The 13th-ranked LSU football program was feeling anxious in the week leading up to a visit from the ninth-ranked Ole Miss Rebels. Brain Kelly's locker room was dealing with injuries, possible transfer portal departures, and College Football Playoff hopes teetering on the brink. An early loss to the USC Trojans and a scare against the South Carolina Gamecocks had gotten the committee's attention in all of the wrong ways.

Well, the LSU Tigers can leave a statement at the CFP committee's door after a down-to-the-wire win over Ole Miss. More specifically, Kelly can leave Garrett Nussmeier's completely clean jersey out to dry after a Saturday night win in Baton Rouge's Death Valley. Nussmeier's white No. 13 did not pick up any dirt, but it sure will be sweaty and sticky with celebratory field-storming suds after a wild 29-26 overtime victory.

Ole Miss had more sacks per snap than anyone in the nation but will leave Baton Rouge without laying Garrett Nussmeier down once. Kelly started the postgame press conference by stating the obvious, just in case laying out the jersey and walking away didn't quite get the point across: LSU football has a for-real offensive line.

“What won this game for us was our offensive line keeping (Nussmeier) clean,” Kelly boasted, via Luke Hubbard of LSU Tigers on Rivals. “Making the big plays when they needed to.”

It was a tough start for an LSU football program under fire. Kelly wants to see more of the execution that got this game to overtime moving forward.

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“That is what we've been talking about in terms of beating a Top 10 team,” Kelly began. “Garrett would tell you there are things he learned. I thought he grew more today than at any time he has been here. Garrett wasn't frustrated, and what we saw at the end was why I thought it was a great growth game. He made the plays when he needed to make them.”

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That is because Nussmeier was able to stay upright while facing a defense accustomed to cutting quarterbacks down. Nussmeier agreed with Brian Kelly on this being a learning game. He attempted 16 passes of 20 or more yards and completed just two of his first 14 before connecting on the final two, per ESPN.

“I probably had one of the worst games in my career tonight,” said Nussmeier. “The best part about that is how I get to learn from it, and we got the win. I'm excited to get in the film room and fix those things and correct the mistakes. Hopefully, this will be a huge growth moment for me.”

Next up for LSU football is a rivalry game on the road against Arkansas. Sticking to the fundamentals should allow the Tigers (5-1) a chance to beat out the Razorbacks (4-2).