Florida football bounced back quickly from its worst loss by margin of the Billy Napier era to one of its best wins.
The Florida Gators (5-5, 3-4 SEC) bounced back from a 49-17 loss at No. 3 Texas with their first win of the season against a ranked team, beating No. 22 LSU 27-16 before 90,067 on Saturday at The Swamp.
“You’ve got to give this group of kids a ton of credit, relative to the resiliency they’ve showed,” said Napier, who improved to 3-14 against ranked teams during his Florida coaching tenure. “I think for me there’s a purpose behind the game, and that starts with the players, and I certainly think this group would not be able to have done what they did tonight without a good foundation, something to stand on.”
LSU (6-4, 3-3 SEC) struggled to finish drives due to a Florida defense that posted seven sacks, 11 tackles for loss and one turnover.
“It was a big win coming off that L we took in Texas,” said Florida linebacker Shemar James, who led the way for the defense with 11 tackles and two sacks. “We kind of preached, wipe that out, review, go into next week. That’s what we did. I’m proud of the offense, special teams and defense for coming up with a big win.”
Here’s what Florida learned from the win over the Tigers:
Transfer WRs give Florida football offense a boost
Florida has survived a rash of injuries at wide receiver (Eugene Wilson III, Kahleil Jackson out for the season) thanks to the contributions of transfer wide receivers Elijhah Badger (Arizona State) and Chimere Dike (Wisconsin), who remained on point for UF against LSU.
Badger, who returned after sitting out the Texas game with an injury, had six catches for 131 yards and 1 TD against LSU, while Dike finished with two catches for 47 yards. Both have developed chemistry with Florida freshman quarterback DJ Lagway quickly.
“Those two guys have been key, really good evaluations,” Napier said. “I think the personnel, Bird (UF director of college personnel Bird Sherrill) did a phenomenal job identifying those guys, and we were able to recruit them, and they hit the ground running. Dike was here in the spring. But Badger, getting here in the summer, both have improved as players.”
Napier also credited Florida wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales for developing both players.
“They’ve really — the scouts are high on them,” Napier said. “They’ve increased their value.”
Florida football needs work on third-down defense
The Gators allowed LSU to convert 8 of 12 on third down in the first half and 13 of 24 on third down for the game. That allowed the Tigers to run 92 plays to UF’s 43, but Florida’s bend-but-don’t-break defense stiffened near the red zone, forcing the Tigers to settle for three field goals in four field goal attempts.
“Every conversion they had was because of us, and we can always go in the film room and correct those mistakes,” Florida linebacker Shemar James said.
Florida football special teams are back to being special
Florida bounced back from having 12 players on the field on a punt attempt early to put together another solid game on special teams.
Trey Smack connected on both of his field goal attempts, following up a 49-yarder with a career-high 55-yard field goal that tied the score at 13 in the third quarter. Punter Jeremy Crawshaw, meanwhile, pinned all four of his punts inside LSU’s 20-yard line, including a 34-yard punt down to LSU’s 8-yard line late in the third quarter that set up Florida in favorable field position for the rest of the game.
“Jeremy obviously is a Ray Guy (Award) finalist this week,” Napier said. “Has an elite future. Best punter in the country.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: What Florida football learned after beating No. 22 LSU at The Swamp
