CBS SportsLine wire reports
Sept. 26, 1998
BATON ROUGE, La. -- LSU's Kevin Faulk played less than three quarters Saturday night. That was more than enough as far as Idaho was concerned.
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Faulk, who was pulled in the third quarter, had 268 all-purpose yards - 178 rushing, 50 receiving and 40 in returns - to set an LSU record and move into third place in Southeastern Conference history with 5,397. In passing the 5,326 yards accumulated by LSU's Dalton Hilliard in 1982-85, Faulk trails only Georgia's Herschel Walker (5,749) and Auburn's James Brooks (5,596).
"It was great to see Kevin break the record," LSU coach Gerry DiNardo said. "He deserves it and a lot of other people deserve credit for it, too. All the people who blocked for him, threw passes to him. It's a great record."
It was the ninth game in his career that Faulk has had at least 200 all-purpose yards.
FAULK SCORED ON A 50-YARD pass and on runs of 1, 11 and 81 yards before retiring to the sidelines in the third quarter. His 178 yards rushing came on only 13 carries.
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LSU QB Herb Tyler completed two TD passes before sitting in the third quarter.
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"Without him we wouldn't be able to get the yardage we get," center Todd McClure said. "He tries to say `give them them credit for it,' but most of it is on him making tacklers miss."
Faulk's day didn't start all that well. He fumbled at the Idaho 15 and the Vandals' Ryan Skinner returned it 12 yards. Ten plays later, Joel Thomas' 10-yard run gave the Vandals a 7-0 lead.
That was the highlight for Idaho (2-2), although the Vandals hung tough behind Thomas' running and the passing of John Welsh, who was making his first start. Thomas scored two touchdowns and Welsh was 18-of-32 for 218 yards and a touchdown.
"In a game like this, you get a little momentum going as a big underdog, you've got to keep it," Idaho coach Chris Tormey said. "In order to do that you've got to play mistake-free football, but we turned the ball over on two consecutive plays. That's 14 points right there, and now we're in the hole."
FAULK CUT THE IDAHO lead to 7-6 when he caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from Herb Tyler and Johnny Mitchell put LSU ahead for keeps with a 36-yard pass interception return.
"It seemed like it went 50 yards in the air and took forever to come down," Mitchell said. "When I caught it I was just thinking `run.'''
Chris Cummings recovered a fumble by Idaho's Jerome Thomas and Tyler hit Abram Booty for a 26-yard touchdown making it 19-7 LSU.
Tyler was 11-of-14 for 207 yards and two touchdowns before being pulled in the third quarter.
Rondell Mealey scored on a 12-yard run and Faulk on a 1-yard run in the second quarter and LSU led 33-7 at the half.
Faulk added an 11-yard touchdown run to start the third-quarter scoring, then came back on LSU's next possession with an 81-yard scamper before calling it a day.