BATON ROUGE, LA — For 45 days the Florida Gators felt their manhood was questioned. The Gators were told that they were scared to play football a game. That they didn’t want any part of LSU and that they were scared to make the trip to Baton Rouge.
The LSU Tigers got in on the action on social media and during interviews throughout the week. Derrius Guice told reporters in Baton Rouge the Gators couldn’t run from them anymore. Arden Key said the Gators were scared to play because of their injuries — Florida played without seven starters.
“Everything that they said throughout the week, they were talking and whatnot. ‘We scared’ or whatever they wanted to say. We just went out there and practiced this week knowing it was fistfight,” junior cornerback Quincy Wilson said. “This wasn’t a regular game. We just went out there and they tested our manhood and we responded.”
An actual fistfight almost broke out before the game. LSU defensive back Dwayne Thomas walked into the Gators’ defensive backs as they were going through a drill during pre-game warmups. Wilson walked into Thomas.
“I bumped into him on purpose to set it off,” he said. “We ain’t going like that.”
The pre-game scuffle got the Gators going, as if they needed more motivation than the previous 45 days had provided.
“There was a lot of buildup coming into the game,” said Wilson. “The East was in our hands. The whole thing with the little hurricane and they were saying we were scared or whatever. Clearly we ain’t scared. We came into their place and handled business.”
The game was hard-fought and then came to a climax at the end. LSU quarterback Danny Etling rushed for 13 yards on second and 10, then 14 more on the next play.
LSU held the Gators to a field goal try, which Eddy Pineiro drilled from 34-yards, to give the Tigers one more chance, down 16-10 with 3:24 on the clock. Three consecutive incomplete passes left LSU with a huge fourth-and-10. Etling dropped back, found DJ Chark for 30 yards.
The Tigers kept trudging along. A four-yard Guice scamper set up third-and-goal from the one yard line.
“Everybody in the stadium knew they were going to try to shove the ball in there,” Wilson said. “We were all ready for that.”
Wilson might have been ready for it, but the offensive players left watching on the sideline weren’t ready.
“I was about to throw up,” Sharpe said. “It was crazy.”
LSU lined up in the I-formation and handed it to fullback JD Moore. CeCe Jefferson crashed down from his spot at defensive end, launched himself at Moore and the fullback went sideways.
No gain.
Fourth down. One yard to go. All 102,000-plus people in the stands know what’s coming. The 22 players on the field know what’s coming.
You’re manhood has been questioned for more than a month. What will you do? Are you mice or men?
“Savage mode. It’s straight savage mode, man. It’s do or die,” Jefferson said of the final play. “If we lose this game, I heard we got to depend on Tennessee to lose or win. No, man. We’re a bunch of guys – we’re independent guys. We don’t like to depend on anybody to win or lose to decide our fate.”
LSU handed the ball off to Guice, who was met immediately behind the line of scrimmage. Safety Marcell Harris jumped in and wrapped up the running back’s legs and the Gators punched its ticket to Atlanta.
“Anytime somebody tests your manhood, tests you personally, disrespects you, they messed with the wrong guys,” Appleby said of the defensive stand.
The Gators didn’t do the talking this week, a new role for them. They let their actions speak on the field, and as Jim McElwain always says…
Your actions speak so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.