Tigers Late Surge Comes Up Short at Ole Miss 25-23

A 43-yard "Hail Mary" catch by LSU wide receiver Terrance Toliver with one second to play came up five yards short, as the Tigers ran out of time and fell to rival Ole Miss, 25-23, on Saturday.
LSU (8-3, 4-3 SEC) finishes the 2009 regular season on Saturday, Nov. 28, when Arkansas comes to Tiger Stadium for a 6 p.m. CST kickoff on ESPN.
Ole Miss improved to 8-3 overall and 4-3 in SEC play.
Trailing 25-17 with 3:32 to play, quarterback Jordan Jefferson led the Tigers to a 10-play, 66-yard scoring drive that ended with a 25-yard touchdown pass to freshman receiver Rueben Randle. The two-point conversion pass to Toliver failed, but LSU got a second change after a defensive penalty. Toliver wasn't able to handle the same pass from Jefferson in-bounds on the next attempt from the 1.
LSU's Brandon LaFell came up with the ensuing onside kick by Josh Jasper, and the Tigers were in business with 1:16 to play.
Jefferson connected with LaFell for 26 yards to the Ole Miss 32, putting the Tigers in field goal range for Jasper. However, a sack and a screen netted 16 yards in lost yardage, and the Tigers were seemingly down to one play. LSU let the clock run down to nine seconds(the missing 17 seconds) before calling its final timeout. Clock management, where ar't thou!
Jefferson heaved a pass to a cluster of LSU receivers and Toliver came down with a 45-yard catch to the Ole Miss 5-yard line with a second to play.
Without any timeouts and stunned by the turn of events, the Tigers attempted to spike the ball rather than run a play to the endzone or get the field goal unit in position before the clock restarted.
Jefferson finished 19-of-37 passing for 250 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He was sacked four times for 32 yards.
LSU senior running back Keiland Williams finished with 11 carries for 40 yards before exiting the game with a season-ending injury. With Williams out, the Tigers have lost their top three running backs on the preseason depth chart to injury – Charles Scott, Williams, and Richard Murphy.
Toliver led the receiving corps with five catches for 105 yards, while LaFell added five receptions for 75 yards.
Ole Miss' Dexter McCluster led the Rebels with 148 yards on 24 carries. Though he didn't cross the goal line, he threw a 27-yard halfback pass for a touchdown that gave Ole Miss the lead for good.
Starting quarterback Jevan Sneed was 14-of-21 passing for 206 yards. His favorite target was Shay Hodge who had seven catches for 117 yards and the touchdown grab from McCluster.

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