Saturday in Tiger Stadium seemed awfully familiar.
Ever since Cam Cameron stepped in as its coordinator, the LSU offense has had a paradigm shift. Senior quarterback Zach Mettenberger became what everyone thought he could be and, more importantly, what LSU fans have been pining for for years.
It was the first time Mettenberger looked human all season, his nine completions, 17 attempts and 152 yards all season lows in his career year. He hadn’t yet thrown for less than 200 yards.
He took the blame for missed throws and a fumbled snap, but Les Miles, in true Miles fashion, attributed the errors to “being a person.”
“We were so dominant up front running the ball, why push the ball vertically?” Mettenberger said. “They’re very good in the secondary, they showed that today. The way we were running the ball, there’s really no reason to pass it.”
That newfangled offense wasn’t needed in the Tigers’ 17-6 win against Florida (4-2, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) featuring classic SEC play. LSU (6-1, 3-1 SEC) exacted appropriate revenge on the Gators, who last year grinded down the Tigers in Gainesville.
“Had we hit a couple more passes, we probably would’ve thrown more,” Miles said. “But we were rushing the ball, and minus a turnover on a pass, we were really in position to control the game.”
Sophomore running back Jeremy Hill, who had 121 yards on 19 carries, said the running back corps felt like they let the defense down in all three of the Tigers’ losses last season by not running the clock down in the tight games.
In the fourth quarter, LSU held the ball for 8:04 and gained four of its six first downs on the ground. The LSU backfield finished with 175 yards, tallying more than Mettenberger’s passing total in a game for only the second time this year.
“That’s the mentality all four of us had: whoever was in there, to get the first downs at the end of the game,” Hill said.
Last year’s bout with Florida also stuck in sophomore guard Trai Turner’s mind, maybe more than anyone on the team if he is to be believed. Turner played his first meaningful minutes as a freshman, taking over at the right guard position for the concussed Josh Williford, and the things that were said about the team after the Tigers’ 14-6 loss provided motivation for this year’s game.
Turner said he knew his team had the Gators where it wanted them when going to an up-tempo offense. The Florida defense was tired, he said, which was where LSU’s defense faltered last season.
With the Tiger offensive line pushing people around, combined with the defense’s suffocating pressure of Florida junior quarterback Tyler Murphy, Miles called it, “the day of the big men.”
Florida coach Will Muschamp also acknowledged the manhandling.
“They got movement up front,” Muschamp said. “Our guys just didn’t get off blocks. There are going to be some situations when you play a team like that … when you have to get off blocks and make tackles. Our guys knew that coming in, but we didn’t do that enough tonight.”
Turner said that while it felt good to play physically, he’ll take a win however it comes.
“I’ll sit back and pass protect all day,” Turner said. “But when you want me to go down and hit somebody and dominate that person in front of me, I’ll do that also.”
Miles said after the game that good teams win games however they need to before rattling off all the things the Tigers do well. He listed the “big running back,” the offensive line and the vertical passing attack, and went on and on.
But Florida senior defensive lineman Damien Jacobs said it a bit more concisely.
“You can’t just take the ball away from them,” Jacobs said. “It is LSU, and Jeremy Hill is the running back.”