Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On a night the "Swamp" returned to college football's collective conscience, the Florida Gators thrust themselves back into national relevance. 

Junior tailback Lamical Perine rushed for two touchdowns and the UF defense walled up in the fourth quarter for two of its three turnovers, including a 25-yard interception return for a touchdown by safety Brad Stewart, as the No. 22 Gators beat fifth-ranked and previously unbeaten LSU 27-19 Saturday, all to the backdrop of a deafening, sold-out Spurrier/Florida Field crowd of 90,283.

The win was the fourth straight for Florida (5-1, 3-1) and the first over a top-five opponent since beating Ole Miss here in 2015, as well as the program's first sellout since the regular-season finale against Florida State that same season. 

And it came with some 80 members of the 2008 national-championship team back for a 10-year reunion and the induction of former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow into the Football Ring of Honor. 

"I want to thank Gator Nation and all our fans, our student body for the atmosphere," an emotional Coach Dan Mullen said after bouncing around the victorious locker room with his current players, as well as the ones he worked with as Tebow's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach a decade ago. "There's a Florida I know and there's a Florida I love and I know our players love, and I'll never forget all the former players that are, right now, celebrating with our guys. There's a certain Gator standard that they expect the team to live up to, but they also expect the Gator Nation to live up to — and it was that way tonight."
A 14-10 halftime lead for the home team was flipped to a 19-14 deficit by the visitors nearly four minutes into the fourth quarter. Undaunted, quarterback Feleipe Franks, Perine and friends mounted a clutch 75-yard, go-ahead touchdown drive, then turned the final eight-plus minutes over to the defense, while turning the home crowd on its head in delirium. 

"We came out and put our foot down,'' junior defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson said. 
 
Franks was not particularly sharp on the night, hitting just 12 of his 27 throws for 161 yards and a touchdown and interception each. But he also did not take a sack, rushed for 42 yards and caught a huge pass on the go-ahead scoring drive. 

Perine carried 17 times for 85 yards, while fourth-year junior Jordan Scarlett gained 66 yards on 14 carries, both contributing to a ground gain that totaled 215 rushing yards against a defense that ranked fourth in the Southeastern Conference and 16th nationally in defending the run at just 103.0 yards per game. 

On defense, the Gators faced three possessions in the final 8:48, with LSU (5-1, 2-1) needing just one score to retake the lead. UF forced a punt on the first, got Stewart's pick-six touchdown on the second, and iced the game with Donovan Stiner's interception on a fourth-and-10 from the LSU 41 with 21 seconds left. 

"Tough loss," LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. "I thought we were going to win the football game. It just seemed like we couldn't make a play, couldn't get things going. It's a hostile environment. You could feel it."

Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow, a graduate transfer from Ohio State, went 19 of 34 for 191 yards, no touchdowns and the two fourth-quarterbacks interceptions. He was sacked five times, lost a fumble and managed to convert just four of 17 third-down opportunities. LSU got 95 yards rushing from Nick Brossette, but the tailback did not touch the ball over those final three possessions, leaving the Tigers stuck on 180 yards rushing for the game. 

The Gators were far from perfect. They had a brutal red-zone turnover, went 4-for-13 on third down and were flagged 11 times for 116 penalty yards. But Florida proved to be the tougher team. 

Mentally tougher.  

"We knew coming in it was going to be a dog fight," Perine said. 
 
On the first play from scrimmage, Burrow play-faked into the line, set up with no pressure and mailed a bomb down the right sideline that wideout Justin Jefferson leaped and snared over cornerback C.J. McWilliams for 48 yards. A 13-yard yard run and 1-yard gain on third-and-1 by Brossette eventually gave way to a third-and-6 that Burrow converted with a seven-yard pass to Dee Anderson to the UF 4. On first-and-goal, Brossette rolled into the end zone and LSU led 7-0 barely three minutes into the game. 

The teams traded a trio of possessions, but each time the Gators gained field position, starting drives at their own 33, then 45, then the LSU 43. On the latter, a nine-yard jet sweep to Kadarius Toney, an eight-yard completion to tight end Moral Stephens and 13-yard run by Perine got the Gators a first down at the Tigers' 2. On third down, Perine slipped through the line for a 1-yard score that tied the game at 7-all at the 12:30 mark of the second quarter. 

