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NEW ORLEANS (AP) --
Domanick Davis, Josh Reed and Rohan Davey stirred up LSU fans so much,
only a rare plea from coach Nick Saban settled them down.
In the highest-scoring Sugar Bowl ever, Davis ran for four touchdowns,
Reed caught two scoring passes from Davey and No. 12 LSU beat No. 7
Illinois 47-34 Tuesday night.
"This is a stepping stone for the school to be thrust into the limelight
with all those other great teams," said Davey, the game's MVP.
Playing in a game more about poll position than national championship
plans, the Tigers (10-3) won their school-record fifth straight bowl.
Ahead 27-0 in the second quarter, they held on despite four TD passes by
Kurt Kittner.
Davis starred while starting in place of injured star LaBrandon Toefield,
gaining 122 yards on 28 carries and set a Sugar Bowl mark with four
scores. He nearly had a fifth TD, but his catch in the end zone was
called back because of a penalty.
Reed, an All-American, was open all night and set Sugar records by
catching 14 passes for 239 yards. A junior, the Biletnikoff Award winner
as the nation's top receiver scored on grabs of 32 and 5 yards in what
could have been his final college game.
Davey closed out his career by going 31-of-53 for a Sugar-record 444
yards and three TDs, guiding an offense that racked up 595 yards.
"Obviously, we're disappointed with what happened," Illinois coach Ron
Turner said. "We dug ourselves too big a hole and couldn't get out of
it."
LSU set a Sugar record by scoring 27 points in the second quarter en
route to a 34-7 halftime lead.
"I really didn't understand what we were doing in the second quarter,"
Davey said. "Everything we did was clicking."
By then, the purple-and-gold LSU crowd had caused more problems for the
Tigers than the Illini (10-2).
After Davis ran for a 4-yard score midway through the first quarter, a
cup tossed from the LSU rooting section landed in the end zone.
It wasn't anything like the display at the Superdome two weeks ago when
13 people were arrested after throwing beer bottles and debris on the
field, upset by an official's call during the New Orleans Saints' 34-21
loss to the St. Louis Rams.
Even so, at the place where the Super Bowl will be played next month, it
prompted stadium announcer Jerry Romig to issue a warning.
"If you throw things on the field, you'll be taken to the biggest hotel
in town -- parish prison," he said. "Please, stop it!"
That did no good. After Davis' 25-yard dash made it 13-0 in the second
quarter, a plastic bottle and a couple of full beverage cups came flying
from the same spot in celebration.
Referee Steve Usechek ran over to the sideline to talk to Saban. The
coach then borrowed Usechek's microphone and, in a scene extremely
unusual at a football game, addressed the partisan, sellout crowd of
77,688.
"The next time somebody throws a bottle or something out of the stands,
our team is going to get penalized," Saban said. "I appreciate your
support, but support our team."
Saban's words did the trick, perhaps helped by a fortified line of
security personnel. Three minutes later, Davis ran for a 16-yard
touchdown and the fans celebrated with cheers instead of thrown beers.
LSU won a New Year's Day bowl for the first time since the 1968 Sugar,
back in the day when Pete Maravich was the big star on the Baton Rouge
campus, about 70 miles from New Orleans.
The Illini were trying for their first major bowl win since the 1964
Rose, when Dick Butkus led them. The NFL Hall of Fame linebacker's
nephew, Illinois center Luke Butkus, wound up making a tackle in this
game - albeit when stopping an LSU defender on a fumble return.
Kittner,
who had several early passes batted down, threw two TD strikes to
Brandon Lloyd in the third quarter and another to Walter Young in the
fourth. That made it 41-28, but LSU responded with Davis' 4-yard
touchdown run.
Lloyd came back on a reverse to throw a 40-yard TD pass to Young. That
score broke the Sugar record of 75 points in Florida State's 46-29 win
over Virginia Tech on Jan. 4, 2000.
"I did everything I could do at halftime to tell our team we needed to
play 60 minutes," Saban said.
LSU won its sixth in a row and stopped the Illini's seven-game winning
streak. It was a game of quick strikes -- all 12 TDs drives took under
31/2 minutes.
The Tigers also completed a three-game sweep for the Southeastern
Conference in bowl matchups against the Big Ten. Earlier in the day,
Tennessee trounced Michigan 45-17 in the Citrus and South Carolina beat
Ohio State 31-28.
Out of the rankings through late November, the Tigers proved they
belonged in a top game. They won their first-ever matchup with Illinois,
doing it in a game between conference champions.
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Attendance: 77,688
Scoring Summary
First
Quarter
LSU-
Davis 4 run (Corbello kick)
Second
Quarter
LSU-
Davis 25 run (kick failed)
LSU-
Davis 16 run (Corbello kick)
LSU-
Reed 5 yard pass from Davey (Corbello kick)
UI-
Hodges 2 yard pass from Kittner (Christofilako kick)
LSU-
Royal 7 yard pass from Davey (Corbello kick)
Third
Quarter
UI-
Lloyd 17 yard pass from Kittner (Christofilako kick)
LSU-
Reed 32 yard pass from Davey (Corbello kick)
UI-
Lloyd 10 yard pass from Kittner (Christofilako kick)
Fourth
Quarter
UI-
Young 17 yard pass from Kittner (Christofilako kick)
LSU-
Davis 4 run (two-point conversion failed)
UI-
Young 40 yard pass from Lloyd (two-point conversion failed)
Individual Statistics
Rushing
UI-
Harvey 9-42, Lloyd 1-14, Davis 4-13
LSU-
Davis 28-122, Henderson 13-54
Passing
UI-
Kittner 14-35-262, Lloyd 1-1-40
LSU-
Davey 31-53-444
Receiving
UI-
Young 6-178, Lloyd 5-56, Davis 2-24, Harvey 1-42
LSU-
Reed 14-239, M Clayton 8-120, Myers 4-51, Royal 2-15, Webster 2-14
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