LSU has avoided a sixth straight 0-1 start.
The No. 9 Tigers beat No. 4 Clemson 17-10 in Clemson on Saturday night as the Tigers finally won a season opener for the first time since they went 15-0 on the way to the national title in 2019.
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LSU’s defense shined as the Tigers from Baton Rouge scored 14 straight points in the second half. After Caden Durham tied the game with a two-yard TD run in the third quarter, LSU took its first lead of the game with 12:18 to go when Garrett Nussmeier hit Trey’Dez Green for an eight-yard TD.
Clemson got the ball for its final possession with just under two minutes to go and a timeout in hand. The Tigers advanced all the way to LSU’s 15-yard line but Cade Klubnik was forced from the pocket and his rushed pass fell incomplete as LSU linebacker Harold Perkins was closing in.
The sequence to end that Clemson drive embodied Klubnik’s rough game. He was just 19-of-38 passing for 230 yards and an interception. Klubnik had a stellar 2024 season after a rough first year as a starter and entered the 2025 season as one of the Heisman favorites.
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But LSU’s overhauled defense made life tough for him and the entire Clemson offense. LSU got consistent pressure on Klubnik and held Clemson to just 31 total rushing yards.
LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier was 28-of-38 for 230 yards and a TD as the team was much better in the second half after fumbling twice in the first 30 minutes. Nussmeier (+700) is now the betting favorite for the Heisman Trophy at BetMGM after preseason favorite Arch Manning’s Texas Longhorns lost to Ohio State earlier in the day.
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Time for LSU to capitalize
LSU coach Brian Kelly was adamant about stopping his team’s Week 1 losing streak all summer. Since winning the national title, the Tigers lost to Mississippi State, UCLA, twice to Florida State and to USC to start their seasons.
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The purpose of ending that losing streak was so obvious that LSU players wore shirts that said “1-0” onto the field for warmups.
LSU has won at least nine games in each of Kelly’s first three seasons with the school but hasn’t been a serious national title contender in any of those years or even made a New Year’s Six bowl game. When you’re at LSU, winning the Citrus Bowl or the ReliaQuest Bowl isn’t exactly the mark of a successful season.
All the ingredients could be in place in 2025, provided LSU can navigate a brutal SEC schedule that contains six teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25.
If the defense is as good as it was on Saturday night, that schedule looks less challenging. With Nussmeier and a bunch of talented receivers, the offense could be even better than it was a season ago. But the LSU defense allowed 24 points per game in 2024 and nearly six yards a play. The Tigers gave up at least 27 points in every loss.
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Holding a potent offense like Clemson’s to 10 points and shutting it out in the second half is a phenomenal way to start the season. If LSU can do something similar in two weeks against Florida, then LSU fans can really start dreaming big.
All isn’t lost for Clemson
Dabo Swinney’s hopes of being the first 16-0 team in college football are toast. But Clemson’s playoff hopes are far from over.
The Tigers are still the favorites in the ACC and have SMU and Florida State at home while avoiding Miami altogether. Road games against Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Louisville could be tricky, but the Tigers should get through at least two of those games if not all three.
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As Ohio State showed a season ago, a team can lose twice in the regular season and still win the national title.
