As the media huddled up for the news conference following LSU’s 52-35 victory over Florida Saturday night, the postgame buzz, of course, was all about Jayden Daniels’ record-setting performance.

Head coach Brian Kelly had other ideas. And, as he pointed out, he had the podium.

“You’re just going to have to listen to

me, OK?” he said.

He promised he’d eventually get to Daniels and the 606 yards of total offense, the dynamic runs and the four touchdowns and what it all meant to the Heisman Trophy race.

But first …

“I’d like to start with Noah Cain and Josh Williams coming in,” he said.

The two senior running backs aren’t total unknowns. They were LSU’s two leading rushers out of the running back room last year.

Yet both had seen their playing time shrink this year as Logan Diggs emerged as the go-to running back with John Emery, next in the pecking order, starting against the Gators while Diggs sat out with an injury.

But when Emery went down early in the game with a season-ending knee injury, Williams and Cain had to answer the call.

“Two guys, seniors that haven’t played a lot all year,” Kelly said, “and we needed them.”

On a night of flashy stats, nothing jumped out about either one. Both scored a touchdown, Cain on a 6-yard pass while Williams on a 1-yard dive. Cain also ran for 25 yards on five carries, Williams for 30 yards on 11 carries.

Never mind that.

In fact, the play Kelly wanted to focus on was pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of the game — Brian Thomas’ 7-yard reception on a jet sweep for the night’s final touchdown, the one that put Daniels over the 600-yard total offense mark.

It didn’t show up in Williams’ statistics, because the stat sheet does not normally record the unsung or the unselfish.

But look closer and you’ll see that the play might well have been blown up in the backfield if Williams devastating block hadn’t leveled Florida linebacker Derek Wingo, who had a bead on Thomas.

There were other similar plays by both of the unheralded backup running backs, Kelly said, several of which sprung Daniels free and straight to the highlight reel.

“When you’re building a program you want your players to model themselves after the right people in terms of the world we live in today with NIL and the transfer portal,” Kelly said.

He meant Williams and Cain.

“Haven’t played much at all (this year),” Kelly said. “All they’ve done has been great teammates, done the little things the right way. If you practice hard, wait for your opportunity … and when their opportunity came they delivered for us today.”

Kelly was almost ready to shift the news conference to Daniels, but he wasn’t done yet.

“When we’re talking about transfers and NIL and how that drives you out of the profession, to have two guys like that in the locker room, it just gives you so much energy because they are out there.”

Now, he said, about Jayden Daniels …