LSU might use a committee of running backs.

Then again, it might not need to.

The Tigers entered the season with relatively little experience at running back and therefore several candidates to get carries.

Nick Brossette, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Lanard Fournette had all been in the program and gotten very limited experience, and freshmen Chris Curry and Tae Provens had shown enough to be possible options as well.

The season opener against No. 8 Miami on Sunday demonstrated the committee approach.

Fournette, a junior who is the younger brother of former Tiger and current Jacksonville Jaguar Leonard Fournette, started the game and caught a swing pass on LSU’s first snap and gained 5 yards.

In came Curry, who got the first carry and gained 6 yards.

Then came Brossette, the only senior in the group, and he rushed for 5 yards, then 2.

Finally Edwards-Helaire, a sophomore, got a chance but his first two carries both went for no gain.

Then it was back to Brossette, who found a gaping hole up the middle and sprinted 50 yards for a touchdown on the Tigers’ third possession. That gave No. 25 LSU a 10-3 lead and the Tigers were on their way to a 33-3 lead and eventual 33-17 victory in Arlington, Texas.

The play was significant not only because of its impact on the game, but also because it was Brossette’s first touchdown at LSU after he shattered the Louisiana high-school record for touchdowns by scoring 141 of them at University High.

“I was shocked,” Brossette said of his first venture into an end zone in four years. “I was speechless. It was crazy.”

Later Brossette added a 1-yard touchdown run. He finished with his first 100-yard game (125) after receiving 22 carries, double his previous high. Brossette said that earlier he told Provens, his roommate, that he wanted to get 125-150 yards.

“I willed it into existence,” he said afterward.

Brossette had waited behind Leonard Fournette, Derrius Guice, now with the Washington Redskins, and Darrel Williams, now with the Kansas City Chiefs, to finally get a chance.

“I just had to be patient. I had to be humble,” Brossette said. “That’s the biggest thing. You get down on yourself. You’ve got to have your family supporting you. That’s what a lot of my family was doing.

“I had a lot of people calling me and telling me I would have a great season. I just had to believe in myself. I showed a lot of people out there.”

Even amid Brossette’s breakout performance, LSU coach Ed Orgeron wasn’t satisfied with the offensive line play. Edwards-Helaire finished with 24 yards on eight carries, Curry netted minus-1 yard on three carries and Provens didn’t touch the ball.

“I wasn’t really pleased with the blocking of the offensive line,” Orgeron said. “I thought we missed some assignments. I thought we gave up too much penetration. But we’ll get that fixed. Those guys are gelling. They’re young. But we have to get better real fast.”

But Orgeron praised Brossette for his patience and his work ethic in getting himself prepared for the opportunity. He had called Brossette the most dependable back during preseason camp.

Brossette said he thought he was going to start the opener. Though he was the third Tigers running back to enter the game, he might move up in the pecking order for the home opener against Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday.

The game against the FCS Lions, though, should also provide an opportunity for Orgeron and his staff to get a second look at the committee, if they choose to.