LSU may have a running game after all.

After two games of struggling on the ground, even against what should have been a mismatch against Nicholls State, the first hint of a ground attack surfaced in the second half of the Tigers’ 36-33 comeback victory Saturday over South Carolina.

It probably wasn’t as easy as putting a freshman, Caden Durham, into the mix.

But head coach Brian Kelly said he came away encouraged by the 132 yards the Tigers finished with against the Gamecocks.

Baby steps, perhaps — mostly from the youngest in what has been a running back by committee — but it got better as the comeback wore on after the Tigers had minus yards on the ground in the first quarter.

For that matter, after two games against far lesser defenses than the Gamecocks, LSU went into last game averaging 86 ground yards per game.

 “It sets a standard of what we’re looking for,” Kelly said. “I mean, I think all those backs needed to see what we’re asking them to do.”

Durham, who didn’t play in the opener against Southern Cal and had 4 yards on five carries against Nicholls, wasted no time making an impact in his third game.

He lists his hometown as Oklahoma City, but was a four-star recruit out of Duncanville, Texas, in the Dallas area. He didn’t get his first carry Saturday until midway through the second quarter with LSU trailing 17-0.

But he bolted off a 26-yard run to break the scoring ice with the Tigers’ first rushing touchdown of the season.

“Caden broke three or four tackles,” Kelly said of the run that got the Tigers moving.

He wasn’t done, finishing with 98 yards on 11 carries and another touchdown with a 9-yard run when he again had to break several tackles.

“I mean, that’s the nature of the SEC,” Kelly said. “You’re going to have that extra (defender) coming down, and that’s why you’re on scholarship, OK?

“Frankly, you’ve got to make some of those guys miss and you’ve got to run through some tackles … we can’t block all of them all of the time.”

Durham’s 11 carries included a pair of runs longer than 20 yards and another two longer than 10 yards.

Kelly said South Carolina “was running some things inside with their tackles that was kind of cutting off our combination blocks, which required patience to bounce off that.

“He really saw it well and was able, obviously, to get the ball outside,” he said. “You can’t teach that, right?

“You can talk about it. You can say this is what we need to do. But you’ve got to just naturally see it. The vision, the wherewithal to do that in a game, is obviously a positive for him moving forward.”

Despite missing that first game, he’s the Tigers’ leading rusher, albeit with 102 yards.

“He just did a really good job of showing himself today and setting a standard of what we need at that running back position,” Kelly said.

There will still be a stable of running backs to compete for carries, namely senior Josh Williams and sophomore Kaleb Jackson. Another true freshman, Ju’Juan Johnson, was moved to the backfield from the secondary after John Emery was lost for the season to a knee injury, and is a freakish athlete who could open up things as he gains experience after playing quarterback at Lafayette Christian Academy last year.

“I think we’re still going to have those guys that are going to be part of it,” Kelly said. “But we certainly saw the things from Caden that we were looking for.”