This isn’t the first time that LSU is coming into Florida week as big underdogs. You don’t need to look any further than last year, actually. 

Florida will certainly be searching for revenge, as LSU ended their 2020 playoff hopes. LSU is facing more than they are used to, and that certainly leans in Florida’s favor. Huge injuries, players not playing with heart, plenty of noise surrounding the team’s head coach. Strictly speaking on the field, however, how does LSU stack up to the Gator’s?

Florida’s Offense Key Stats

*ranks are out of 130 (all stats courtesy of ESPN and NCAA)

Total Offense: 10th

Passing Offense: 69th

Rushing Offense: 3rd

3rd Down Conversion %: 45th (43%)

Red Zone Scoring %: Tied 72nd (83%)

Time of Possession: 35th

Dan Mullen and LSU have a long history. Before going to Florida, Mullen was the coach at Mississippi State for nine years. Mullen is 3-9 in his career against the Tigers. The offensive coach comes into the 13th meeting with an offense that is firing on all cylinders in the running game. Mullen runs a spread offense, which is pretty self explanatory, where they try to spread the ball out and attack your defense all over the field. Florida will start off the game with the goal to establish the run and once that happens they will have multiple options open on each play for the defense to attack.

The two leading rushers for Florida this season are actually quarterbacks. Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson will both get snaps in the backfield, and will try to run all over LSU’s defense. This does not lead to a great lookout for LSU after what Bo Nix, who is not anywhere near either Jones or Richardson’s levels with his feet, did to the defense a couple of weeks ago. Florida will also have a running back rotation that is at least three players deep to allow for the backfield to always have a fresh set of legs.

While Emory Jones will likely have a great day on the ground, the passing game is probably the weakest part of Florida’s team. If LSU wants to have a chance in this game, they need to be sure to not let Florida get unusual production from the passing game. An highly-injured defense will put LSU in a bad situation to get that done. Two of LSU’s top pass rushers are out for the year and Florida has given up three sacks.

The wide receivers for Florida this year haven’t been world-beating, but with Ricks and Stingley both out, they will have a chance to go against the depth players for LSU. Cordale Flott is moving to the outside, where he struggled last year, and Dwight McGlovern on the other boundary. Florida’s WRs are all fairly big, with most of them being over 6 foot 3 inches. This is actually a fairly good matchup for LSU as all of their remaining boundary corners are fairly big-bodied, all over 6 foot 2i nches . LSU’s 5-star freshman Sage Ryan will be in nickel for his debut. His main matchup will be with Redshirt senior Rick Wells, who’s having the best season of his Florida career.

Florida’s Defense Key Stats

*ranks are out of 130 (all stats courtesy of ESPN and NCAA)

Total Defense: 29th

Defensive Efficiency Grade: 25th

Rushing Defense: 27th

3rd Down Conversion % Allowed: Tied 58th (37%)

Turnovers Caused: Tied 91st

Sacks: Tied 12th

Tackles for Loss: Tied 57th

Todd Grantham is one of the highest paid and most recognizable coordinators in college football. It’s not the best defense in all of college football, but it does it’s job and hasn’t really lost the Gators games this year. It’s worst game of the year was against Bama, but we can’t really blame them for that.

While LSU’s secondary is being torn apart by injuries, Florida is getting better. Kaiir Elam, expected first round pick in the 2022 NFL draft, is coming back into the lineup. Safety Rashard Torrence II is coming off of a 15 tackle game against Vandy. Trey Dean III is a chess piece that will move around the defense and fill multiple roles. How will Max Johnson attack this secondary, with his best receiver out for the year? The freshmen receivers of LSU have a ton of talent, but it will be a tough matchup for them for sure. 

Defensive End Zachary Carter has had arguably the best season of any Gators defender and he will be a name you hear all over the field. The offensive line for LSU is supposedly working together the best it has in the past two seasons, and that will be put to the test.

Bottom Line on Florida

Strengths: Mobile quarterbacks. Secondary. Pass rush.

Weakness: Passing offense. Terrible turnover margin. Commits a lot of penalties.