LSU Crushes Florida 41-11
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Freshman Jacoby Brissett showed off his arm strength, as well as his inexperience, with a deep pass that sailed over the nearest Florida receiver and landed in LSU safety Brandon Taylor’s arms.
Although Brissett made some promising plays in his college debut, he and the rest of Florida’s offense could not move the ball consistently enough to be competitive in a 41-11 loss to the No. 1 Tigers on Saturday.
Florida coach Will Muschamp said he thought Brissett was solid, “under the circumstances.”
The freshman was pressed into service for the 17th-ranked Gators because of injuries to senior John Brantley and freshman backup Jeff Driskel.
“He’s going to be a really good football player for us,” Muschamp said. “We’ve got to play better around him in some spots and create some more situations in the run game.”
Florida (4-2, 2-2 SEC) rushed for 113 yards. It didn’t help that Jeff Demps, slowed by an apparent ankle injury, carried only twice for no yards. Chris Rainey carried 13 times for 52 yards.
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By contrast Spencer Ware rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns for LSU (6-0, 3-0 SEC), which finished with 238 yards rushing, one week after Alabama had rushed for 226 in a 38-10 victory over Florida.
That opened Florida up to questions about its ability to control the line of scrimmage.
“I wouldn’t say we are getting overpowered,” Gators defensive end Sharif Floyd said. “It’s blown coverages and mistakes by us as a whole. We have to get more focused.”
Whatever the case, Muschamp made it clear that Florida will have to undergo a significant transformation.
“We’ve just got to look at the film and evaluate where we are as a football team,” Muschamp said. “That’s what we are going to do and move forward with the guys that are willing to do what we need to do to be successful.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys in the locker room that are hurting right now as well as us (coaches), and we’ve just got to get better.”
LSU’s decisive advantage at quarterback was obvious from the Tigers’ second offensive play, when Jarrett Lee unloaded a deep pass over Florida’s defense and hit Rueben Randle in stride for a 46-yard score.
“That’s what we wanted to do,” Lee said. “We knew that we had to get off to a quick start against these guys because they are a talented football team. It was really important for us to grab the momentum early.”
LSU backup quarterback Jordan Jefferson added a touchdown toss on a jump pass to tight end Mitch Joseph early in the fourth quarter. The play delighted the fans in Tiger Stadium, who likely remembered when former Florida star Tim Tebow pulled the same play on LSU back in 2006.
Brissett was 8 of 14 for 94 yards and one touchdown and was intercepted twice, the second time by star cornerback Tyrann Mathieu.
LSU led 17-0 after its first three possessions in what became the sixth double-digit victory in as many games for the Tigers, who have trailed for only 6:33 all season.
It would have been worse for Florida if LSU punter Brad Wing hadn’t drawn an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for a premature celebration on a 52-yard run to the end zone. Wing had opted to run instead of kick when he noticed the Gators had retreated prematurely to block for their return man, and the play infuriated Muschamp, even though the touchdown was disallowed.
“It’s undisciplined football and that’s my fault,” he said.
The Tigers more than doubled the Gators in total yards, 453-213.
Alfred Blue added 70 yards on 14 carries and a late 2-yard TD run to cap the scoring for LSU and ensure Florida’s worst loss since the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, when the Gators fell to then-national champion Nebraska 62-24.
Muschamp, who throughout the week had said Driskel was his likely starter, instead went with Brissett, saying it became clear in practice that Driskel was not healthy enough to play against a defense as strong as LSU’s.
Brissett finally got Florida in the end zone in the third quarter on a 65-yard connection to Andre Debose.
Driskel, who injured his ankle in relief of Brantley during the Gators’ 38-10 loss to Alabama a week earlier, did not play at all. Instead, Muschamp tried rotating in receiver Trey Burton and Rainey as single-wing quarterbacks, but that wasn’t effective either.
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