It’s another Saturday night in Death Valley, and the LSU Tigers are prepping to take on the University of Florida. There are few matchups in the SEC with the same amount of upsets, chaos, miracles and madness as this storied rivalry between two teams from the swamp.
Born out of scheduling necessity, the now yearly meetup has grown into one of the most anticipated games of the college football season from fans all around the SEC. Every year comes a new legendary game, questionable controversy and no shortage of tension between two proud fan bases.
“Playing Florida is always a big game on everybody’s schedule,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said.
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The early years of this rivalry date all the way back to Sep. 25, 1937, with the Tigers winning with a shutout score of 19-0. In the years following, the matchup wasn’t seen annually until 1971.
It wasn’t until the expansion of the SEC that LSU consistently meeting Florida was solidified. With them being two of the original SEC teams, people quickly took note of the cross-divisional rivalry.
Florida would go on to win many games over LSU after the conference expansion, but that changed in 1997 when a No. 1-ranked Florida team went into Death Valley.
The Tigers stunned the Gators and pulled off one of the biggest upsets in program history, coming back from a 15-point deficit, snapping the reigning national championship Gators’ 25-game SEC winning streak with a final score of 28-21.
After that, one of the most iconic matchups was in 2007 when the Gators again took a trip to The Boot and didn’t know what was in store with the Les Miles-led team. Over the course of the game, there were 139 plays, but it all came down to one.
LSU tailback Jacob Hester rushed the ball for 106 yards against the Gators in the last 1:09 remaining. The No. 1 LSU Tigers had overcome a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit in front of a then-record crowd of 92,910 emotional fans.
Fast forward to 2016, Florida came to Death Valley after a flood eliminated the option of playing in Gainesville. In the final minutes of the game, the Gators shoved LSU at the goal line for a 16-10 victory.
While the aforementioned games are all memorable LSU wins, none of these compare to the 2020 “Shoe Toss Game.”
Thanks to a last-minute field goal — made possible only because Florida defender Marco Wilson threw an LSU player’s shoe that kept the drive alive for a personal foul penalty — LSU upset the No. 6-ranked team with a 37-34 score.
The story of LSU vs Florida is lined with nothing but emotion-filled moments for the history books of college football. This Saturday will be no different; with the Gators coming off a stunning loss to USF, head coach Billy Napier will need to bounce back.
For the Tigers, after the subpar performance last weekend against Louisiana Tech, the offense is going to need to work the ball more. There can be no more going backwards; finding the open pocket is going to be just as critical as the defense being able to take down quarterback DJ Lagway.
“It’s a really good football team we’re playing in Florida, and we know that,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said. “It starts with their quarterback. DJ [has] arm talent off the charts.”
There is always something new for this LSU vs Florida storybook. The pantheon of college football will be packed with gold against the Gators as LSU returns a storied tradition, and the sun will set with a voice over the loudspeaker saying it’s another Saturday night in Death Valley.
The 100,000-strong fans of LSU will remind the Gators why this is the hardest place to play in college football, and when the dust settles, there will be only one winner who will fill another page in this rivalry book.
“We’re in Tiger Stadium, so we need to be Death Valley,” Kelly said. “We need to live up to our resume as the most difficult place to play in the country.”
