In a season that many will want to forget, the Texas Bowl against Houston is another thing to add on as LSU ended the 2025 season losing to the Cougars 38-35.
Saturday night’s contest in NRG stadium started off with a bang thanks to Barion Brown. The SEC record holder for career kickoffs returned a 99 yard kickoff for a touchdown, marking his sixth kickoff return touchdown in his collegiate career.
The early portion of the first quarter seemed like a completely different LSU team than what many had seen. The Tigers struck again, this time through the air as Michael Van Buren connected with Trey’Dez Green on a 23-yard pass that had the Tigers ahead 14-0.
Houston woke up and began to strike back. Starting with Conner Weigman connecting with Amare Thomas on an eight-yard touchdown pass, the Cougars found life quickly. Weigman found Thomas again on another touchdown pass, tying the game at 14 in the 2nd quarter.
Weigman threw his third touchdown pass of the evening, connecting with Tanner Koziol, giving the Cougars their first lead of the evening taking a 21-14 lead going into half. Houston went on a 21 point scoring run, leaving LSU looking for an answer heading into the second half.
The answer for LSU as has been many times this season was Trey’Dez Green. Green picked up his second touchdown catch of the evening as Michael Van Buren connected with him on a four-yard touchdown pass, tying the game at 21. Houston’s response didn’t have to wait long as Conner Weigman threw his fourth touchdown pass of the evening, finding Traville Frederick Jr. on a six-yard pass that put the Cougars ahead by the end of the 3rd quarter.
Van Buren and the LSU offense struck back once more, as he found Kyle Parker on a six-yard touchdown that tied the game at 28. After a 25-yard field goal from Ethan Sanchez in the middle of the quarter that gave Houston the lead by three, Dean Connors put the game away with a 20-yard rushing touchdown that gave the Cougars a 10 point lead.
Zavion Thomas found the endzone with little time remaining, which only shrunk Houston’s lead to three as the Cougars walked out victorious on Saturday night.
LSU will finish the 2025 season at 7-6 with the loss to Houston in the Texas Bowl. Saturday night’s game marked the first time all season that the Tigers scored more than 25 points against a FBS team this season.
As the season now comes to a close the work for Lane Kiffin now begins. With 13 Tigers currently in the portal at the moment, Kiffin will have work to do once the transfer portal officially opens up on January 2nd of next year.