Gators title hopes dashed with mistake-filled loss to LSU

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Normally, I re-watch the entire Gator game and try to give you an idea of what happened on the field. But tonight, I just can’t.

In what was an eerie night with the fog rolling in, in a situation where it felt like a Madden video game that had decided it just wasn’t Florida’s night to win, a depleted LSU team came into the Swamp and absolutely plunged a dagger into the heart of Florida fans.

I can accept a loss to LSU. That’s happened before, and this has been a burgeoning rivalry for almost 20 years now so you can expect a close game. And maybe this ride with the overlooked QB from Manville, Texas was going to come to an end next week anyway in spectacular fashion against the Alabama buzzsaw.

But losing in that way, with the self-inflicted wounds that the Gators brought upon themselves, is just really tough to take.

There are lots of people who will question the Florida defense – and certainly they deserve a good share of the blame – but to me, this game came down to a few key things.

Florida giftwrapped 13 points for LSU in an eventual three-point game, two on turnovers and one on the cleat toss. The Gators committed two of their three turnovers deep in LSU territory, as well as being stopped on fourth-and-goal from the one.

And after Florida scored to go up 31-27, the offense went three-and-out three straight times.

I don’t want to pile onto the players too much though. Yes, Marco Wilson deserves a ton of blame for throwing the opponent’s cleat and extending that final drive. Yes, Kyle Trask needs to hold onto the ball when he’s sacked and has to throw the ball closer to a receiver to avoid the intentional grounding call.

But there are also coaches out there who need to shoulder some blame.

Offensive Defense

We’ve been told over and over by Todd Grantham that his scheme is sound, that it’s not too complicated and he’s not worried about players lining up incorrectly. Well, then what is this.

On this play, both Marco Wilson (#3) and Kaiir Elam (#5) blitz. Trey Dean (#0) and Donovan Stiner (#13) rotate as though they’re expecting Wilson to blitz. Even if Tre’Vez Johnson (#16) and Ventrell Miller (#51) had recognized the screw-up in-time, there’s no way that Johnson should be expected to be able to guard a wide receiver in one-on-one coverage with no deep help without lining up over the player.

This is the problem with the “bench Wilson” brigade. He’s not the only one making these sorts of mistakes. As a coach, you can live with physical mistakes. Sometimes players fall down. Sometimes they just get beat. Sometimes they’re hurt and can’t help but hold or grab.

But mental mistakes – 10 games into the season – are on the coach.

So too, is the scheme.

Even if you wanted to grant Grantham some grace that his scheme was not executed correctly, look at how far the blitzers are from the quarterback. Based on where Wilson lines up, he’s 16 yards away from where LSU QB Max Johnson will eventually release the ball.

Former Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson had 10 and 20-yard splits at the NFL Combine of 1.53 and 2.58 seconds, respectively. That means if Marco Wilson runs in a perfectly straight line as fast as one of the fastest people on the planet, he’s going to take 2.2 seconds to get to Johnson.

This isn’t Monday Morning Quarterbacking. My colleague Neil Blackmon pointed out weeks ago that Grantham loves these blitzes “all the way from Micanopy” on an episode of Gators Breakdown.

If you want to run them from the slot, then fine. But it’s a terrible call to give the QB an easy read (throw in the direction of the blitz) and give him plenty of time to make the decision. Yes, that issue is compounded by the blown coverage, but that problem is only present because the play call was questionable in the first place.

Dan Mullen may not want to throw his coordinator under the bus, but the fan base is going to demand it. And to be honest, Grantham should want to shoulder the blame, if only to lessen the heat on perhaps the most polarizing Gator I can ever remember.

Cleat Toss

When Florida lost to Texas A&M, that wasn’t Malik Davis’ fault. Sure, he fumbled the ball near mid-field that eventually led to the game-winning field goal, but Florida had made plenty of mistakes throughout the day and his was a physical mistake that just sometimes happens.

I can’t say the same for Marco Wilson.

Every time he broke up a pass – even on routine plays – Wilson was extremely emotional all night, stomping around and squawking. At the time I just thought, “if that’s what you need to get yourself hyped, then fine.”

But when he made a play that could have saved Florida’s season, helping to bring down Kole Taylor short of a first down with 1:51 left to force an LSU punt, he did something that reminded me of something I’ve only seen in sports one time before.

At the time this happened, there were certainly lots of steroid jokes, but I think what happened was Clemens hyped himself up so much that he didn’t have any ability to control his emotions, which manifested in chucking the bat at Piazza. Remember, he had beaned Piazza in the head earlier in the season and had dealt with accusations that he had done it on purpose. That kind of criticism – the stuff that strikes to the core of who you are – can make you react emotionally.

Wilson has been the whipping boy of the fan base all year long. I’m sure he’s heard the noise. It can’t be easy to be struggling when your brother was a lock-down corner at the same school. And it can’t be easy to hear that you suck every single day on social media.

