Florida Gators Survive at LSU 16-10

Against all odds, the Florida Gators put together one of the finest hours in program history.

Instead of using timeouts to counter Ed Orgeron’s savvy move to let the seconds tick away – yes, Brent Musburger’s protestation and doubling down on the SEC Network were flat-out foolish – and giving his offense a chance if LSU did score, McElwain basically said, “Go ahead”. A lot of questions now loom in Baton Rouge about what’s next for their Tigers after this six point loss.

Orgeron’s interim stints at LSU and USC prove he clearly deserves another shot as a head coach after his disastrous tenure at Ole Miss from 2005-07. LSU holder Josh Growden bobbled the snap on a field goal attempt, and threw incomplete in the end zone.

Safety Marcell Harris stopped Guice on the last play of the game on fourth and goal from inside the 1.

“They pressure the quarterback, and they have a lot of speed”, Orgeron said.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world because we just felt disrespected” echoed defensive tackle Caleb Brantley who helped keep LSU out of the endzone four times in the red zone. Guice also had a fumble on first-and-goal at the Florida 7 in the second quarter. Donte Jackson ran into J.D. Moore near LSU’s 20-yard line and lost the ball. Eddy Piñeiro made a 36-yard field goal to get the Gators on the board. “It’s no small feat to go to that championship game back-to-back”. “We need to play better on special teams”.

With the victory, the Gators clinched the SEC East title to earn a date with Alabama in the conference championship game.

With LSU leading 7-3 midway through the second quarter and apparently going in for another touchdown, he stripped the ball from Guice on first-and-goal from the UF 7-yard-line, and linebacker Kylan Johnson fell on it to end the threat.

Jones said the Vols remained cloistered from anything pertaining to the Florida-LSU game. That was silly, but what was even more laughable was the idea of Florida being scared to play LSU.

One of the people who must shoulder the blame for LSU’s shortcomings is Leonard Fournette.

The Tigers outgained Florida 420-273. Backed up in his own end zone, Austin Appleby threw a flawless deep ball to Tyrie Cleveland, who shrugged off an LSU defender for a 98-yard touchdown.

Besides Guice’s confusion and resulting fumble at the gun, his second-quarter turnover at Florida’s 7 may have been the biggest gaffe of the day.

“This is a tough loss”, said Orgeron.

LSU took a 7-3 lead into halftime, but it wasn’t pretty. Fournette was unavailable to reporters following the game.

Going into Saturday, the standings were clear.

A chorus of Florida players also joined in with basically the same sentiment as McElwain.

“We were terrified of them boys”, Florida cornerback Jalen Tabor said after the game with a smile.

But it wasn’t to be for Fournette, whose final appearance in Tiger Stadium ended with the loss and a less-than-stellar performance: 40 yards on 12 carries and an early exit because of his season-long ankle injury.

Appleby is able to hit freshman wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland for a magnificent 98-yard touchdown on the vaunted LSU Tigers defense.

LSU will close the regular season with a Thanksgiving matchup against Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

Who would have thought that given where this crew was on Saturday morning?