 -7 1 8 -1.2
Totals... 33 131 33 98 2 21 3.0

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long Sack
-------------------------------------------------
JaMarcus Russel 28-14-1 158 0 47 2
Totals... 28-14-1 158 0 47 2

Receiving No. Yds TD Long
----------------------------------------
Craig Davis 3 68 0 47
Dwayne Bowe 3 28 0 18
Skyler Green 2 10 0 5
Jacob Hester 2 10 0 7
Keith Zinger 1 21 0 21
Early Doucet 1 11 0 11
Joseph Addai 1 7 0 7
Bennie Brazell 1 3 0 3
Totals... 14 158 0 47