LSU RB Leonard Fournette out against Florida

The Florida Gators apparently weren’t scared after all.

Where: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La.

If the reports were true and LSU power brokers really were warming to the idea of Ed Orgeron as the full-time head coach, that foolishness was laid to rest at the 1-yard line in Death Valley. After marching for a touchdown on its first drive of the game, LSU reached the red zone four more times yet managed to get just three points out of those trips.

“The only thing that mattered was being 1-0 this week and controlling what we can control and that’s winning a football game”, Jones said. “It would have been a great victory”.

This was the type of play that Florida would need to go their way to be able to upset No. 16 LSU on the road. Donte Jackson ran into J.D. Moore near LSU’s 20-yard line and lost the ball. The Tigers could have opened up a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter but Guice fumbled on first-and-goal from the Gator 7, linebacker Caleb Brantley stripped the ball from Guice, and linebacker Kylan Johnson recovered at the Florida 12. “I think that was a good job by us”.

The LSU Tigers will reportedly be without star running back Leonard Fournette when the Tigers face off against the Florida Gators on Saturday, according to Ross Dellenger of The Advocate.

The game also featured two Purdue transfer quarterbacks starting in an important SEC matchup: Etling has been the starter most of the season for LSU, while Austin Appleby started in place of the injured Luke Del Rio for Florida and had 98 of his 144 yards come on one pass against what has been an excellent LSU defense. Florida has the second best rush defense in the SEC, as the Gators are only allowing 111 rushing yards per game. “I don’t know what it was this game, but we just couldn’t wrap him up”. North Florida made 44 percent of its field goal attempts – the highest mark by a Tigers opponent so far this season. Backed up in his own end zone, Austin Appleby threw a ideal deep ball to Tyrie Cleveland, who shrugged off an LSU defender for a 98-yard touchdown. Guice fumbled reaching out trying to break the plane.

“This is a tough loss”, said Orgeron. Missouri ran all over the Vols going for 420-yards, and the Tigers also picked-up 42-first downs to the Vols 24-first downs.

While the easy pick would be to take the home team with the points here, it seems this could be closer than it looks. Apparently that was enough to assure Fournette would lace up the pads. “He just came to me before the game in the dressing room and said, ‘Coach I want to play'”.

But his legs kept churning, and by the time he went down, he’d turned what looked like a 5-yard gain into a 22-yard crowd-silencing slog to the LSU 4-yard line.

Though it could only muster field goals in the red zone, Florida struck gold when backed up in its own end zone.

Florida coaches and players had plenty to be excited about after the game.

It’s not simply because the Gators were supposed to host LSU this season before Hurricane Matthew blew ashore in October.