Here’s a handy little rule of thumb if you’re going to lead a college football game only once: 11:01 p.m. (CDT) is about as good a time as any to do it.

Maybe that was LSU’s plan all along Saturday night. Never during regulation did the Tigers lead Ole Miss. And the game ended the moment LSU’s Kyren  Lacy snagged Garrett Nussmeier’s 25-yard touchdown pass on the Tigers’ first play of overtime after Ole Miss had settle for a field goal.

So … LSU 26, Ole Miss 23.

It took 4 hours, 16 minutes of football and somehow kept virtually all of the habitually early-fleeing Tiger Stadium crowd in their seats until the very end.

It needed an overtime and about 900 video replay reviews to work around Tiger Stadium’s new play-toys, the light-up wristbands issued to all fans that were there to flash and blink during every break in the action.

Not to mention Ole Miss’’ never-ending pandemic of “injury” stoppages.

To win the Tigers had to overcome a double-digit deficit — two of them, actually — for the eighth time in head coach Brian Kelly’s three-year tenure. It was sparked in the end by Garrett Nussmeier’s third last-minute, game-winning drive in his seven starts as a Tiger.

OK, upon further review — fitting, as this game lived and died by the replay monitor — we may need a ruling on the last one. That 23-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Anderson with 27 seconds remaining on fourth-and-five only tied the game. It forced the overtime, where Nussmeier needed only one play to toss the 25-yard, game-winner to Kiren Lacy.

Quibble if you will.

But we’re going to put it on the mantle with Nussmeier’s other last-minute comebacks. Back-to-back passes for touchdowns of 23 and 25 yards ought to qualify.

If you agree, wave your blinking wristband and storm the field.

A good number did. The stadium seemed to have a quorum gallivanting around the turf — selfies for everybody! — which will cost LSU another cool quarter-million American dollars, the Southeastern Conference’s idiotic fine for failure to control a tidal wave of youthful glee, a fairly polite and orderly one at that.

LSU athletic director Scott Woodward didn’t seem to be reaching for his own wallet, but he seemed to enjoy the scene he took in from the south end zone tunnel.

Some of those same revelers were mocked two years ago for the same hijinks after beating the Rebels, a team that hasn’t won in Baton Rouge since 2008.

Did  they not realize that Kelly has still never lost a night game in Tiger Stadium? And that LSU was only a 3 1/2 point underdog

Oh, never mind. Party on, kiddos.This seemed different.

It was a good Ole Miss team and an LSU team still finding itself, a search that continued for much of Saturday night when the Rebels seemed in control, ready to explode at any moment.

“They never blinked,” Kelly said of his team. “They were down virtually the whole game, and they just kept playing. There was no frustration.

The storming of the field seemed to be as much about how the Tigers won as who they beat.

It was the kind of game Kelly,  for one, has been waiting on. It was hardly perfect, giving them plenty to work on before heading to Arkansas this Saturday.

They’re still looking for that game that can be the measuring stick for how good they can be. But maybe the team’s identity came to the forefront.

Nussmeier called it “one of my worst games,” but shook off some early struggles including two interceptions, before his “clutch” gene kicked in. The TD pass to force overtime was the second fourth-down conversion of the 75-yard drive, the other a 14-yard pass to Mason Taylor.

Patience isn’t his strong point. Ole Miss led the nation in sacks but Nussmeier stayed clean — maybe as part of the Ole Miss plan.

In exchange, the Rebels seemed to be dropping a baker’s dozen into coverage. It was not night for receivers running free.

“It requires a great deal of patience and mobility … keep the play alive,” Kelly said. “He did that later in the game. I thought he grew more tonight than at any time that he’s been here.”

Still, none of Nussmeier’s late heroics would have been possible without the LSU defense, which by hook and crook, kept the Tigers in the game while its offense was operating in occasional spurts.

Maybe that was the real story.

Again, it comes with a disclaimer. You have to read between the lines of the final stat sheet.

It was more opportunistic than dominating. Let’s just say few defenses ever looked better while giving up 464 yards of offense.

“Sacks (six of them), harassing the quarterback, making the big plays when they needed to,” Kelly said. “The defense kept us in the game.”

The who?

Kelly calls it “complementary football” and it’s what he will take away from this win.

But if you were there by all means keep and save those twinkling wristbands. If anything comes of this season, E-Bay may be waiting on them.