Five takeaways from LSU vs. Florida

Special to Gator Country by Nick Knudsen

Marco Y.O.L.O.

The Gators defense slogged their way through a foggy night and appeared to come through in the clutch despite a tough day at the office. 

Florida earned critical third down stop with the score tied 34-34 at just under the two-minute mark when a fired-up Marco Wilson celebrated what should have been the drive’s decisive tackle by chucking an opponent’s shoe downfield to keep Cindere-LSU’s hopes of an upset alive.

For a split-second, I thought the officials may have missed it. Perhaps the camera angles had an easy line-of-sight while the refs were further back, dealing with the fog. That hope quickly faded as flags flew in from every direction and Wilson (though Mohamoud Diabete was incorrectly singled out) handed LSU a free first down to keep a struggling Florida defense on the field. 

Wilson somehow stayed on the field for the remainder of the series and LSU would go on to kick a 57-yard field goal through the fog (guess the refs felt a kicker running down the field on a full sprint while doing the Gator Chomp wasn’t worthy of an unsportsmanlike penalty which could’ve impacted Florida’s starting field position on the ensuing final LSU kickoff).

Instead of further skewering the redshirt junior corner, who will get enough venom over the next few days to last a lifetime, I simply want to ask why he stayed on the field?

Grantham or Mullen should have yanked Wilson off of the field immediately to use it as a teachable moment. 

I know the secondary isn’t deep, but a message should have been sent in the moment. Not just for Wilson’s sake, but the team.

Should Mullen consider suspending Wilson for the SEC Championship Game? Maybe the first half?

It seems like a steep price to pay for a kid who made a mistake, but Mullen has to send a message that there will be no tolerance for that type of selfish mistake going forward now that we know a shoe can potentially cost the Gators a shot at a national title.

Slow Start Sets the Tone

How were you feeling when the Gators hit the locker room down 24-17 at the half as 23.5-point favorites against the worst defending national champion since World War II?

How many mentions of “we won’t be able to get away with that against Bama next week” were made amongst your family and friends?

Florida outgained LSU 348-190 in the first half and turned the ball over three times. Two of those turnovers led to 10 easy points for the Tigers.

Inconsistency hampered the Gators and Trask looked uncharacteristically flustered in the pocket under relentless pressure from LSU. Bo Pelini’s much-maligned defense pressured Trask a whopping nine times and tallied two sacks after getting shredded for 45 points in the first half of last week’s debacle against Alabama. 

The LSU offense, which has only slightly been overshadowed by defensive incompetence in 2020, kept the UF defense off-balance thanks to the legs of freshman QB Max Johnson. 

Note: Yes, ESPN, we know he’s Brad Johnson’s son, his mother was a good volleyball player, and his uncle is Mark Richt. Someone on the broadcast has to be responsible for counting the number of times the viewers are being fed the same piece of information, right?

Florida was caught off guard on multiple quarterback draws early on, but they managed to limit Johnson on the ground as the first half progressed. The Gators allowed 17 first half points (can’t blame the pick-six on the UF defense) to an offense which had previously scored a combined total of 17 first half points against Auburn, A&M, and Bama.

Pitts’ Absence leads to Red Zone Issues

Florida only managed 17 points by halftime despite finding itself in the red zone on five of eight drives in the first half.

Trask didn’t have trouble moving the ball. The senior quarterback out of Manvel, TX, connected with nine different receivers on 18 completions with Grimes, Toney, and Copeland combining for 10 receptions. 

Big plays weren’t an issue either. Grimes hauled in a 50-yard reception, Toney weaved and created a 44-yard run after catch, and Copeland undercut an inexperienced LSU defensive back in the end zone to snag a 19-yard touchdown. 

Despite the positives on the stat sheet, the absence of Kyle Pitts clearly played a considerable role early on in the red zone. Florida seemed to be searching for answers without its favorite red zone weapon. Not only does Trask rely on Pitts to be his safety blanket when things break down, but Mullen’s play design often features a Pitts-centric approach when the Gators are threatening.

