The Florida-LSU rivalry has featured all sorts of bizarre things over the last 15 years, but what transpired inside Tiger Stadium on Saturday afternoon might’ve been the biggest head-scratcher yet.
The Tigers entered the day ranked 127th in the country in rushing at 83.3 yards per game, while the Gators entered the day as the nation’s 27th-ranked rushing defense at 108.5 yards per game. Four of UF’s first six opponents failed to eclipse 100 yards on the ground.
On paper, this should’ve been a huge mismatch in the Gators’ favor, and the game should’ve come down to whether LSU quarterback Max Johnson could do enough through the air to keep pace with Florida’s offense.
Instead, the complete opposite happened. The Tigers piled up 321 rushing yards on 45 carries (7.1 yards per rush).
LSU used that remarkable day on the ground to upset the No. 20 Gators, 49-42, despite playing without numerous starters on both sides of the ball.
“I thought our attitude was great,” UF coach Dan Mullen said. “I thought we were into the game. We had opportunities to make plays. Dug ourselves into some holes during the course of the game that you can’t do, obviously, when you’re playing good teams. We dug too big a hole to get out of there at the end.”
Most of those rushing yards (220) came in the second half when it became abundantly clear how LSU (4-3, 2-2 SEC) was going to try to attack Florida’s defense. Their second-half playbook was basically limited to three plays: Tyrion Davis-Price right, Tyrion Davis-Price middle and Tyrion Davis-Price left.
Davis-Price ran for a school-record 287 yards on 36 carries and scored three touchdowns. He became the first 200-yard rusher against the Gators since 2010.
They ran power and counter for the entire half, and the Gators (4-3, 2-3) didn’t bring extra defenders down into the box or make any other noticeable adjustments. They tried to do the same thing over and over and got the same result.
“They were doing a couple different things,” Mullen said. “They ran a couple different schemes. They were running some insert. They were running some counter, running some one-back power. We’ve got to evaluate that. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get better up front. We’ll look at the scheme part. We’ve got to look at the personnel [and] get better.”
No matter where you look, Gators fans are calling for defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s dismissal after yet another horrendous showing against a talented offense. After the game, Mullen didn’t defend Grantham like he’s done in the past, but it doesn’t sound like he plans on making an in-season change, either.
“I don’t like to jump to conclusions,” Mullen said. “It’s a long season right there. I like to know the facts on everything that’s going on and what the issues are and what we’re doing and what we need to do to improve and how we’re going to do that.
“We’re always evaluating things throughout the course of the season in everything we do. It’s a long season. We’re in the middle point of the season here going into our bye week. Like I said, I’ll evaluate what we did well, what we did poorly. We’ll go look at the film and see how we can improve it for two weeks from now.”
Linebacker Mohamoud Diabate, who led the Gators with nine tackles, was noticeably frustrated and ticked off during his time with the media. He was asked about his confidence level in the defensive scheme, and his answer wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for Grantham.
“I’m confident in my teammates and my teammates’ ability to play hard and be where they’re supposed to be,” Diabate said. “I’m confident in my teammates.”
He was later asked a follow-up question about the lack of defensive adjustments and if they could’ve done more in that regard.
“That’s not my decision to make,” he said. “I don’t look into those things. I’m like a soldier. When the general tells me where to shoot, I shoot. I don’t really ask too many questions. That’s y’all’s job.
“We made the adjustments we were given to make.”
It seems like ancient history now, but Florida’s defense actually got off to perhaps its best start of the season. LSU punted on four of its first five possessions, including three three-and-outs.
The Tigers scored 21 points in the first half, but 14 of them came after UF quarterbacks Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson gave them short fields by throwing interceptions.
UF’s defense only played terribly for one possession in the first half, a 13-play, 90-yard drive that spanned the first and second quarters. On that drive, Davis-Price carried the ball six times for 52 yards and an 18-yard touchdown.
Then, LSU clearly saw something that they liked and made the appropriate halftime adjustments. The Gators’ defense did not.
The Tigers got the ball five times in the second half. Three of those drives ended in the end zone and a fourth one only ended because the clock ran out.
“They have a talented running back who was making plays,” Diabate said. “They got us out of position a couple of times. They had a good scheme. They ran a couple things that we hadn’t seen before that we didn’t know were coming. They had a pretty good gameplan. I give them props. They have good players.
“I just feel like it was a couple yards before anybody had a chance to really hit him. That gives you a boost when you have a couple yards and a head-start going. I wish it hadn’t been that way. He does a good job running through tackles. He’s a big, strong guy. He can bounce off tackles, run through gaps. He’s patient sitting way behind his blockers, so, when his blockers do get on a man, he explodes through that gap.”
Davis-Price ran through a gaping hole in the middle of UF’s defense and went untouched for a 40-yard score on LSU’s first drive of the second half.
Two drives later, Davis-Price rushed eight times for 70 yards and a 25-yard touchdown.
He carried the ball eight more times for 48 yards to set up Johnson’s game-winning 1-yard touchdown pass to Jaray Jenkins with 3:30 to go.
After Richardson threw an interception with 1:59 to go, Davis-Price ran three more times for 35 yards to seal the win.
“We didn’t stop the run and make the stops we needed to in the second half when we started to gain momentum,” Mullen said. “Every time we’d get that kind of fix to get ourselves out of the hole, we kind of couldn’t get the stop to get over the hump.”
This game was extremely disappointing on defense, and fans and players have every right to expect much more out of their millionaire coaches than what they saw on Saturday.
The defense had played much better through the first six games of the season, but they undid all of that progress against LSU.
It felt way too much like 2020 all over again. Despite turning the ball over four times, UF’s offense did more than enough to win this game. You should never lose a road conference game in which you score 42 points and gain 488 yards.
All the offense needed was for the defense to make one more stop in the second half. If the defense had done so, they’d get to work on all of their problems with a smile on their faces following a win.
Instead, they get to do some soul-searching over the next two weeks leading into the Georgia game.
“We just want to finish the season strong and play to our standard,” Diabate said. “We didn’t play to our standard today, and I feel like we have to look in the mirror and decide what we want to do. Personally, I’m going to come to practice and to the games with the same intensity, and I want to keep that same energy with my teammates.
“I want to do my best to keep them energized and focused on what we have to do because, no matter how many mistakes you’ve make, you’ve got to remember who you are and what you’re able to do. No matter how many times you fail to get to that standard, you can always remember that there’s always a chance and a possibility of heightening your play and getting to that standard.”
Florida’s defense had a chance to change the perception about how it performs in big games with Grantham calling the shots against LSU. Instead, the outside – and now internal – criticism is going to ratchet up over the next two weeks.