Scott gets LSU off to a pretty fast start

BATON ROUGE, La. -- With a couple of inexperienced quarterbacks, all Louisiana State had to do was hand off. And Appalachian State never had a chance.

Charles Scott had a career-high 160 yards in 16 carries, including touchdowns of eight and 29 yards, and No. 7 Louisiana State rolled to 41-13 victory over Appalachian State on Saturday.

“It really doesn’t matter to us” who plays quarterback, Scott said. “The [offensive] line is doing great right now and they’re only going to get better. Our rushing game is going to be the strength of this team and we’re going to get those guys in the pocket comfortable.”

Andrew Hatch, who transferred from Harvard in 2007, took the field on the Tigers’ first three series, which produced 17 points. Coach Les Miles also gave redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee a chance, but the real damage was done on the ground.

The Tigers, who averaged about 214 yards rushing per game last season, finished with 266 against the Mountaineers.

Hatch completed seven of 14 passes for 77 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown pass to Demetrius Byrd, and ran for 43 yards. Lee was six for 10 for 116 yards with scoring passes of 31 and 39 yards to Brandon LaFell. Lee had a pass intercepted that led to a field goal.

With Hurricane Gustav threatening the Gulf Coast, kickoff was moved from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. so the game would end well before authorities planned to initiate one-way traffic along major evacuation routes away from Louisiana’s coast. With Louisiana State leading big and the midday sun baking the stands, Tiger Stadium looked deserted by the end of the third quarter.