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.
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.
As the Tigers prepared for their September 28 opener against Rice, the entire nation was shocked by an event in Baton Rouge 20 days earlier. Senator Huey Long spent was assassinated while walking down the corridor in the State Capitol. So Coach Bernie Moore's first squad started the season in mourning for their biggest fan.
LSU lost to Rice but won their next two games against Texas and Manhattan. That set the stage for the annual game against Arkansas at the State Fair in Shreveport.
Neither team scored until the third quarter. LSU struck first with a 55y march that culminated in HB Bill Crass's 2y plunge. LSU 7 Arkansas 0
L-R: Pinky Rohm, Ernest Seago, Arthur Morton, Abe Mickal
LSU didn't enjoy the lead for long. In the last minutes of the period, the Razorbacks mounted a lightning-strike three-play tying drive from their 32. A completed pass and lateral produced the touchdown. LSU 7 Arkansas 7
Moore substituted eleven players at a time. He sent in the "second stringers" to start the final period. LSU got a break in the first minutes when the Razorback punter fumbled the snap and was tackled on the 30. Facing 4th-and-one a minute later, Al Coffee hit the center of the line for 2y and a 1st down on the 19. Three plays later, Charles "Pinky" Rohm took the handoff on a reverse around right end but, seeing too many red jerseys, turned around, shook off three would-be tacklers on the 10, and continued standing up into the end zone. Ernest Seago's PAT try sailed wide. LSU 13 Arkansas 7
Pinky Rohm scores the go-ahead touchdown.
Seago's interception at the 23 stopped the Hogs' first thrust into LSU territory. But the Razorbacks were soon threatening again. Allen Keen took a pass from TB Jack Robbins to the 14, where Arthur Morton brought him down. Robbins gained two, then threw to Billy Hunter for a 1st down on the four.
Now came an eight-play sequence that preserved the lead for LSU. After an incompletion in the end zone and two runs that netted -3y, the Tigers seemed to have stopped the advance on an incompletion in the end zone. But the officials ruled pass interference on the three. After an LSU timeout, two runs netted a loss of 6y. Then T Marvin Stewart batted down a pass intended for Keen, followed by Morton doing the same on the 4th-down throw.
The Tigers were not out of the woods yet. They needed to get the ball out of their territory. After three runs, Abe Mickal punted to Keen, who returned 19y to the 44. To make matters worse, a roughness penalty from the spot of the foul put the ball on the 17 with less than a minute left. But on the next play, Jesse Fatherree intercepted Robbins and returned 10y before lateralling to Mickal, who ran five more as the game ended.
FINAL SCORE: LSU 13 ARKANSAS 7