Joe Burrow threw five touchdown passes, ran for another score and finished off one of the most accomplished seasons in college football history by leading the top-ranked Tigers to a 42-25 victory against No. 3 Clemson on Monday night in the playoff final.
His five TD passes and 463 yards passing are the most for a BCS or College Football Playoff title game. So were his six total touchdowns.
Trevor Lawrence was 18 for 37 for 234 yards for Clemson.
Clemson pushed LSU into the deepest hole it had to climb out of this season in the first half. Two weeks after Lawrence ran for a career-best 107 yards against Ohio State, he opened the scoring with a 1-yard jaunt around right end in the first quarter.
After B.T. Potter kicked a career-long 52-yard field goal for Clemson to make it 10-7, the Tigers sprung receiver Tee Higgins on a 36-yard reverse for a score to make it 17-7 in the second quarter.
It took LSU 5:19 to wipe that out and take the lead, with Burrow and his favorite receiver, Ja’Marr Chase, doing most of the damage. The Heisman winner hit the Biletnikoff Award winner with a long ball to set up a quarterback draw from 3 yards out to make it 17-14.
Burrow and Chase hooked up for a 14-yard touchdown with 5:19 left in the second quarter and LSU fans erupted as their Tigers took the lead for the first time, 21-17. They never looked back.
Chase finished with nine catches for 221 yards.
The SEC Tigers weren’t done. Burrow led LSU on a 95-yard drive, taking a hard shot on a long run before finding Thaddeus Moss, son of former NFL star receiver Randy Moss, standing alone in the end zone. That made it 28-17 with 10 seconds left in the half.
>>LSU No. 1 in Final AP College Football Poll
LSU is your new national champion after a 42-25 win over Clemson. This was a historic season for LSU in more ways than one and it's no surprise, then, that the Tigers finish the year ranked atop the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. Clemson, though still enduring the bitterness of defeat, will indeed finish the year ranked No. 2.
It's past the top two spots, though, that things get a little more interesting. Oregon finishes the season ranked No. 5 following its Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin while Oklahoma, previously No. 4, falls to No. 7 after getting blown out by LSU in the Peach Bowl semifinal. Alabama moves up one spot to No. 8 while Penn State and Minnesota round out the top 10. Baylor drops out of the top 10, from No. 8 to No. 13, following the Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia.
Teams to re-enter the top 25 for the final time include No. 24 UCF and No. 25 Texas. USC and Oklahoma State dropped out after losses in the Holiday and Texas bowls, respectively.
