Florida football earned its fifth win of the 2024 campaign against the LSU Tigers inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday, evening up the all-time series with its long-time Southeastern Conference rival at 34-34-3 since 1937.
It also gave the Gators an outside chance at making a bowl game after missing last year’s postseason — but first, they face the Ole Miss Rebels and in-state rival Florida State Seminoles. What is important is that Billy Napier’s boys earned maybe the biggest win of the head coach’s career, even though his job has been declared safe.
The Gators Wire staff assembled after the game to offer their respective takes in a good bad and ugly format. Here is what we had to offer below.
DJ Lagway performed well in his return
GOOD: DJ Lagway performed well in his return after missing last week’s game against Texas due to a left hamstring injury, Lagway returned to action this afternoon against the Tigers and had a solid outing for Florida. Although not at 100%, Lagway did what Florida needed him to do: limit the turnovers and keep control of the offense.
The freshman threw for 226 yards and a touchdown. It’s clear that the Gators offense really excels with Lagway in at quarterback. He’s one of the few guys who can single-handedly change a game.
BAD: Rush defense. The Gators had their struggles against an LSU offense that averaged 114 total rushing yards per game coming into this matchup. A lot of it has to do with poor tackling by the Gators’ defenders as well as a lack of disruption from Florida’s defensive line.
Tigers freshman running back Caden Durham led the team, running for 91 yards on 20 carries. LSU ended up with 127 total rushing yards.
Ugly: Third down defense. Florida was really struggling to get off the field today against LSU. It felt as if every third down was converted by the Tigers no matter how much distance there was to get the first down. LSU was 13-for-24 on third downs and some of these third-and-long situations were run plays because of the Gators’ inability to stop LSU’s ground game early on.
Luckily, toward the game’s end, Florida’s defense locked in and didn’t allow as many third-down conversions. — Aidan Gallardo
The sky’s the limit with DJ under center
GOOD: Lagway being under center changes so much for this program. LSU’s defense couldn’t commit to stopping the run and loading the box like Texas did a week ago, and that doesn’t just show up in the passing stats.
On Florida’s final offensive drive, Lagway stepped up in the pocket and hit Hayden Hansen for a big gain, which set up a 55-yard touchdown from Jadan Baugh immediately after. The defense wasn’t ready for it, and that’s because they had to worry about Lagway.
The sky’s the limit with this kid under center, and this is the kind of win that makes recruits want to sign with Florida.
BAD: I don’t think the run game was actually bad, but Baugh did struggle before breaking off the big score in the fourth quarter. His first five carries produced just 10 yards, and that’s including an 11-yard gain. Not great stuff from the true freshman, but some blame goes to the offensive line too.
A couple of holding and false start calls also hurt the offense, but penalties are part of the game. you expect it from guys like freshman Aidan Mizell and even Lagway on a delay of game, but the flags from veterans Austin Barber and Jake Slaughter feel avoidable.
UGLY: Florida’s defense played very well today, but things routinely fell apart on third and fourth down. LSU converted 13 times on third down with a conversion rate over 50%, and they converted twice on fourth down in the fourth quarter.
The Gators are banged up, but this felt more like an issue of effort rather than depth. That’s not to say the players weren’t trying, but rather that they spent more energy trying to get to third down than putting an end to a drive. Football is a tough game, and long drives kill.
LSU had possession of the ball for nearly 42 minutes, and at least a dozen of those came after some sort of late-down conversion. — David Rosenberg
What could be better than a victory for Florida?
GOOD: What could be better than a victory for the Orange and Blue? With the win, Florida has a legitimate chance at earning a postseason berth. Sure, they still need one more win, but with Ole Miss and FSU on the slate, it seems like the possibility is extremely strong.
Such a result would justify Scott Stricklin’s vote of confidence in Napier when he guaranteed that the head coach would return in 2025. And let us be honest — this is the best possible outcome Gators fans could ask for.
BAD: I was expecting more from the ground game coming in, given LSUs struggles recently but despite the return of Montell Johnson Jr. the unit still only finished with 113 yards on the ground.
It is hard to say much more after a key win for Napier and Co. that could result in an extra game this December.
UGLY: As we have seen in the past, the yellow flag was probably Florida’s bigger opponent than the team opposite of them on the field. Florida was penalized seven times for 55 yards, but it was more about the context of those mistakes that made it ugly.
Nonetheless, the Gators overcame those shortcomings to seize victory from the jaws of defeat. — Adam Dubbin
Up next for the Gators
The Gators play their final home game of the season against the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday, Nov. 23. Kickoff is set for noon ET and will be broadcast on ABC.
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