(Photo via Florida Gators)
For half a decade, everything that could conceivably have gone wrong for the Florida Gators against LSU went wrong.
From 2019-2023, it didn’t matter how good or bad either Florida or LSU was. LSU simply owned Florida. The Tigers beat the Gators when both teams were national title contenders (2019), when Florida was a national title contender and LSU was a broken team and a walking hospital ward with nothing to play for (2020), when both teams were just plain bad (2021), when LSU was good and Florida was bad (2022) and when LSU was so-so and Florida was really bad (2023).
But at long last, that five-year streak—featuring a pair of Heisman Trophy winners, a thrown cleat, an allergy to the counter play, a serious allergy to playing third down defense, and a deathly allergy to playing any kind of defense at all—is finally over.
On Saturday night, as the moon rose over the Swamp and the sun set on LSU’s 2024 season, the Florida Gators finally decided they were done being LSU’s punching bag. So the Gators punched back. Hard.
DJ Lagway returned to throw for 226 yards and a touchdown, the Florida defense sacked LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier seven times, and the Gators finally earned their first victory over LSU since 2018 with a 27-16 triumph in the Swamp.
LSU certainly helped with some self-destructive tendencies. Between a dropped interception, an overthrown Chris Hilton on what would have been a touchdown pass, and Nussmeier not even noticing Kyren Lacy open for what would’ve been a huge gain, the Tigers left a lot of points on the field. But unlike against Tennessee, this time, the Gators took advantage.
Florida scored first on this evening, with DJ Lagway firing a dart to Elijhah Badger for a 23 yard touchdown. LSU tied it up with a beautiful throw from Nussmeier to Aaron Anderson, and thus began a defensive struggle. The teams could do no more than trade field goals for the next two quarters, creating a 13-13 deadlock as the lights dimmed and the crowd of 90,067 belted out Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down.”
Which was another sore point for Florida. The Gators began the tradition of singing Petty’s hit five days after his death in 2017, and the LSU band attempted to play over it and drown it out—as they would do in subsequent trips to Gainesville in 2018 and 2022. The 2022 game was especially galling, as LSU coach Brian Kelly went viral for telling his team, in part, “I’m gonna remember that song, I’m gonna sing that song in the fourth quarter… because going into the fourth quarter, we’re gonna have this team. So I’m gonna be thinking in terms of, ‘I want to know the words to that song.’” LSU would win that game, 45-35.
It’s safe to say the Florida Gators remembered.
In contrast to Kelly’s proclamation about the fourth quarter two years earlier, this time, the Gators dominated the final 15 minutes—and left no doubt as to which direction both teams were trending.
Lagway opened the fourth quarter with a throw that wasn’t even fundamentally sound—he ran forward, jumped into the air, squared his shoulders mid-jump and fired an absolutely perfect ball to Elijhah Badger—that set up a Ja’Kobi Jackson touchdown run that gave the Gators the lead for keeps. LSU could manage only a field goal from that point on, and when Jadan Baugh took a quick flip from DJ Lagway and cut upfield, the game was over. 55 yards later, Baugh crossed the goal line to adjust the score to 27-16– which would hold as the final.
There were things to nitpick about the Gators’ performance, but it’s clear this program is headed in the right direction.
Lost amid the latest horrifying array of tape on 3rd down defense and yet another instance of lining up with twelve men for a punt was an undeniable fact: this is a better football team than it was at the start of the year. It’s better coached, it’s executing better, the defense looks to be playing with better understanding of its assignments, and, well, with all due respect to Graham Mertz, the better quarterback is at the controls of the offense.
And while, yes, LSU is a shell of its former self under Joe Burrow or even Jayden Daniels, it’s still one of the few teams out there with more talent than Florida– and the Gators came out, took the fight to the Tigers on both sides of the ball, and did so for the bulk of the 60 minutes of game action. How LSU controlled the ball for two-thirds of the game and could only manage one touchdown is a testament to a defense that’s playing with attitude now. And it’s an attitude that’s shown across the board– from Dijon Johnson making a TFL on the first series of the game to either of Tyreak Sapp’s celebrations following each of his two sacks, and everyone in between.
The question now becomes this: did we just see Napier’s staple lone big win of the season? After all, Florida had big early-season wins over Utah in 2022 and Tennessee in 2023, only for the team to falter down the stretch and end the season with losing records. Or is this truly the start of a new leaf being turned over for the Florida Gators, one where wins like this can be stacked up consistently, the Swamp can become feared again, and Florida can return to its status as one of the sport’s elites?
Time will have to tell. It’s easy to get sucked into the emotions of the win, but it’s still just one win. It didn’t change Napier’s record from 15-19 to 115-19; no, he’s now 16-19. More data is needed before it’s wise to view this as a true building.
But for now, there’s no denying that the win feels good. And either way, because feeling good is a sensation that’s been scarce under Billy Napier, this is one of those wins that we’ll remember for a long, long time– preferably with Alexa blaring “Neck” in the background.
