A Recap and Reaction to Tyrion Davis-Price's Historic Rushing Performance Against Florida
In a statement victory over the Florida Gators, it was the Tyrion Davis-Price show. The junior running back came through when LSU needed him most in their rivalry game in Death Valley, rushing for 287 yards and three touchdowns.
With a record setting performance, Davis-Price broke the LSU single-game rushing yards record, previously held by Leonard Fournette, to lift this team over the top.
“It’s a great honor,” Davis-Price said on putting his name in the LSU record books. “Just to know of the guys that came before me and set the records. Honestly, the o-line really came with it, they really turned it around. I just did my job and they did an amazing job.”
Davis-Price broke out of his shell last weekend in Lexington against the Kentucky Wildcats where he rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns. Carrying that momentum into Tiger Stadium in the biggest game of the season set the tone for LSU.
Over the last two weeks, Davis-Price has rushed for 434 yards and a whopping five touchdowns for Coach Orgeron’s offense. Down a number of key starters, it’s Davis-Price’s time to take over as the leader of this squad.
“He [Davis-Price] runs the ball the ball hard and it makes our job a little easier to have a guy like that back there,” offensive lineman Liam Shanahan said. “It started last week with him hitting the holes and we started playing a little better as an o-line. It feels good for us to put it together a little bit and let him get some of the recognition he deserves for how good of a player he is.”
Seeing Davis-Price hit his stride and show out when LSU needed him most was reassuring for this offense. With Max Johnson playing efficient and letting the rushing attack take over, the offensive scheme looked balanced for the first time this season.
Davis-Price credits the offensive line for his success Saturday afternoon, rightfully so, but the junior back continued to make play after play, bouncing off defenders each run. He also gave a tremendous amount of credit to director of performance innovation, Jack Marucci, for providing LSU with data showing sets and schemes LSU could run that would set them up for best success.
“The o-line, they’ve been working their tails off the whole season so everyone as a team like coaches and players just bought in” Davis-Price said. “Jack Marucci, he helped a lot in just creating schemes, different schemes, for different runs.”
The leadership of Davis-Price over the next handful of games will be important to give this team life. Putting the team on his back Saturday afternoon and providing confidence to this young team shows there’s still life within this Tigers locker room.
