Buddy Martin Blog: An Air Of Desperation About Florida vs. LSU Even Without A National Spotlight
It’s not often a team with a strong fan base and a house-of-horrors stadium is a double-digit underdog. Don’t let Saturday’s 11-point Vegas line become fool’s gold, however.
Georgia means more, but on many of my friends’ list, LSU is gaining ground as the most contemptible of rivals for Florida. The Tigers remind me of one of those annoying visitors who shows up at your house without an invite to stay the weekend and you can’t make sense of how they got there or how to encourage their departure. Yet it is a grand college football rivalry.
Things happen. Whether it has been a stroke of misfortune, Les Miles’ black magic or simply the constant inability to stop them on fourth down, the Tigers have kept finding ways to inflict pain on Florida. But, then, Florida has also extracted its fair share of flesh.
There seems to have been an inordinate number of games postponed or rescheduled in this series. And LSU still hasn’t been forgiven for the naughty manners of Joe Alleva when it appeared he was sandbagging Florida and Jeremy Foley in trying to reschedule the 2016 game, causing Greg Sankey to have to step in and make it happen.
It’s not often a team with a strong fan base and a house-of-horrors stadium is a double-digit underdog. Don’t let Saturday’s 11-point Vegas line become fool’s gold, however, because the Gators have been known to come out on the wrong end of the odds vs. the Tigers.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Florida a whopping 23-point favorite last season in the Swamp for LShoeGate when the Gators were upset, 37-34?
This is not the ideal time for Mullen’s team to be messing with Louisiana voodoo. The Gators are just getting their offense underfoot with successful on-the-job training for Emory Jones. The defense is tackling better with Rashad Torrance looking like a veritable tackling machine. Plus the much-needed return of Kaiir Elam to join the improving Trey Dean, as well as edge-rusher Zach Carter’s sack-fest, has Todd Grantham’s unit trending upward.
Florida’s 11 a.m. Central date in Tiger Stadium is far more important than it looks on the schedule. The good news for the Gators is that they are facing a decimated squad that just lost their third starter, All-American cornerback Elias Ricks. He joins the Tigers’ leading receiver, Keshon Boutte, and best defensive back Darryl Stingley on the injured list, maybe gone for the season.
On the Florida side, LSU is a big game for several reasons. One of them being defensive star Carter, the SEC’s leader in sacks, whose mother is from Baton Rouge and grandfather went to LSU. He is being rewarded for the decision to hang around another season for some unfinished business. On the other hand, going back to his mother’s hometown of Baton Rouge has placed a great deal of pressure on him to come up with tickets. He needs 30.
Carter knows about this rivalry because he grew up watching it. There are many memories for Zach, including the game-clinching fourth-down run of Jacob Hester on Miles’ fifth gamble of the night. He knows about the Tim Tebow jump pass in ’06. “It’s a great rivalry,” said Carter.
Yet there is something a little unsettling about Saturday for Gator fans.
“This game has a feeling of desperation,” said Gator Radio Analyst Lee McGriff just before speaking to the Ocala Quarterback Club this week. “Ed Orgeron might lose his job if he loses this game.” Then he stopped for a second and added, “and if Dan Mullen lost to them, imagine what Gator fans would be like.”
Do the math. A loss to LSU Saturday and Georgia in two weeks … suddenly Mullen is a 4-4 coach. We all know he’s better than that, but the numbers are stifling if you’re on the wrong end of them. Let’s not create the pending doom scenario, however, because it’s offset by massive opportunity: And the flip side is, how often do you get a crack at knocking your hated rival off their No. 1 perch?
Mullen says these are the condiments of a splendid rivalry:
“Things that go into it: One, we play every year. Two, it’s two great programs that … we’ve each won two national championships (since 2006). You look at all the games — not all of them, but a lot of them — coming right down to the wire and being these tough battles.”
He’s right. Maybe this is what we’ll see Saturday. It may not be a TV spectacle for all of America, but it’s bound to speed up heartbeats among diehards in Florida and Louisiana. And at Zach Carter’s momma’s house.
Buddy, this is the most under-appreciated rivalry in the SEC and one of the best annual match-ups over several decades of Florida vs LSU football games. LSU is hurting but still talented. Wounded tigers become even more vigorous threats. The Gators almost certainly will win but not without a bar-room brawl on the way to the final score.