BATON ROUGE, La. -- In a joyous, raving, almost delirious rant, Les Miles gushed over his team's inexorable determination and urged LSU fans to put their arms around his players and
.. show full overview
BATON ROUGE, La. -- In a joyous, raving, almost delirious rant, Les Miles gushed over his team's inexorable determination and urged LSU fans to put their arms around his players and "give them a big kiss on the mouth."
Miles is known to get a little loopy and emotional at times, so his comments hardly seemed out of character after a classic contest with historical rival Ole Miss that even evoked memories of Billy Cannon's famous Halloween night punt return in 1959.
Jeremy Hill scored his third touchdown with 15 seconds left to lift the Tigers (No. 7 BCS, No. 8 AP) to a 41-35 victory over relentless but mistake-prone Mississippi on Saturday.
"I'm proud of those men," Miles said of his team. "How easy it could have been to say it was (Ole Miss') night. Spectacular group of men. ... Wow! What a game!"
The game included seven turnovers, numerous momentum swings and long touchdowns, perhaps none better than Odell Beckham Jr.'s 89-yard punt return for a score that evoked memories of Cannon's famous return against the same team, along the same sideline, for the same yardage back in 1959.
"That was maybe the biggest momentum changer in the game," Miles said, adding giddily, "Is it Halloween night?"
Beckham eluded numerous tacklers, slipping one as he traversed the field, then broke away from pursuers down the right sideline toward the north end zone while teammate Jarvis Landry waved him along with windmill motion.
"Everyone had their block, everyone had their man and everyone covered their assignments," Beckham said. "I saw a crease and I just hit it. ... It was an amazing experience and definitely changed the momentum of the game."
Beckham's return tied the game at 35, but LSU (9-2, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) still needed a pair of clutch sacks by Anthony Johnson and Lavar Edwards to drive Ole Miss (5-6, 2-5) out of routine field goal range later in the fourth quarter. Bryson Rose then pushed a 53-yard kick wide right, setting up the winning