LSU Pivotal Football Moments
pivotal college football moment: A decision by a coach or athletic director that changes the momentum of a program or an action by a player that changes the momentum of a game.
1906: Tigers Unveil Passing Attack
The college football rules committee adopted a package of rule changes for 1906 in response to concerns about the brutality of the game. The one that garnered the most atten­tion lega­lized one forward pass from behind the line if it was made within 5y to the right or left of cen­ter. The ball went to the opponent if it failed to touch a player of either side before touching the ground. Either team could recover a pass touched by an opponent. An incom­plete attempt on first or second down resulted in a 15y penalty from the spot from which the pass was thrown. A pass could not be caught more than 20y beyond the line of scrim­mage or beyond the goal line. (The end zone had not yet been invented.)
Killian Installs Passing Offense
LSU's third-year coach, Dan Killian from Michigan, like coaches across the land, inte­grated forward passing into his offense. The Tigers' first forward pass came in the season opening 5-0 victory against the Monroe Athletic Club. Halfback J. C. Muller caught a punt and, instead of running, threw a pass to B. B. Handy. This pass wasn't legal according to the rules, but the play was allowed. Muller also scored the game's only touchdown on a 40y run.

1906 LSU Tigers surround Coach Dan Killian. (LSU Gumbo Yearbook, Class of 1907)
LSU failed to score in its next two games - a 9-0 home loss to Ole Miss and a scoreless tie at Mississippi A&M.
Tigers Go 8-8 Passing
Two weeks after the A&M game, the team from the Louisiana Industrial Institute in Rus­ton came to Baton Rouge. The Times Picayune report on the 17-0 LSU victory included this paragraph:
The forward pass was worked eight times, and the local team never, on this forward pass, lost possession of the ball, which was an unusual record and shows a skill in the handling of the ball that few teams have developed this year ...
If the Tigers never lost possession on a forward pass, that means that all eight attempts were complete. So it's puzzling that Killian abandoned passing for the last two games on the schedule.
Newspaper accounts of LSU's 21-12 loss to Texas A&M mention only one forward pass - by the Aggies. The brief reports on the season-ending 6-6 tie with Arkansas also make no men­tion of forward passes.
Killian finished his three-year career as LSU coach with a mediocre 8-6-2 record. How­ever, he recruited a number of players who would help his successor, Edgar Wingard, go 17-3 the next two seasons.