For weeks, Tigers fans have been crying for LSU to open up the offense. The power-I that LSU had been so fond of for the early part of the season no longer appeared to be working, especially following a loss to Mississippi State in which the offense couldn’t get moving.

Les Miles and Cam Cameron granted that wish against New Mexico State, and it yielded some positive results. The Tigers lined up with three receivers, one running back and one tight end more often against NMSU than they had all season, giving the running backs some space to move and giving freshman quarterback Brandon Harris plenty of options when he dropped back to pass. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter, with the game well in hand, that LSU started pounding the ball out of the traditional I-formation.

Spreading out the formation and putting Harris in the shotgun gave LSU a new element on offense. Harris, despite his inexperience, made a couple of good calls on zone-read plays, recognizing when to pull the ball out and take it himself. Meanwhile, the running backs, namely Leonard Fournette, found huge cutback lanes as the offensive line adapted well to some new blocking tactics.

Adding extra receiving options is a tactic that works much better with Harris than Anthony Jennings, too. While Jennings has struggled to complete passes, hitting on 50 percent or fewer of his attempts in three of four games, Harris has a cannon for an arm and can throw accurately both from the pocket and on the move.

Harris is the clear choice at quarterback going forward, and he seems perfectly suited to run an opened-up offense. Hopefully, Miles and Cameron realize that and keep it going against Auburn on Saturday.