DEL.ICIO.USLSU-Florida: Taking out Tebow
Annual rivalry features last two national champions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, October 09, 2008
They met first in 1937 and, slow to warm to each other, not until 1971 did they determine to reunite every fall. An odd couple, they shared the Gulf of Mexico, a lot of snakes and, for many years, their common malaise until somewhere in there a few years ago, Florida-LSU became a critical summit meeting not just to the SEC but the country.
But they play for the 55th time Saturday night in Gainesville, Fla., and given how the winner of this game has gone on to win the national championship the past two years, it is again a meaningful event.
“A very talented, a very capable opponent,” LSU coach Les Miles called the Gators.
Actually, LSU defensive end Ricky Jean-Francois went a bit further than that earlier in the week, adding how the Tigers intend to knock a big component of that opponent, quarterback Tim Tebow, straight to the infirmary.
No sooner had Jean-Francois declared LSU would “try our best to take (Tebow) out of the game,” then the school released a clarification that the junior (who is from Miami) actually meant to “make him ineffective.”
Either way, Florida coach Urban Meyer, who knows how to bristle, tried to shrug this one off, if only because he admits he has probably exposed Tebow to more abuse than he should and has made it a point to amend that.
“We went into the season realizing that this conference we play in, the focus is their getting shots on our quarterback,” Meyer said during this week’s SEC coaches teleconference. “And that’s the correct thing to do.”
Such old friends. Florida enters the game 4-1 and ranked 11th in the AP poll. Having already lost one conference game (31-30 to Ole Miss), a second league defeat makes for a steep hurdle. LSU is 4-0 and ranked No. 4.
Where more common SEC rivalries are defined geographically, Florida and LSU claim only some common saltwater. Given how their schedules are stocked with local feuds, they may not even truly consider each other actual rivals.
But this one will nevertheless be historic. The night marks the first time the past two national champions have met since 1988, with the Miami-Notre Dame game. (“Catholics 31, Convicts 30”.)
LSU has won three of the last four of these games. But it is within the context of the last decade that the impact of LSU-Florida can be truly appreciated. Over their last nine meetings, the winning team has advanced to the SEC title game five times (Florida three times, LSU twice).
But two other times the loser has made it to the conference championship and both times it won (LSU in both 2001 and 2003). The 2003 Tigers in fact rolled out eight straight wins after a 19-7 loss at Florida to win the national championship for coach Nick Saban.
This will be Miles’ second visit to Gainesville and he is still trying to forget the first. In that 23-10 loss in 2006, somewhere between a LSU fumble and safety, Florida scored 17 consecutive points without allowing LSU to run a play.
“It’s not a pleasant memory,” Miles said. “I didn’t feel like we as a team played as well as we’re capable. We made mistakes and turned the ball over unnecessarily and really felt like we could play a lot better football game there. Certainly, that will be the goal, to change that.”
Florida leads the conference in scoring (35.5 points per game), but when Meyer was asked this week if the offense appeared tentative compared to a year ago when Tebow was winning his Heisman, the coach agreed.
“I think the biggest reason out there for the flow that you’re accustomed to (seeing) is the penalties,” Meyer said. “… I wouldn’t say that being conscious about just slamming Tebow in there all the time is not part of it. But the penalties have got us off-schedule.”
Perhaps, but not far off enough to make LSU a six-point underdog.
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