GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
That tiebreaker?
It just broke in a thousand pieces.
No. 22 LSU lost its third straight game for the first time in the Brian Kelly Era Saturday, 27-16, at Florida, ending all remote hopes of the Tigers (6-4, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) reaching the SEC Championship Game through the conference’s tiebreaker or the 12-team College Football Playoff pipedream.
Forget all that.
Now, LSU can’t even beat Billy Napier, the embattled Florida coach who got the dreaded vote of confidence last week from athletic director Scott Stricklin. That will stick now as Napier is in line for his first non-losing season with the Gators in his third year.
Florida (5-5, 3-4 SEC) can secure a 6-6 regular season with a win over 1-9 Florida State on Nov. 30. The Gators host No. 11 Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2 SEC) next week. A bowl win could give Napier his first winning season since he left Louisiana-Lafayette after the 2021 season.
A four-point underdog, Florida beat LSU for the first time since 2018. Napier was 6-7 and 3-5 in the SEC and 5-7 and 3-5 in his first two seasons and was considered to be on the firing block most of this season.
Meanwhile, Kelly may be closer to that than anyone ever imagined – not likely this year, but in the near future. He became the first LSU coach to lose three straight since Ed Orgeron fell to Ole Miss, Alabama and Arkansas in 2021 a month after announcing he would resign after the season.
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The Tigers drew within 20-16 with 5:18 to play on a 38-yard field goal by Damian Ramos and needed a stop to try to win the game. But Florida ended that quickly on a 55-yard touchdown run by Jaden Baugh on a simple off tackle pitch that shredded the Tigers’ defense to put the Gators up 27-16 with 3:48 left. And it was over.
LSU hosts Vanderbilt and Oklahoma to end the season as Kelly will try to salvage a lost season that had his team ranked No. 8 just a month ago after beating Ole Miss.
The Tigers took their first and last lead of the game at 13-10 with 5:54 left in the third quarter on a 45-yard field goal by Ramos after a 62-yard drive in 15 plays that took up seven minutes and 44 seconds. LSU apparently took a 17-10 lead on the previous play when Nussmeier threw a 13-yard touchdown to wide receiver CJ Daniels, but it was called back because of offensive pass interference by wide receiver Kyren Lacy.
Florida came right back and tied it 13-13 on a career-long 55-yard field goal by Trey Smack late in the third quarter. Then it recovered a Nussmeier fumble – his second lost one in two games – on LSU’s next possession at the Tigers’ 33-yard line. But the Tigers’ defense forced a punt.
The Gators went up 20-13 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Ja’Kobi Jackson with 13:58 to go in the fourth quarter after quarterback DJ Lagway’s 36-yard completion to wide receiver Elijhah Badger to the 1-yard line. Badger ripped LSU’s secondary all game for 131 yards on six carries. Lagway, a true freshman shaking off a hamstring injury, completed 13 of 26 passes for 226 yards and a touchdown.
Florida sacked Nussmeier a season-high seven times after he came into the game with six sacks on the season. He finished 27-of-47 passing for 260 yards and a touchdown.
LSU tied the game at 10-10 on a 50-yard field goal by Ramos with 10 seconds to go in the first half. Nussmeier’s 28-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Aaron Anderson at the 7:39 mark of the second quarter tied the game at 7-7 and was LSU’s lone TD of the game.
Smack put the Gators up 10-7 with 3:27 to go in the second quarter on a 49-yard field goal. Florida took a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter on a 23-yard touchdown pass by Lagway to Badger.
LSU outgained Florida, 382 yards to 339, outrushed it 120 to 113, and won the time of possession by 41:48 to 18:12, but those are all meaningless numbers if you can score only one touchdown.
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