By Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
(10/3/00)
LSU football fans everywhere are still beaming over the Tigers 38-31 overtime victory Saturday against the highly touted Tennessee Volunteers.
LSU head coach Nick Saban is happy too. But Saban, unlike most of the thousands of fans who rushed the field in the wake of Saturday’s outcome, had to go to work Sunday morning to prepare for the next challenge against another highly ranked opponent from the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division in the Florida Gators.
According to Saban, last Saturday’s win was just the first step.
“The key for our team is going to be the our ability to re-focus and get back on track,” Saban said. “We’re playing on the road, which takes special preparation.”
Historically, the LSU-Florida series is relatively close, with the Gators holding a five game lead in the series 24-19-3. But the Gators have dominated the Tigers since the arrival of Coach Steve Spurrier 11 years ago. Since coming to Florida, Spurrier has won nine of 10 against LSU. His lone loss was possibly the greatest game in LSU history and certainly one of the most devastating losses for Florida, as the Tigers shocked the then No.1 ranked Gators, 28-21, in 1997.
The last victory for the Tigers in Gainesville came in 1986 when Coach Bill Arnsparger’s team defeated Florida, 28-17.
Saban said he is not concerned about the history of the series, only the game his team must prepare for this week.
“Florida has a lot of outstanding players, a lot of outstanding speed on their team, their quarterbacks are as well coached as any we’ve played against, regardless of who plays,” Saban said.
The Gators come into Saturday’s match-up with the best total offense in the SEC, averaging close to 430 yards per game. Florida leads the conference in scoring as well averaging 43.2 points per game.
However, the vaunted Florida offensive attack was not potent enough last week to overcome what the Gator defense surrendered in its 47-35 loss to Mississippi State. The Gator defense gave up a season-high 517 yards of total offense to the Bulldogs with 351 of those yards coming on the ground.
Saban said he believes that has more to do with the strength of Mississippi State rather than Florida’s weaknesses.
“Their defense certainly has a lot of speed and a lot of ability and it’s played well at times this year,” he said. “They struggled a little bit last week against a big ole powerful Mississippi State team, but their defense is certainly capable of playing well.”
Saban said he hopes his offense can repeat the 460-yard performance from the Tennessee game in this week’s contest. Starting at quarterback again for the Tigers will be SEC Player of the Week Rohan Davey who threw for a career high of 318 yards and four touchdowns in the win. Davey may miss practice Monday because of a twisted ankle he suffered Saturday, but Saban does not think that will hamper him this weekend.
Regardless of who does or does not play though, Saban admits that the most difficult aspect of this week’s preparation will be convincing his players they are as good as the played last weekend.
“Our ability to deal with the success we’ve had is going to be the key to the preparation we have this week,” Saban said. “The preparation we have this week will be the key to how well we are able to execute when we get in the game.”