You know he wanted to go out on senior day and prove everybody wrong. I suspect that’s why he was hyping himself up so much after each play he made, even the routine ones. And the same inability to control his emotions that I ascribed to Clemens is the only explanation I have for him chucking a cleat 20-yards downfield after making that tackle.

That doesn’t mean it is excusable. It’s not. It truly did cost the Gators this game in a way that the Davis fumble did not.

But I do feel for Wilson. Regardless of what you think of him as a player, you know he didn’t go into the game hoping to cost his teammates the game and his team a chance at the playoff.

I’m sure he’ll hear the hate after this game from plenty of folks, but not from me. I actually admire every single one of these players going out there and putting their skills on display, knowing they may be the hero and knowing they may be the goat.

Twitter fingers are going to get really loud after this one, but I do hope people will remember one simple rule. If you wouldn’t say it to his face, don’t say it at all.

Toney Terrific

Anybody who’s read my stuff knows that I love Kadarius Toney.

When McElwain was trying to decide between Malik Zaire and Feleipe Franks at QB, I wanted him to give Toney a shot. In 2018 and 2019, Florida seemed able to move the ball when Toney touched it and stagnant when they didn’t get it in his direction.

He has really blossomed this year as a wide receiver with 62 receptions for 831 yards. And with Kyle Pitts being held out, Toney did everything he could to keep the Gators playoff hopes alive.

He had 182 yards receiving on nine catches. He had 56 yards rushing, including the 31-yard rush that opened up the field goal drive that knotted things at 34.

But the most impressive moment was after he caught an 18-yard pass to get Florida to the LSU 42-yard line with 10 seconds left and went down injured. He was still limping around after Florida came out of the timeout, yet still executed the next play to move the ball to the LSU 33 and set up McPherson’s game-tying try.

There isn’t any doubt that this guy has given his heart and soul to the program. He laid it all out there again on Saturday night. It just wasn’t enough, but there isn’t any shame in that for Toney.

He’s always been one of my favorites. But he cemented that with the heart he showed at the end of this one.

Takeaway

The playoff is gone.

Despite what Mullen told the announcers before the game, a 9-2 SEC Champion would get left out of the playoff, likely at the expense of a 10-1 Alabama team.

But the team just played an incredibly physical game (Trask’s jersey was really, really dirty) and is going to have to turn around and play the best team in the country.

I’m glad I’m not in charge of figuring out how to get them to do that.

I do still think Trask’s Heisman hopes may still be alive. Yes, he had the fumble and two interceptions, but he also threw for 474 yards and drove them into position in 27 seconds for a tying field goal attempt. If he’s able to come out and light up Alabama and lead the Gators to a win, you’d have to believe that he still has a shot.

But he’s not going to be able to do that if he’s getting hit like he did Saturday night. And while Alabama’s defense isn’t as lock-down as it has been in the past, it is significantly better than LSU’s.

Mullen picked a really interesting time to completely shuffle his offensive line. For a bulk of this one, Stone Forsythe was moved to right tackle, Richard Gouraige was moved to left tackle and Ethan White was brought in at left guard. The goal was to ostensibly see if they could improve on the play of right tackle Jean Delance, who has been a target for Gators fans all year.

It’s not lost on me that Delance was in the game when Trask was sacked and fumbled at the end of the half, but it also shouldn’t be lost on others that this was the game where Trask got hit the most.

Was it because Mullen decided to make a change? I don’t know. But for a position grouping that depends on communication and continuity, it was an interesting move considering they had resisted it for the past three weeks.

I don’t know where the team goes from here. I know I’d have trouble getting up for the SEC Championship next week were I a player. Of course, that’s why these guys are scholarship athletes and I’m a schlub in front of a computer.

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that Florida would beat Georgia, would win the SEC East and beat Alabama for the SEC Championship though, I would have said that’s a heckuva a job by Mullen.

It just doesn’t look like that last part is remotely possible right now.

Prayers for Keyontae

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The whole day had a pall cast over it because of the events of the morning.

I’m not a huge basketball fan, but I did have the game on in the background when forward Keyontae Johnson collapsed early in the first half.

I know about as much as you do. I know that Johnson is at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and is listed as being in “critical but stable condition.” I know that Mike White has stayed in Tallahassee and tweeted about keeping him in everyone’s prayers. I know that what I hoped for – that it was a vasovagal syncope that caused him to faint – is unlikely at this point given his condition.

It does put the loss to LSU into perspective as just not being that important. Johnson is someone’s son, someone’s teammate, someone’s friend. I just really hope that he’s okay.

I wish I had something uplifting or profound to say, but I really don’t. Certainly do as Mike White requested and say a prayer for Keyontae and his family.

Then go give your kids a hug.