re: Best performance in Baton Rouge by a single player?

quote:

---

if I remember correctly, because the coaches didn't put him in the game until mid second quarter.

---

quote:

---

Shaun Alexander was on the bus trip to Baton Rouge on November 9, 1996. He was a vaunted prospect to be sure, but a prospect nonetheless, locked on the depth chart behind lead-horse Dennis Riddle and the oft-injured-but-well-regarded veteran Curtis Alexander.

---

quote:

---

Granted the lack of strategical mystery, LSU’s defense held serve in the first set, as neither team could crack the other’s code in the first quarter. Riddle had seen his share of carries (he finished with 15 for 95 yards), and Curtis Alexander was dinged up and used more as a receiver than back. That set the stage for an increased role for the younger Alexander, and he took advantage of the opportunity to full effect.

Early in the second, less than two minutes into the quarter, on a standard down-standard set running play, Alexander showed a flash of what was to come in his storied career: in short, he made the mundane look spectacular. On second down from the 17-yard line, Alexander took a handoff from Tide quarterback Freddie Kitchens and broke left towards the sideline on a well-blocked power sweep. He got the blocking he needed, to be sure, but it was his patience and square-shouldered technique that allowed him to slip to the edge, round the end, and punch forward with his sneaky-fast speed to squirt down the sideline for the first score of the game. The Tide went up by a score thanks to Alexander’s execution, and as a result, Stallings and McCovery kept feeding him.

---