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As this case opens, we find the camera scanning the crime scene. It is the University of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – aka Steve Spurrier/Florida Field – in Gainesville.
Saturday was Senior Night at the Gators’ stadium called “The Swamp”. Right on cue, the fog started to roll-in toward halftime of this game. By the second half, the fog had engulfed the field and added to the aura of this memorable college football game.
Coming into this game, the Florida Gators were ranked #6 nationally and had a record of 8-1 on the season. The Gators (winners of the SEC East) had already clinched a berth in next Saturday’s SEC Championship in Atlanta against the SEC West champion and #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.
The opponent on Saturday was LSU. Last season’s 15-0 national champions, this year’s squad of LSU Tigers has looked confused and dazed all season long and came into this game with a 3-5 record and one of the nation’s weakest defenses. LSU has posted the worst record for a defending national champion team since 1943. Just last week, LSU was destroyed in Baton Rouge by Alabama 55-17.
Oh, yeah. The Gators had to be licking their chops all week thinking about a tasty wounded tiger that was going to limp into their Swamp on Senior Night!
Prior to kickoff, Florida’s football team probably had a chance to watch Alabama destroy a plucky Arkansas team in the day’s early game by the score of 52-3. The Gators had also beaten Arkansas 62-35 earlier in the year. You had to believe that Florida was probably already thinking about Bama prior to taking the field for a game against LSU Saturday night.
In another surprising move, the Gators played against LSU without likely All-American tight end Kyle Pitts. The Gators’ best receiver was scratched from the line-up during the team’s pregame warm-ups. The Florida medical staff indicated that Pitts did not practice during the week and apparently was not at 100 percent prior to game time Saturday.
So, Florida was already likely distracted by Alabama and their best receiver would not be playing in this weeks’ game against a weakened 3-5 LSU team. Hmm…
On the LSU sideline before the game, the depleted Tigers roster had taken a few more hits with more players leaving the squad in recent weeks. Though last year’s national championship team saw more than their share of players leave school for the NFL, this pandemic year of 2020 caused a few of LSU’s remaining “star” players to opt-out (or quit the team without NCAA penalty) before the season. As the losses mounted for LSU, the so-called “5-star” divas walked away.
The remaining LSU players who made this trip to Florida were not concerned about the NFL and were ready to play a full 60 minutes of football on Saturday night in Gainesville.
LSU started a freshman at quarterback on Saturday. Max Johnson (son of former NFL QB Brad Johnson) made his first start at LSU. He looked poised right from the start as LSU played Florida to a 7-7 tie ending the first quarter. Max Johnson would finish the night throwing for 239 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 52 yards on 18 carries to keep Florida’s defense off-balance throughout the game.
Meanwhile, Florida’s record-setting senior quarterback, Kyle Trask, was hopeful that his final home game would help to secure a Heisman Trophy. However, LSU’s much maligned defense put pressure on the Florida quarterback. In the second quarter, LSU picked-off a pass and ran it 68 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers a 14-7 advantage.
In what would be the first of several strange plays Saturday night, the LSU defensive back noticed the Florida quarterback giving chase and turned around to taunt Trask as he slow-walked into the end zone. For LSU fans, this unnecessary showboating marked consecutive weeks where “Oscar Meyer” players (hot dogs) made bad decisions while prancing into the end zone and nearly fumbling away easy touchdowns. Those plays have come to symbolize a lack of maturity which seems rampant on this year’s LSU team.
As Kyle Trask’s Senior Night-mare game continued, his next interception was one of the oddest of the season. With Florida driving deep into LSU territory, Trask fired a pass which was tipped along the sidelines by the Florida receiver, “boinked” off the helmet of one unsuspecting LSU player (he never saw the ball), and the pigskin dropped softly into the hands of another LSU defensive back. The intercepting Tiger had just fallen out-of-bounds. He then hopped back in-bounds and was mere inches onto the playing field as he snagged the deflected ball.
As the first half drew to a close with LSU taking a 24-17 advantage, the fog in Gainesville became heavier during halftime. ESPN’s television cameras in the press box had difficulty capturing the second half action.
