ATLANTA — LSU QB Jayden Daniels, who early in the Saturday’s SEC Championship game didn’t seem to be favoring the ankle he’d been nursing this week at all, did reinjure it late in the first half.

He initially missed only one play but was limping noticeably when he returned to lead a field goal drive just before the half.

“He started off really well,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “He was throwing the ball accurate, he looked good, poised in the pocket. It was second quarter, when he stepped up in the pocket, he got rolled up on. It was a reinjury, reinjured the ankle.”

With LSU down 35-10 at the half, Daniels did not play in the second half.

Redshirt freshman Garrett Nussmeier, who threw an incompletion on the one play Daniels missed in the first half, took over for good in the second half and made an immediate impact.

His first two passes went for 20 yards to Kayshon Boutte and 34 yards for a touchdown to Malik Nabors as the Tigers needed only three plays to drive 57 yards.

“I feel like Garrett gave us opportunities down the field, trusting his receivers,” Nabors said.

Then on LSU’s next possession hit Nabors for 59 yards before another promising LSU drive stalled on a fourth-down stuff at the Bulldogs 5-yard line.

Nussmeier, with a mandate to sling it all over the field, finished 15 for 27 for 294 yards and touchdown passes of 34 yards to Malik Nabors and 33 yards to Jaray Jenkins. He also threw one interception and lost a fumble on a sack.

“He did some really good things,” Kelly said. “To come in and be aggressive… for a guy that’s coming in off not playing a lot of football, really pleased.

“There’s some throws that obviously he’d like to have back. He’s got a quarterback mentality that he wants to be aggressive … he’s pushing the ball down the field, giving these guys a chance to make some plays and they did. Sometimes there are plays where they’re 50/50 balls, but he gives them a chance to make some plays. He did a nice job with that.”

LITTLE SOLACE: LSU’s 30 points and 549 yards were both the most the Georgia defense has allowed this season.

In fact, the Tigers’ 502 yards passing — Daniels had 208 before leaving the game — set a championship game record.

It was the first time a team had two quarterbacks throw for more than 200 yards in the championship game.

LSU’s 52 pass attempts was also the most ever.

The Tiger also has two receivers go over 100 yards, with Malik Nabors getting 128 yards on five receptions and Kayshon Boutte grabbing six for 107 yards.

ANALYTICS SAY … It was a little strange when Kelly went for two points at the end of the third quarter after Noah Cain’s 1-yard TD run pulled LSU to within 42-23.

The Tigers were unsuccessful.

But when Georgia successfully converted a two-pointer after its next TD to crack the 50-point barrier, Kelly was asked afterwards if that might have been rubbing it in.

“I don’t get too caught up in what other teams are doing,” Kelly said. “It’s not my job. It’s my job to stop ’em, not to figure out whether they should go for two or not. I really didn’t give it much thought.”

Smart explanation: “The book said it they were able to score, their analytics were to go for two. We didn’t know what was going to happen the next three to four series, so we executed it. In football you don’t save plays. You run ’em when you need ’em.”

RECORD WATCH: Georgia’s 35 points in the first half tied the SEC Championship game record. Alabama also scored 35 in the opening half of 2020 to take a 35-17 lead over Florida.

LSU still holds the Mercedez Benz Stadium first-half scoring record, 49 points in the 2019 Peach Bowl against Oklahoma.

LEGENDS: Todd McClure, a former LSU center (1995-98) represented in line of legends before the game. He was one of three Louisiana natives on the field as the Manning brothers, Peyton (Tennessee) and Eli (Ole Miss) were also on hand.

SERIES: LSU is now 5-2 in SEC Championship games, all since 2001. It was the fifth time the Tigers have played Georgia and they are now 3-2 vs. the Dawgs.

VETS: Georgia was in the SEC Championship game for the sixth time in the last seven years. LSU was last in the game in 2019, but had only two members of that team still playing Saturday — LB Micah Baskerville and DB Jay Ward.