GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Their last venture into a hostile Southeastern Conference venue proved to be a study of mistakes and self-inflicted wounds the likes of which basically put any hopes of a league title for the Florida Gators on life support.
Fifteen penalties, including eight false starts in what turned out to be a seven-point loss and cause for a field-storming at Kentucky.
That was 10 days ago. UF bounced back from that one by flattening Vanderbilt 42-0, but now it's back on the road for the 20th-ranked Gators (4-2, 2-2), who get LSU (3-3, 1-2) in a Saturday noon affair (11 a.m. local time) at Tiger Stadium.
Coincidentally, the Tigers got a taste of the unwelcoming Kentucky confines over the weekend, as the Wildcats rolled to a dominant 42-21 win. UK did it by trampling LSU for 475 yards of total offense, including 330 on the ground, putting up numbers that were a far cry from the 224 yards of offense (just 137 rushing, 87 passing) the Cats managed against the Gators. That would seem to suggest — based on head-to-head comparisons — that UF will have a chance at running the football at "Death Valley."
Assuming the Gators get that snap-count thing figure out, of course.
"You just have to be mentally focused on it," Florida coach Dan Mullen said Monday.
The Gators were anything but at Kentucky. What happened up there needs to serve as a teaching moment as the team prepares for what figures to be a pretty rowdy environment, albeit probably not as bad as a night game in Baton Rouge against a version of the Tigers not struggling like this one.
Mullen was completely vague as to how Emory Jones and his offense will deal with the crowd noise and whether the unit would get away from the quarterback clap snap that did not work in Lexington.
Obviously, they have to do something differently.
"It's mainly just the focus and the discipline in making sure we're just locked in every single play because we have to be," said Jones, who passed for 273 yards and a career-high four touchdowns against the Commodores. "That's for all 11 guys on offense."
Added Mullen: "I'm not going to get into what we're going to do specifically. We discussed it. We'll have some things. There's tons of things you can do. We'll get under center, use a verbal count. … When I was at Utah we played at Texas A&M on the road and at BYU, all we used was the quarterback's voice count. There's a lot of things you can do. We got to do what works best for our guys and make sure all of them can function and be efficient."
As a unit, the Gators are functioning as the No. 10 offense in the nation (second in SEC) by averaging 504.0 yards per game, including 273.7 rushing (first in the SEC, third nationally) despite failing to reach 200 yards in each of the last two games. The Tigers, meantime, have struggled stopping teams. Their defense ranks 73rd nationally (11th in the league) and 77th against the run (154.2). LSU has lost two straight, including a 24-19 home defeat to Auburn the week before the loss at Kentucky.
That said, LSU was having a miserable 2020 season — in defense of their 15-0 run to the national title in 2019, no less — when the Tigers came to Spurrier/Florida Field last Dec. 12 with a 3-5 record and a defense that had given up at least 44 points in three of the losses, plus an offense that had scored 17 or fewer in its previous three defeats.
Anyone remember what happened that night?
"Yeah, I knew that was coming," defensive end Zach Carter said Monday. "I guess that's going to go down in Gator history. They might ask that every year against LSU."
UF's Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Kyle Trask threw for 474 yards, but turned the ball over three times. Defensive back Marco Wilson's infamous third-down shoe toss kept alive a LSU drive that led to a go-ahead 57-yard field goal. Florida's Evan McPherson missed a 51-yard field goal in the fog as time expired. The Tigers won 37-34 and basically spiked the sixth-ranked Gators from the College Football Playoff picture.
Cornerback Kaiir Elam (knee), out the last two games, as well as tailback Malik Davis (undisclosed injury) and offensive tackle Richard Gouraige (both), both held out against Vandy, are expected to return for the Gators.
"We just have to go out and execute and not make the stage any bigger than it already is," said Carter, the fifth-year senior from Tampa who has family in Baton Rouge. "You know it's a big game — every SEC game is a big game — but we have to go out there and execute. We know we're on the road and last time we were on the road, at Kentucky, things didn't really go well. We had a lot of penalties and mistakes, but those things will hopefully be cleaned up for this week. It's important."
LSU is led by lefty quarterback Max Johnson, the son of former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson (then of Tampa Bay), and who as a freshman led that upset of UF last year by passing for 239 yards, three touchdowns and no turnovers, while rushing for another 52 yards. For the season, Johnson has hit nearly 62 percent of his throws for 1,730 yards, 17 touchdowns and four interceptions.
The Tigers will go into the game with some injury issues, with cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., the consensus top-rated NFL defensive back prospect, and star wide receiver Kayshon Boutte out with injuries.
That should be advantageous for the Gators, but so would a road game minus double-digit penalties.
Or a single killer penalty (no shoe-throwing this time, please) that can turn a game.
"We're going to prepare this week and make sure that none of that will happen. That's our main focus, just trying to eliminate all the mistakes," Jones said. "Just make sure that we don't beat ourselves."
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