LSU football’s run game enjoyed its best outing of the year in the Week 7 win over South Carolina. LSU averaged 5.5 yards per attempt. Entering the game, LSU’s highest yards-per-carry mark in 2025 was 3.9 against Southeastern Louisiana.
The improvement started up front, where LSU saw more consistency from the offensive line. LSU head coach Brian Kelly offered his thoughts on the group’s performance on Monday.
“I think it’s just been an evolution. I think it starts with getting off the ball. I think it starts with, you know, aiming points for our offensive line. A lot of the things that take time to come together is starting to come to fruition,” Kelly said.
LSU began the year with five new starters on the offensive line. It was understandable when LSU struggled to run the ball vs. Clemson’s defensive front, but when LSU couldn’t run on Louisiana Tech in Week 2, concerns grew. The issue plagued LSU through the Ole Miss loss and made it hard to establish an efficient offense.
Now that LSU has shown signs of life, Kelly wants to see it taken to another level:
“We’re at the point now where we can talk about sustaining blocks, which is simply a determination and a want to and a will. And we’ve got to get to that. Because if we sustain one or two blocks, well, we had six runs of 15 yards or more. That’s a really good start. We could have had three or four that were of 50 or more. And we just need to sustain. I couldn’t get to sustaining blocks if I couldn’t get off the ball. Now we’re getting off the ball. Now we’ve got to sustain blocks. We’ve got to hold on to those blocks. It can’t just be contact and that’s it.”
LSU’s rushing success rate vs. South Carolina was 37%, still a few points below where LSU wants to be. But a few explosive runs gave the offense what it needed. Caden Durham finished with 15 carries for 70 yards while Ju’Juan Johnson ran it five times for 66 yards. Garrett Nussmeier got involved, too, with four carries for 31 yards.
LSU will need its run game to show up again vs. a solid Vanderbilt defense this week.
This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: Brian Kelly grades LSU’s offensive line performance vs. South Carolina
