LSU Tigers

LSU's Fournette shows he's doesn't belong in college football

Published Dec. 30, 2015 2:41 a.m. ET

Shawn Ramsey

HOUSTON -- Leonard Fournette doesn't belong in college football.

The LSU running back made that apparent, showing he's NFL ready in the Texas Bowl in Houston Tuesday night with his Tigers taking a 56-27 win over Texas Tech.

Unfortunately, Fournette, a true sophomore, has one more season to play for the Tigers until he is able to be eligible to declare for the NFL draft.

LSU scored 56 points in the game against the Red Raiders -- the new school record for points scored in a bowl game -- with Fournette being directly responsible for 30 of those points with his four rushing touchdowns along with one receiving touchdown. The points scores was a Texas Bowl record for an individual player. With his third rushing touchdown in the third quarter, Fournette set a LSU record with 21 rushing touchdowns on the season -- finishing his season with 22 on the year with his fifth score of the game in the fourth quarter.

"This is a night that Leonard Fournette would have again, again and again. I wouldn't call it routine because he's not a routine runner, he's a special back," LSU head coach Les Miles said. "We would expect him to have nights like this. He's fast, he's strong, and capable. He's one of the more competitive men I know, he wanted to win this game, no doubt."

While LSU fans are excited to see their star running back return for another season, the average pro-football career for a running back is about three years, meaning Fournette could likely be taking years off making millions in the NFL. The rules aren't likely to change in time to make a difference for Fournette, so the running back is looking forward to another season in Baton Rouge and wanting to go for a championship.

"I want the championship," Fournette said about his personal goals for next season. "I haven't won the championship since my [youth football] days."

Now, Texas Tech's defense isn't exactly what the LSU Tigers are used to seeing during the regular season in the SEC, with the Red Raiders entering the game at No. 126 overall in defensive stats and one of the worst at run defense. Nevertheless, the LSU scoring barrage in the second half has to be chalked as impressive, especially with the Texas Tech prolific air-raid offense keeping the game close as of halftime until Fournette and company pulled the game out of reach.

"He's a great player," Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury said. "I thought they had a good plan, they threw it when they needed to throw it... They had a good plan, mixing it up, I give them a lot of credit."

Fournette finished the game with 212 rushing yards, and if he would have gotten 47 more yards, he would have finished the season with 2,000 yards. Instead he settles for just below the record.

"He'd like to have done 47 more yards," Miles said. "If we could have expanded the fourth quarter just a couple minutes, we might have got it for him."

With a return to LSU, Fournette will be going for the 2,000 rushing yards mark once again. His 1,953 yards from 2015 is already the LSU record.

"Records are meant to be broken, I might break it next year, you never know," Fournette said. "I'm not really worried about it."

While the rules state Fournette isn't ready for professional football, one of his linemen is confident in his running back's abilities.

"Coming into this game, he wanted to prove that he's a running back that everyone believes he is," senior offensive tackle Vadal Alexander said. "Obviously, we believe he's the best running back in the country."