Gators aim to silence sold out Tiger Stadium

The environment in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium last week with Auburn in town was electric. The stadium was rocking, the fans were in their seats early, they were loud and they had an impact in the game.

“I guess this is how the Swamp used to be. This is what the Swamp is, this is what we expect it to be, is that home-field advantage. The most electric environment in college football, the loudest stadium in college football. We need the Gator Nation to be able to give that effort just like the team give, all the time like they did today. It’s hard for any team to get in here and come for a win if that’s how the crowd is going to be.”

The shoe is on the other foot this week and the Gators need to prepare themselves for a stadium more intense and fans hotter than the Creole gumbo they dined on outside the stadium walls.

Death Valley seats more than 102,000 — the sixth-largest stadium in the country — and it’s sold out for Saturday. College GameDay will be in Baton Rouge as the Gators prepare for their second consecutive matchup against a top-10 team. This time it’s on the road and these Tiger fans have been waiting two whole years for the Gators to come back after a goal line stand left them speechless in 2016.

There isn’t enough gumbo in the state of Louisiana to soak up the amount of alcohol that will be consumed on Saturday, not to mention LSU offers more alcohol inside Tiger Stadium. The place is going to be a booze-fueled insane asylum come 7 p.m. central time.

There aren’t too many players on Florida’s roster that have played at Tiger Stadium, only seniors and redshirt juniors and only one that has played there in a night game. Van Jefferson was a redshirt freshman receiver at Ole Miss when the No. 23 Rebels took on the No. 25 Tigers. Jefferson hauled in four passes including one for a touchdown but Leonard Fournette’s 284 yards and three touchdowns. He recalled the environment for a ranked matchup in Death Valley.

It was crazy. That’s probably the loudest stadium I’ve been in and played in,” Jefferson said on Tuesday night. “It’s going to be fun to go back and play in.”

The last time Florida was in Baton Rouge was a turning point in the rivalry. Where Gators were born to hate Florida State, Tennessee and Georgia as rivals the LSU rivalry always seemed to be born out of a mutual respect. That year the game in Gainesville was postponed due to the impending threat of Hurricane Matthew. LSU players and fans accused Florida of being afraid to play the Tigers. Tempers quickly boiled over and have been steaming ever since.

“It’s definitely hostile,” Josh Hammond said. “It’s kind of hard to explain to people if they’ve never kind of been.”
LSU head coach Ed Orgeron and his players are also throwing fuel on the fire. LSU players have been vocal this week about their true feelings for the Gators.

“Yeah, man, I hate them,” LSU linebacker Patrick Queen said Monday.

When you’re at home in that kind of environment it’s easy on offense. The crowd is intelligent enough to know to be quiet when the offense is on the field and loud when the defense is. For the Gators, it will be different. Florida won’t be able to communicate as freely as they were last week at home when the offense is on the field and they’ve been working all week to combat that.

“Coach Mullen has put some things in on the offense that we’re going to do in the game that I think will be beneficial for us to handle the noise,” receiver Van Jefferson said. We just have to execute.”

The Gators and Tigers are very closely matched this season and have been for some time. 11 of the last 20 games between the two have been decided by 10 points or less. It’s going to be a close game on Saturday and the Gators would do well to try and take the Tigers’ fans out of the game as early as possible. There will be an initial surge of energy that they’ll have to resist. LSU is going to come out hot and the crowd will be frantic.

If the Gators can handle the crowd, the environment and, of course, the Tigers on the field they’ll be able to revel in one of the best feelings any athlete can have — the feeling of 102,000 disappointed and angry fans leaving a stadium in silence.

“Just wait till Saturday,” Tyrie Cleveland said. “They got to get on the field Saturday night and we’re going to get on the field. At the end of the game, we’re going to see who’s talking last.”

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC