Leonard Fournette leads as LSU runs over Texas Tech in Texas Bowl

But a spirited effort from defensive coordinator David Gibbs’ much-maligned unit kept Fournette reasonably corralled for the first three quarters of the game.

What happened next was pretty predictable.

The final stand for LSU signified how dominating the LSU defense was, cutting the bleeding from a 61-yard drive with a goal line stand as Mahomes once again ran around trying to find an open man. As his flailing pass missed the receiver and went out of bounds, LSU was ready to take a final play to end the game, giving the Tigers the 56-27 victory.

Freshman guard Tevin Mack came off the bench to score 20 points for Texas (8-4). His touchdown runs spanned 2, 43, 4 and 2 yards, while also earning his first career touchdown reception from 44 yards. Chark got his first touch of the season – run or pass – as he answered Tech’s big bomb from Mahomes to Jakeem Grant with a 79-yard end-around run for a score and what was then a 21-6 LSU lead. Mahomes was intercepted once. And for all the criticism that Cameron received on Twitter – including from yours truly – LSU amassed 638 yards of total offense. LSU led 21-13 at the half and had Texas Tech outgained 273 yards to 188. Tigers quarterback Brandon Harris, running back Darrel Williams and receiver D.J. Chark each had rushing touchdowns for LSU.

And the Tigers were off. LSU’s defense collected sacks from defensive tackle Davon Godchaux and middle linebacker Kendell Beckwith and forced two punts on the Red Raiders’ first two series of the game.

The Red Raiders got a taste of raw, physical football; Tech’s offensive sparkplugs took a number of brutal shots by the LSU defense but managed to produce just under 400 receiving yards.

Texas Tech extended its lead back to 18 on three occasions in the first half, but Fore provided a spark off the bench to bring Richmond within 12, 41-29, at the halftime break.

Leonard Fournette rushed for over 200 yards and scored 5 TDs in Tuesday’s AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl.

Fournette sailed into the end zone Superman style on a 2-yard run with about 8 minutes left. He was picked off once.

Fournette, who already broke the LSU single-season rushing record earlier this season, now also holds the program record for most touchdowns in a season.

After a 38-17 defeat to Ole Miss, reports surfaced that Miles would be relieved.

After scoring 46.6 points per game, Tech tied its second-lowest scoring output of the season.

“They’ll start pointing toward that college playoffs this offseason and that’s really where we want to be”, Miles said.

LSU led 7-0 with 11:47 to play in the opening quarter.

Harris’ counterpart, Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes, was 14 of 24 for 173 passing yards in the first half.

Mahomes finished the game with 370 yards on 56 passing attempts and had four touchdowns among his 28 completions. “He is a special back, but we would expect him to have nights like this”.

At nearly every position, LSU had a better, stronger and faster athlete than Texas Tech.

“That was a different level of pass rush than we’ve seen this year”, Kingsbury said, via the Advocate.