Here's how LSU football, Brian Kelly upset Alabama with a two-point conversion
BATON ROUGE - Brian Kelly just wanted to make the game about one play.
Kelly, LSU football's first-year coach, was an extra point away from going to double overtime against Alabama on Saturday night at Tiger Stadium. But that's not what he wanted to do.
The Tigers were going for two.
"Before the game started if you ask me, 'Hey, I can give you one play and if you're successful on that one play, you beat Alabama?' I would have taken that 100 times out of 100," Kelly said.
Kelly was confident in LSU's play call. Quarterback Jayden Daniels took the snap, rolled to his right and found an open Mason Taylor near the goal line. Taylor made the catch and dove at the pylon for the two points.
LSU (7-2, 5-1 SEC) won, 32-31 and at the same time ended the championship hopes for Alabama (7-2, 4-2). The sell-out crowd immediately stormed the field. Pure chaos ensued.
"I'm willing to do anything for this group because I think they have shown that they'll make it happen in some way," Kelly said.
Taylor, the three-star freshman who quickly rose to become LSU's starting tight end, had a feeling that the ball would be coming his way.
"(Catching the two-point conversion) just means a lot. It means Coach Kelly, Coach (offensive coordinator Mike) Denbrock and the coaches trust me and Jayden trusts me with the ball," Taylor said.
Kelly wouldn't reveal the name of the play that delivered LSU its biggest victory since winning the national championship in 2019 but did divulge all of the options it gave his playmakers, particularly Daniels.
If Alabama blitzed Daniels, he would already be out on the perimeter. If the Crimson Tide had pressured him off the edge, he had options to throw the ball quickly. If they had double-covered one of their receivers, Daniels was already out in space and could potentially score himself.
And crucially, Alabama had not seen the play yet.
"I felt like if we were going to go for two, let's get him moving and give him multiple options," Kelly said. "And he'll kind of sort it out and make the play necessary."
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Daniels, the Arizona State transfer who finished 22-of-32 passing for 182 yards and three total touchdowns, certainly supported the decision.
"Alabama is a great team. We weren't going to put the game in (anybody) else's hands," Daniels said. "Coach Kelly rides with us. He trusted us. And that means a lot."
When Kelly took over LSU last November, he was taking control of a program preparing to play in a bowl game with less than 40 scholarship players and that had gone 11-11 in the last two seasons.
In just 11 months later, the Tigers beat Alabama, are leading the SEC West, in position for the conference title game and possibly even more.
"I was emotional, not for myself but I was emotional for our team. I (knew) what we looked like in January and to see where we are today, that's pretty emotional," Kelly said.
Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser and the USA TODAY Sports South Region. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: How LSU football, Brian Kelly upset Alabama on two-point conversion
