This Florida Gators Loss to LSU Was Pure Insanity

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

Florida’s 49-42 loss to LSU Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge was classic proof that Einstein knew exactly what he was talking about. LSU kept running the same exact counter trap to Tyrion Davis-Price over and over again, and as long as the Gators didn’t step up to make plays, they were going to keep on doing the same thing over and over again. That’s not insanity. That’s smart. Florida, on the other hand, knew exactly what LSU was going to do and yet the Gators, judging by the results, either made no adjustments whatsoever or the ones they made came from page 281 of the latest version of “Defensive Football for Dummies” because they didn’t work.

This was insanity, pure and simple, and there is no other way to either analyze or describe how the Gators (4-3, 2-3 SEC) lost this very winnable game. LSU made no effort whatsoever to cleverly disguise what it was doing. There were no fancy formations, trick plays, nifty shifts or men in motion. The Tigers simply lined up and ran the same play with repetitive monotony. It was so obvious that once the Tigers broke their huddle, quarterback Max Johnson could have shouted, “We’re running the same play again!” Once the ball was snapped, their guard pulled to lead Davis-Price through the gaping hole and far too many times it was off to the races since the nearest Florida defender was yards away.

Why is it? How can that happen? After all, these same Gators who stopped the Alabama running game dead in its tracks and then two weeks later pretty much stuffed Kentucky at the line of scrimmage were unable to get stops against LSU, which all but abandoned the passing game in the second half. How obvious was what LSU was doing? Well, consider this: The Tigers threw 18 passes in the first half, but emboldened by Florida’s inability to stop the counter-trap, threw only six times in the second half and just once in the fourth quarter.

Everybody in the ball yard and in the national television audience on ESPN knew what was coming next, so why didn’t the Florida defensive coaching staff?

The easy thing to do would be to point fingers at the players. After all, other than Zachary Carter Florida’s defensive line rarely got any penetration (none of the defensive tackles was credited with a tackle for loss) and the linebackers kept getting picked off as they were trying to plug the hole. Florida’s safeties had to make way too many tackles in the running game. It was rare that Davis-Price absorbed his first hit before he was four yards past the line of scrimmage, and even then, it took more than one Gator to bring him down. On this day in which he set an LSU single-game rushing record of 287 yards, Davis-Price gained 197 yards on 11 of LSU’s running plays that went for 10 or more yards. At least 100 of his yards came after the first contact.

Nothing was more exasperating than LSU’s game-winning touchdown drive which covered 68 yards and required only one pass. The Tigers ran nine straight plays on the ground and overcame a first down false start to take it to the Florida one, where on fourth down Johnson dumped off a TD pass to Jaray Jenkins, his third scoring catch of the day. Davis-Price carried five straight plays before taking a one-play breather on the sideline. While Davis-Price was out, Josh Williams ran the same counter trap for 24 yards that gave the Tigers a first-and-goal at the UF nine. Price ran the next three plays before Johnson and Jenkins finished things off.

It was strangely reminiscent of Texas A&M’s game-winning drive in 2020 when the Gators knew Isaiah Spiller was going to get the football and yet they couldn’t stop him.

How much of this debacle do we lay at the feet of the players? Sure, they have to make plays, but they rely on the coaches to put them in the right sets so they have a chance. This is not like the 1960s when the middle linebacker made the defensive calls the same way quarterbacks called the offensive plays from the huddle. Nowadays, the defensive calls come in from the sideline, so it’s up to the coordinator to get the players in the right place to make plays. If the other team catches the coordinator by surprise, it’s up to him to make the proper adjustments. Saturday, the only surprises were how easy LSU ran the ball and how few adjustments the Gators made to shut the Tigers down.

Perhaps these two answers in the post game press conference from inside linebacker Mohamoud Diabate will tell you everything you need to know.

When asked why it was the Gators didn’t adjust to what LSU was doing play-after-play-after-play, Diabate answered, “I mean we made the adjustments we were given to make.”

