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Livvy Dunne and Paul Skenes are used to being the center of attention, and in a way they were in the final moments of regulation at Death Valley on Saturday night as No. 13 LSU and No. 9 Ole Miss were deadlocked on the scoreboard.
That scoreboard read “Ole Miss 23, LSU 23,” and next to it on the jumbotron at Tiger Stadium, as the Rebels got ready to run a “Hail Mary” pass on the final play of regulation, there they were: Dunne and Skenes. LSU’s No. 1 sports couple attended Saturday night’s showdown and not surprisingly were found by the cameras trying to pump up the home crowd.
Livvy Dunne AND Paul Skenes? That Hail Mary was dead before it started. pic.twitter.com/i116otPDH9
— Preston Guy (@PGuy77) October 13, 2024
So, as Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart got ready to take the snap with 3 seconds left in regulation, the jumbotron showed Dunne, the current LSU gymnastics star and girlfriend of Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates flamethrower who just completed one of the best rookie seasons ever, whipping the Death Valley crowd into a frenzy as they tried to shout down the Rebels’ final attempt to avoid overtime.
Boy, did it work.
Dart was sacked by linebacker Whit Weeks, getting tossed to the turf as Dunne, Skenes and the rest of the stadium erupted. It was onto overtime where, naturally, LSU prevailed 29-26 to win its 5th game in a row after a season-opening loss to USC.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
