Texas Bowl: Leonard Fournette scores 5 TD’s in LSU win vs Texas Tech

Leonard Fournette closed his super sophomore season with five touchdowns to lead the LSU Tigers to a win in the Texas Bowl over Jakeem Grant and the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Leonard Fournette figured to have a brilliant performance against Texas Tech’s No. 126 rushing defense when LSU met the Red Raiders in the Texas Bowl and he didn’t disappoint. The sophomore running back ran for 212 yards, his fifth 200-yard game of the year, on 29 carries and four touchdowns (five overall) as LSU won the Texas Bowl over Texas Tech.

He tied the NCAA bowl record with his five touchdowns from scrimmage.Fournette started the scoring with a two-yard touchdown after picking up 40 rushing yards on LSU’s opening drive. Texas Tech responded with a 46-yard reception from Jakeem Grant but the two-point conversion failed.

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Texas Tech knew all about Fournette, but they didn’t know they’d have to worry about D.J. Clark, who took his first touch of the year 79 yards to the house for a touchdown. His touchdown came with 29 seconds left in the first quarter and took the wind out of the Texas Tech team for the next few possessions. LSU added to their lead midway through the second quarter when Fournette scored on a 44-yard touchdown reception to make it a 21-6 game.

Mahomes and Grant struck again for their second score of the half right before half to respond with a 90-yard drive to make it 21-13 at halftime. Texas Tech came out of the break and Mahomes found Reginald Davis for a 31-yard touchdown after an LSU turnover to make it 21-20.

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But that was as close as Kliff Kingsbury’s team would get tonight as Fournette and much-maligned quarterback Brandon Harris took over. Fournette added a 43-yard touchdown run to break the LSU single-season rushing touchdown record (20) and came one play after Harris connected with John Diarse down the left sideline on third-and-eight.

After an LSU stop, Fournette added his fourth touchdown of the night from four yards out to make it a 35-20 with 4:07 left in the third quarter. Harris connected on long pass plays to Malachi Dupre and Trey Quinn on the drive with his two best throws of the game. It’s those throws that LSU needs to see more if they’re going to be a serious threat to win the SEC, even with Fournette running over everything in his way.

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The rout was on when Harris ran in from 26 yards out with nine seconds left in the third quarter and the score 42-20. Harris was 13 of 22 passing for 254 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He added 35 rushing yards and the score. Dupre led LSU with four catches for 96 yards.

As great as Fournette was, the LSU defense was just as impressive, especially the pass rush led by true freshman Arden Key. LSU had six sacks and more than 20 quarterback hurries.

Mahomes played well, extremely well in fact and made some extraordinary plays that had announcers Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer and David Pollack comparing him to Johnny Manziel. He would find Grant for their third touchdown later in the drive. Grant finished with 10 receptions for 125 yards and three touchdowns. Mahomes threw for 370 yards and four touchdowns and an interception.

Fournette’s fourth rushing touchdown of the game and his fifth overall made it 49-27 with 8:16 left in the fourth. topped 200 yards later in the quarter for the fourth time this year.

He finished just shy of 2,000 yards with 1,953 yards, but should end the year with the highest per-game average at 162.75. If he matches his totals next year, he could be adding the Heisman to his resume.

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The game was won with Fournette leading LSU to a rushing advantage of 384 yards for a 9.6 yards per carry average to only 24 yards from Texas Tech. If only Harris could play like this for an entire season LSU would be an SEC and College Football Playoff contender.