As LSU and Florida traded scores in the second half, the game was tied at 34-34 with just about two minutes to go when the unforgettable “The Famous Footwear” play took place.
LSU faced a third down from its own 25 yard line. Max Johnson completed a 4-yard pass to tight end Kole Taylor – far short of the first down. At this time, Florida’s fourth-year junior cornerback Marco Wilson assisted in the tackle.
Then, for no apparent reason, Wilson picked up the shoe that LSU’s tight end had lost on the play. Instead of handing the shoe back to the LSU player, he threw the shoe about 20 yards downfield! Wilson (who made the SEC Academic Honor Roll in 2019) was flagged with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and LSU picked-up a first down and maintained control of the football.
Six plays later, Cade York‘s 57-yard field goal split the uprights, and LSU grabbed a 37-34 lead with just 23 seconds remaining in the game.
Armed with two timeouts, though, Florida would rally one last time as Kyle Trask completed three passes downfield to allow the Gators’ field goal kicker a chance to launch a 51-yard attempt to tie the game. That kick went (barely) wide left, and this memorable game was finally over with LSU escaping with a hard-fought 37-34 win.
In the press room after the game, a Florida linebacker (Amari Burney) said that he didn’t see the infamous LS-Shoe fling made by his teammate:
“All I seen was the flag and then I see the shoe flying. There was really nothing I could do. I didn’t know who threw the shoe until we got to the sideline.”
In this special Perry Mason case of involving Florida and the missing LS-Shoe, Judge SwampSwami has ruled:
- A special Game Ball shall be given to the Chris Blair, LSU’s radio play-by-play broadcaster. His father (Steve Blair) died on Friday in South Carolina after a lengthy illness, but his Mom told him what Dad would have wanted. So, Chris Blair came to Gainesville and witnessed a game which will live in LSU (and Florida) history.
- With the loss, Florida’s chances for a national championship are nearly at zero. Florida would not only have to beat Alabama next week but hope that most other national championship contenders will drop a game. The Gators’ loss to LSU was devastating.
- LSU may have finally found a quarterback of the future in Max Johnson. Johnson displayed calmness and leadership on the field and seemed to rally teammates along the sidelines during the game. The leadership and maturity factor seems to have separated Max Johnson from LSU’s other freshman quarterback, T.J. Finley.
- Florida quarterback Kyle Trask may have just lost the Heisman Trophy as a result of Florida’s loss to LSU. The national voters will only remember that Florida lost – at home – to a 23-point underdog from LSU. That’s too bad as Trask passed for 474 yards on the night and had a hand in four touchdowns (two via pass and two short runs).
- Another game ball goes to LSU placekicker Cade York. He was nearly overlooked in that wild game, but he connected on three-for-three field goals for the Tigers. His massive 57-yard game winner – in the fog – provided LSU’s game winning points in the minute of play. Cade York will be playing in the NFL next season.
- LSU defensive coach Bo Pelini escaped with his job for at least one more week. The Tigers still gave-up well over 600 yards (again). His defense played hard the entire game, but it’s still obvious that Pelini’s defensive schemes aren’t working.
- Florida head football coach Dan Mullen gets the “GUILTY” verdict from the judge. Everything about the game with LSU indicated that Mullen’s Florida Gators expected to simply show-up on Senior Night and annihilate a depleted LSU team. In a college football game which will be remembered for a tossed shoe, Coach Mullen will be considered the “heel” for years to come.
The only psychological advantage in the Gators’ favor now will be if #1 Alabama watched Saturday’s game between Florida and LSU. Perhaps Bama won’t take Florida seriously now in next week’s SEC Championship game.
Don’t count on it. Alabama’s head coach Nick Saban prepares his teams like Eagle Scouts for every game. I cannot see Florida catching Alabama (pardon my pun) “flat-footed” next weekend in Atlanta.
Regardless, it should be a dandy game. In the immortal words of television legend Ed Sullivan, the Bama/Florida game will still be a “really big shoe!”