The Tigers mounted a 10-play, 63-yard drive late in the period, with Burrow zipping 21 yards with a nifty keeper on third-and-1 to the UF 24. The drive stalled, however, with the UF defense walling up on Clyde Edwards-Helaire on a third-and-2, and LSU settled for a 33-yard field goal from Cole Tracy and 10-7 lead with 3:10 left in the first half. 

After a 23-yard run by Perine moved the Gators out near midfield, Mullen got aggressive. 

On back-to-back plays, Franks hit Van Jefferson for an 11-yard sideline gain, then threw a perfect pass down the left sideline that Josh Hammond hauled in for a 35-yard gain to the LSU 3. On the very next snap, Franks faked into the line and hit tight end Moral Stephens for a go-ahead touchdown with 1:09 left and 14-10 lead. 

"It shows the strides we're making as a team," Hammond said. 

The Gators got the second-half kickoff and had a huge opportunity to take out the lead. Franks hit Hammond for 49 yards on the first play of the third quarter, and got 15 more yards on a personal foul. In one snap, UF went from its 25 to the LSU 13. But on the second snap, Franks threw a pass high and into the chest of defensive back Jontre Kirklin for an interception and big momentum killer. 

The Tigers got a 42-yard field goal by Tracy with 4:16 left in the third quarter to draw LSU within 14-13. Those points came after a three-and-out by the Florida offense and short Tommy Townsend punt that set up the Tigers at the UF 42, but the Gators defense only gave up 18 yards and Tracy was called on to make it a one-point game.

Two LSU possessions later, Brossette broke off a 31-yard run, and, after an incompletion, a 47-yarder to the UF 2. As the Tigers came to the line for a first-and-goal, the Gators were called for having 12 men on the field. On the next snap, Brossette plowed into the end zone to cap a four-play, 80-yard drive on which he accounted for 79 yards. 

The Tigers, who threw incomplete on the two-point conversion attempt, led 19-14 with 11:14 to go. 

"We have the lead and we got punched in the face … and no one flinched," Mullen said. "We always talk about holding the rope. All of a sudden, in the third and fourth quarter, that rope starts slipping through your hands and it's burning." 

His point? 

"We don't let go of the rope." 

Franks hit Van Jefferson for a 26-yard gain to the LSU 49. A 17-yard run by Perine and 12 more from Franks moved the ball to LSU 17. On first down, Franks handed off to motioning tight end Lucas Krull. The former junior college baseball who transferred in over the summer, turned and fired a left-handed pass to Franks, whose first career reception — first catch of his football life, he said — was taken down to the LSU 2. 

Perine scored the next play, capping a mentally tough, nine-play 75-yard drive. UF missed the two-point try to maintain a 20-19 lead. 

LSU reached the UF 45, but was forced to punt, pinning the Gators at their 4. A couple first downs dug the offense out of its hole, but ultimately it was Tommy Townsend's 61-yard rocket punt that forced the Tigers to set up at their 12, down by a point, with 2:21 left. 

Burrow's third-and-4 pass to the right sideline was picked off by Stewart, who went the distance, tight-roping in the final few yards and scoring at the pylon for a 27-19 lead. 

"I saw him," Burrow said of Stewart and the first interception the Tigers' QB had thrown this season. "It was man [defense], and he just made a great play."

After the Gators' defensive party in the end zone, and after Mullen congratulated Stewart on that play, the coach pulled his player within earshot on the sideline. 
 
"He told me I should've taken a knee," Stewart said. "Now, we had to go back out there and finish this game off again." 

Indeed, it was a still a one-possession lead with 1:37 to play. Burrow moved the Tigers to their 41 with a 23-yard completion to Derrick Dillon on fourth-and-19. 

The next fourth down ended with Stiner's interception up the left sideline at the Florida 34.

"The best defenses close out games," Gardner-Johnson said. "That's what we did." 

And winning those kinds of games builds confidence and gets the home fans passionately involved. 

Welcome back, "Swamp."

"Coach told us we had to protect the house," Perine said. "That's what we did."