Trask Passes Wuerffel

Kyle Trask entered the game just one touchdown shy of Danny Wuerffel’s single season record of 39 touchdown passes from the magical 1996 season. Trask’s record-setting 40^th touchdown pass of the season came on a third quarter receiver screen to Kadarius Toney. 

Through 13 games in 1996, Wuerffel surpassed the 300-yard mark five times, threw for at least three touchdowns in nine games, completed 57.1% of his passes, and threw 14 interceptions.

Through 10 games in 2020, Trask surpassed the 300-yard mark nine times, threw for at least three touchdowns in nine games, completed 71.4% of his passes, and threw five interceptions.

For a more recent Heisman comparison, through nine SEC games in 2019, Joe Burrow surpassed the 300-yard mark eight times, threw for at least three touchdowns in eight games, completed 77.6% of his passes, and threw three interceptions.

#Trask4Heisman 

Florida is not Bama…yet

Since Florida left Jacksonville with a win over Georgia, the fanbase has suffered from what I’ve called, “Alabama Anxiety.” 

Instead of fully enjoying wins which wrapped up the SEC East, conversation centering around all of the fanbase’s insecurities started to be directed toward where this team would fall short in their eventual matchup with the Crimson Tide. 

Mullen and the Gators had seemed immune to the chatter within the fanbase as they rolled over Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Tennessee in the final month of the season, but LSU felt different.

This game wasn’t set in stone by the SEC until last week. Sure, it had been on the schedule, but there was speculation that the SEC might waive Florida and Alabama’s December 12 games after both teams clinched the East and West last weekend in an effort to preserve the SEC Championship Game on December 19 in Atlanta. In a similar move, Notre Dame and Clemson’s final game had been waived since both had clinched a spot in the ACC Championship Game. Not something you’d see in a normal year, but 2020 makes its own rules.

Even when the SEC confirmed Alabama and Florida would indeed play their all-but meaningless regular season finales, the Florida-LSU matchup seemed like it would be little more than a walk-through for a Gators team which had previously had no issues handling their business against inferior opponents.

LSU came into this game after a week full of turmoil and toxicity in Baton Rouge following a 55-17 drubbing at the hands of Alabama. A week after their top receiver, Terrace Marshall, opted out, freshman five-star tight end Arik Gilbert opted out and left an already struggling Tigers offense in an even worse position. Rumors swirled that sophomore corner Derek Stingley Jr. might be the next to opt out. Down to a travel roster of 54 scholarship players and a true freshman starting at quarterback, the outlook was bleak heading into Gainesville against the mighty Gators.

Instead, Max Johnson played like a savvy veteran, LSU leaned on a three-headed monster in the running game, and freshman wide receiver Kayshon Boutte caught five passes for 108 yards and a touchdown. A down-and-out defense led by the least popular man in Louisiana stepped up in the right spots and a clutch field goal through the fog all combined to create just enough voodoo to somehow pull the hapless Tigers past the Gators. 

Credit to LSU for finding a way to win, but when Mullen conducts the autopsy of this upset in the offseason, I wonder if he’ll find that the Gators were guilty of looking ahead to Alabama next week?

Mullen has done a fantastic job rebuilding this program in only three years, however, we ain’t Bama yet (using “yet” in a hopeful manner). Alabama fans can take these types of games for granted, but they know that as long as Saban continues to breathe, the Tide never will overlook an opponent. Mental mistakes like that don’t happen in Tuscaloosa and it’s part of the gap that currently exists between Alabama and America, not just the Gators. If Florida wants to be in the same class as Bama, this LSU loss has to become a program defining moment in the Mullen era.

The Gators were almost good enough to cover up the warts for another week. They were almost good enough to get away with looking past LSU. Almost…but it didn’t happen. 

Let’s hope Mullen and Florida learn from the experience and get better. 

Florida may not be Bama just yet, but this team is fully capable of dialing in to push the Tide to their limit next Saturday. A playoff spot may be out of the question, but playing spoiler to Alabama while stealing an SEC title a year ahead of schedule and turning Mr. Trask into a bronze statue outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium would certainly qualify as an unbelievable year in Gator Nation.

Gator Nation is praying for you, Keyontae.