Davey Is Able Substitute

The Louisiana State fans rose from their seats when the guy wearing No. 6 put on his helmet, got some last-minute advice from the coaches and trotted on the field to begin the third quarter.

“Davey! Davey!” the purple-and-gold contingent screamed in unison, clearly sensing that something special was about to happen in the Peach Bowl.

They were right.

Rohan Davey, taking over for Josh Booty at quarterback in the second half, threw three touchdown passes to rally the Tigers to a 28-14 victory over No. 15 Georgia Tech on Friday.

“I told my teammates we were going to win the game,” said the prophetic Davey. “All we had to do was relax, calm down and play our game.”

Davey had not played since an Oct. 7 loss at Florida, but first-year coach Nick Saban didn’t hesitate to make a change when the Tigers (8-4) fell behind 14-3 at halftime.

“What we like about him the most is he’s probably the best leader on the team,” Saban said. “I never knew of a situation where a backup player is voted team captain. That’s a compliment to him.”

Georgia Tech couldn’t call on the one man who might have pulled the turnover-plagued offense out of its funk.

Ralph Friedgen, the mastermind of the team’s scoring success the last three seasons, left to become the head coach at Maryland shortly after the final regular-season game.

Friedgen was back in Atlanta for the bowl, but only to watch his former team from a luxury box. With 31-year-old Bill O’Brien taking over as offensive coordinator, the Yellow Jackets (9-3) committed six turnovers, half of their regular-season total.

“Those are the exact same plays we would have called if coach Friedgen was here,” said quarterback George Godsey, who was responsible for four turnovers. “The execution just wasn’t there. If you put the ball on the carpet like we did, then you’re not going to win.”

LSU was playing in its first bowl since 1997. A year ago, the Tigers went 3-8 under Gerry DiNardo, who was fired.

After managing only 117 yards in the first half with Booty at quarterback, the Tigers turned to Davey.

The results were immediate. With Davey completing five passes, the Tigers went 70 yards in nine plays for their first touchdown, a three-yard completion to a wide-open Tommy Banks.

“Davey came into the game and sparked it for them,” Georgia Tech defensive end Greg Gathers said.

After outgaining the Yellow Jackets 157 yards to 13 in the third quarter, LSU scored the go-ahead touchdown in the opening minute of the fourth quarter on a brilliant catch by Josh Reed. The 5-foot-11 receiver, running alone in the back of the end zone, jumped as high as he could to pull down the nine-yard pass, his right foot landing inside the line just before he fell out of bounds.