And then this: “I’m like a soldier. When the general tells me where to shoot I shoot. I don’t ask many questions. That’s y’all’s job.”

The soldiers followed the orders of the general – in this case Todd Grantham – and whatever the general ordered wasn’t working.

There are times when Grantham makes all the right calls and is a step ahead of the opposing offensive coordinator. Just ask Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien about those final three quarters back in September. Of course, during the first quarter everything O’Brien dialed up worked and Grantham was the proverbial lost ball in the tall grass.

When Grantham is on, he’s really on. When he’s off – as in Saturday against LSU – he’s really, really off. It is the inconsistency that drives you crazy. Game-to-game you never know if you’re going to get the brilliant version of Todd Grantham, whose Florida defense ranked ninth nationally for the entire 2019 season, or the one from last year whose defense played so well four games and so poorly in the other eight.

Then there is the one in 2021. Grantham’s defense has only played four solid quarters once and that was the Kentucky game. The Gators have lost seven football games the last two seasons and in only one of those losses – the aforementioned Kentucky game – did the Gators give a winning defensive performance for all four quarters. The Gators held Kentucky to one extended scoring drive. The other two touchdowns came on a blocked field goal and a gift TD on a short field after an interception.

In the other six losses the Gators have given up 41 points (Texas A&M, 2020), 37 (LSU, 2020), 52 (Alabama, 2020), 55 Oklahoma (2020), 31 Alabama (2021) and 49 (Saturday to LSU). In all but the Oklahoma game (UF scored 20), the Gators scored more than enough points to win the game. Upon further analysis, in five of those losses – LSU in both 2020 and 2021 and the Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas A&M games in 2020 – the Gators have given up an average of 540.8 yards, 265.4 on the ground and 275.4 through the air. And to think that in all but the Oklahoma game, the Gators should have won.

The Gators scored 42 points against LSU Saturday and that was WITH FOUR turnovers on interceptions. Of LSU’s 49 points, seven came on a pick six of Emory Jones on Florida’s first possession in the third quarter and 14 came on short fields after interceptions on consecutive second quarter passes by Jones and Richardson. Those two short field touchdowns are pretty much the responsibility of the offense. Since there is no guarantee the Gators would have scored on three of those possessions that ended in interceptions, logic tells you it should have been a 42-35 win.

This leads us to one other point that must be made. In all but the loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl last year, the Gators were one play away from winning the game. In all three losses this season, one play would have made the difference in winning and losing, whether it was a defensive stop in the Alabama or LSU games or a decent game by the quarterback or an offensive line that committed 10 penalties against Kentucky. One play in each Florida loss this season and not only are the Gators 7-0 but they’re ranked top four nationally with everyone in the country anticipating Florida’s game with No. 1 Georgia in Jacksonville in two weeks.

Go back to 2020 one more time. One play in each of the Texas A&M, LSU and Alabama games and the Gators would have been unbeaten and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Take a moment and ponder that fact. Forget the point differential. Six losses, each by one play. That’s mind boggling. What that tells us is if the Gators wish to compete for championships in the future they better start making plays that make the difference in winning and losing. It’s not good enough to say we played them close. There comes a time when you have to come up with the big play at just the right moment of the game.

Clutch teams do that. Championship teams do that.

Florida is not a championship team this year nor has it been a championship team either in the three-plus years of the Mullen era or the seven preceding years of Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain. We can safely say the Gators are closer to a championship level now with Mullen in charge but what is it going to take to close the gap and get them over the hump? What is it going to take until the Gators start making the critical play?

In his postgame press conference, Mullen said, “We’ll evaluate it all. We gotta coach better, play better, look at our personnel … make sure we’re putting guys in the right position to make plays. Get better.”

All that is true. It’s also true that when you score 42 points there is no excuse for losing. Sooner or later the Gators have to start being the team that makes the big plays and stops being the team that comes up one play short.