BATON ROUGE, LA — This was redemption day for Ryan Stamper, whose own personal demon was exorcised Saturday night at Tiger Stadium. He spent two years living with that demon, sitting awake at night and wondering what might have been if he could have just held on a little tighter to Jacob Hester’s leg at the Florida seven-yard line.
On that night at Tiger Stadium in 2007, LSU rolled the dice on fourth and two, gambling that Hester could power his way for a first down off the left side of the LSU line. Stamper made a hit that he thought wrapped Hester up, but he felt his grip loosen and Hester squirmed loose. He lunged forward, got a favorable spot and made a first down by less than two inches. LSU went on to win that game, 28-24, and Stamper never stopped blaming himself.
“I always had that thought in the back of my head that if I had just made that play, the game would have been over,” Stamper said. “I kind of redeemed myself tonight.”
It wasn’t just Ryan Stamper who felt the weight of the world disappear Saturday night. Number one-ranked Florida’s 13-3 win over fourth-ranked LSU wasn’t just redemption for Stamper but atonement for an entire defensive unit that two years ago couldn’t get LSU off the field in the fourth quarter. Saturday night, LSU had a hard time getting on the field. Florida’s offense held the ball for 36:30 and 64 snaps while LSU managed only 47 against a Florida defense that kept coming up with plays. The Gators held the Tigers to 162 total yards and three measly points on a field goal that was enhanced by consecutive personal foul calls against the Gators.
On a night when all 93,219 in the ball yard, another 90,000 outside the stadium and a national television audience were so focused on Tim Tebow, who was coming back from a concussion suffered a couple of weeks ago at Kentucky, it was the Florida defense that was the real story. Florida’s defense didn’t know for sure if Tebow was playing or not until he actually ran out on the field, but by then they already knew this was their game to win.
“We didn’t know until it was time to play [if Tebow was playing],” Florida safety Will Hill said. “We knew he was going to suit up but we didn’t know if he was going to play or not but we really didn’t care. He doesn’t play defense. The defense knew what it had to do and then we did it.”
Although Urban Meyer decided Thursday that he would play Tebow if the doctors gave him clearance, the final clearance didn’t come until Saturday when the Florida medical team ran one more battery of tests and gave Meyer the okay.
“It was a tough deal and I kept saying would I play my son?” Meyer admitted. “Tim is my son. He’s part of the family. At one point I didn’t think I would. I think Thursday is when I came to grips with it. I had a long visit with his father and the training staff was adamant that it was all asymptomatic. They still wanted to look at him for the travel. That was legit. He did not get cleared until today.”
With Tebow in the game, Meyer went ultra-conservative. He didn’t run much triple option and limited the passing game to make certain Tebow wasn’t exposed to LSU’s pass rush. He was willing to run the ball, throw when he had to and turn the game over to a defense that he trusts to get the job done.
“They told us [the defense] to go out there and win the game, so that’s what we did,” Hill said.
Charlie Strong’s defense was all too happy to accept that challenge. There were more than a few guys in that defensive meeting room that had a demon that needed exorcising.
“A lot of guys playing tonight were on that defense two years ago and we remember what they did,” Stamper said. “We said that’s not happening this year.”
It didn’t happen because the Gators were relentless. LSU couldn’t run the ball against a Florida front that kept plugging the holes and completely shut down the cutback lanes. When the Tigers tried to throw the ball, the Gators brought the pressure, sacking Jefferson five times for 31 yards in losses and forcing him to run for his life on at least six other occasions.
On those rare moments when he actually had time to throw, Jefferson couldn’t find anyone open. The Tigers had only one downfield completion of more than 10 yards, a 26-yard Jefferson to Brandon LaFell connection on a crossing pattern in the second quarter that led to LSU’s only score of the night, an 18-yard field goal by Josh Jasper that tied the game at 3-3.
Even though LSU went 79 yards on 12 plays to get that field goal, that drive actually brought out the best in the Florida defense. Following a fourth down conversion by LSU at the Florida 34, two consecutive personal foul penalties gave the Tigers a first down at the Florida 10. Two plays later it was third and two at the Florida two but Troy Epps and Jaye Howard led a surge that stuffed Charles Scott in his tracks for no gain on third down, forcing LSU to go for the sure thing field goal.
Two years ago, Les Miles would have gambled and gone for the touchdown. Against this defense, Miles knew better than to take the chance.
And even though the Gators scored a victory of sorts by coming up with that stuff on third down to force the field goal, giving up the points and those 79 yards didn’t settle well with Charlie Strong, Florida’s defensive coordinator who had a few choice words for his stop troops at the half.
“In the first half, we didn’t really play that well as a unit but Coach Strong came in and got at us and we came out and we all gelled together and came out to play great defense,” Hill said.
And what was it exactly that Strong said to his troops?
“I can’t say those words,” Hill said, grinning widely.
Florida got all the points it needed in the first half to win the game. The Gators drove 82 yards on their first possession before settling for a 28-yard Caleb Sturgis field goal with 3:50 left in the first quarter. The Gators used up 13 plays and 8:50 off the clock, which was an omen of things to come for the Tigers. Florida did such a great job controlling the clock and keeping the chains moving that they only punted once the entire game.
Florida got what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown on an eight-play, 80-yard drive on the Gators’ last possession of the half highlighted by a 20-yard pass to Brandon James and a 13-yard run on an option pitch around the right side by Jeff Demps. The scoring play was a 24-yard Tebow to Riley Cooper pass off play action in the right corner of the LSU end zone with 50 seconds left in the half.
Although the 10-3 margin wasn’t exactly comfortable, it was enough for the Gator defense, which opened its second half by making a statement on LSU’s first possession. Following a missed Sturgis field goal on Florida’s first possession of the half, the Gator defense took the game over, getting a first down sack by Justin Trattou and a third-down sack by Brandon Spikes to set the tone.
It didn’t matter that the Gators couldn’t punch the ball in for another touchdown. They settled for a 32-yard field goal by Sturgis with 6:09 remaining in the game and squandered another potential scoring opportunity when Tebow threw an interception off his back foot while rolling right, a pass that was five yards short of Cooper, who was wide open in the end zone.
But the Gators didn’t need a lot of points, not the way the defense was playing.
“When we 13 points I knew it was over,” Stamper said.
In reality, it was over long before the Gators tacked on that last field goal. It was over when Florida’s defense decided after that LSU field goal that the Tigers would do no more scoring.
“If they can’t score they can’t beat you,” Stamper said.
Walking off the field Saturday night, Stamper looked at the scoreboard one more time and felt peace for the first time in two years. He came to Baton Rouge and got what he wanted, a win on LSU’s home field.
“This is a completely different team from 2007 and it showed tonight holding a good team like LSU to three points at their home field,” Stamper said. “It just shows this defense is for real.”
On this night, nobody understood that better than the LSU Tigers.