Late TD grab lifts Notre Dame past LSU in Citrus Bowl

— By Dick Scanlon, The Sports Xchange —

ORLANDO, Fla. — Notre Dame needed one big play to win the Citrus Bowl and Miles Boykin supplied it.
“We talk about situations like this all the time and it’s not often you get to be in one like this,” Boykin said Monday after turning a one-handed sideline catch into a 55-yard touchdown pass from Ian Book with 1:28 left in Notre Dame’s 21-17 victory.
The spectacular play earned the game’s MVP award for Boykin, a junior receiver who caught three passes for 102 yards.
Jack Gonsoulin’s 17-yard field goal had given LSU (9-4) a 17-14 lead with only 2:03 left, but it took the Irish three plays to go 73 yards, the bulk of it after Boykin’s catch.
“Ian put it in a place where only I could reach it,” Boykin said. “It was a great pass and I was lucky enough to pull it down with one hand. I have pretty big hands.”
The game-changing play was more than just the luck of the Irish, according to coach Brian Kelly.
“It looked like a top-10 play and it was obviously,” Kelly said, “But that’s something that he and Ian and Brandon (Wimbush) work on.”
Book, a sophomore, had replaced Wimbush at quarterback late in the first half. He completed 14 of 19 passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 36 yards.
“He just needs experience, and he got it today,” Kelly said.
“He made a difference,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. “Obviously, we had planned for Wimbush. (Book) made some plays and extended some plays with his feet and threw the ball very well.”
Notre Dame (10-3) won after having the ball for only 22 minutes and committing two turnovers while LSU had none.
Derrius Guice scored both of LSU’s touchdowns on short passes from Danny Etling. He came up less than a yard short of a third touchdown late in the game, prompting Gonsoulin’s chip-shot field goal.
“It’s on us,” said Guice, who ran for 98 yards, caught three passes and was all lined up to be the game’s MVP until Boykin’s big play. “We didn’t finish drives all day, and we should have finished that one at the end.”
The first turnover set up the first touchdown early in the second half. A punt grazed the leg of Notre Dame’s Isaiah Robertson and was recovered by LSU’s Blake Ferguson at the Notre Dame 43. Guice scored five plays later a 20-yard pass with 11:37 left in the third quarter.
LSU drove 75 yards in 12 plays to its second touchdown, which came on a 2-yard pass to Guice, putting the Tigers up 14-6 with 11:13 remaining.
That drive was sustained by a 26-yard third-down completion to tight end Foster Moreau.
Notre Dame answered with a 10-play, 75-yard drive for its first touchdown. Book found Michael Young in the back of the end zone from 6 yards, then flipped a shovel pass to Josh Adams for the two-point conversion and a 14-14 tie with 7:49 left.
Missed field goal attempts by two different kickers kept LSU off the scoreboard in the first half.
After three straight exchanges of punts, the Tigers drove 65 yards to within a foot of the Irish goal line when a false start moved them back. Connor Culp’s 22-yard field goal attempt went wide right.
Etling then connected on two long third-down conversions to move the Tigers as far as the Notre Dame 10. But Gonsoulin pulled a 37-yard attempt wide to the left with two minutes left in the half.
Ergeron said he was “very disappointed, especially in the special teams,” citing two missed field goal attempts, a dropped punt snap, and two occasions when the Tigers had only 10 men on the field.
Book took over at quarterback with two minutes left in the first half and drove the Irish 51 yards to a 46-yard Justin Yoon field goal for the only points of the half.
Yoon added a 49-yard field goal in the rain to pull Notre Dame within 7-6 with 2:47 left in the third quarter.
NOTES: LSU coach Ed Ergeron vowed he would hire a full-time special teams coach before next season. … With both Brandon Wimbush and Ian Book coming back next summer, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly created something of a QB controversy. “I don’t think I’m ready to get into all those things,” he said. … Of Notre Dame’s 154 total yards in the first half, 35 came on Wimbush’s completion to Equanimeous St. Brown on the first play from scrimmage, 31 came on a run by Wimbush, and 21 more came on Book’s third-and-20 run during the drive for a field goal. … It was the 48th bowl appearance (18th straight) for LSU and the 36th for Notre Dame, which chose not to go bowling for 45 years after its first bowl appearance in 1924. … A crowd of 57,726 was announced.