On Saturday, Tiger Stadium p.a. announcer Dan Borne bellowed "Chance of Rain.......Never" just like he normally does before every LSU home game played on a day that should have dry conditions. Most times Borne is right, but this Saturday the Tigers faced a different type of elemental force, namely Florida Gator RB Chris Rainey who racked up 225 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns against the LSU defense in the 34-17 Gator victory.
The scoring started with a 51-yard Gator field goal on their first drive, followed by a three-and-out by the LSU offense. Rainey would get his first score, a 3-yard power run, with 2:12 left in the opening quarter by running through a Chad Jones arm tackle attempt.
The Tigers would fight back in the second quarter by using more of the spread option game with sophomore QB Jordan Jefferson and senior Runningbacks Charles Scott and Keiland Williams. Scott would make a 1-yard plunge with 1:38 left in the half, making the score 10-7 Gators, but Florida would take advantage of a great kick return into Tiger territory to set up Rainey's second touchdown.
Even though there were only :38 left on the clock, the Tigers were not content to sit on the ball and retreat to the lockerroom down 17-7. Jefferson was able to string together a couple of completions, the last one happening with :01 left on the clock. Frosh WR Chris Tolliver was on the other end of that completion, which put the Tigers in field goal range, and he tried furiously to get a time out called, but the officials did not grant it. As you can imagine that didn't sit well with Tiger head coach Les Miles. "I'm not sure what the (expletive) the officials are doing in that situation. Its clear that we were moving the ball and wanted to try to cut the deficit by at least 3 more points right before the half," was Miles' comment after the game concerning that sequence. He also described it as a "game changer" considering that the Tigers could have been down by only one score, when they were set to get the ball first after halftime.
The 3rd quarter would not turn out well for the Tigers, as Rainey scored his final 2 touchdowns. The last one came on a 49-yard scamper where he showed that he is one of the fasted running backs in college football. The only LSU players that had a shot at catching him were defensive backs Jai Eugene and Ron Brooks, who are no slouches in the speed department, but Rainey was able to outlast them.
With the scoreboard reading 31-10 in favor of the visitors, LSU tried to air it out to get back in the game and had some immediate success with Jefferson finding Tolliver in the back of the south endzone from 18 yards out. The frosh proved to be the Tigers' bright spot, putting up career highs of 7 catches for 114 yards.
With 6:09 left in the game and down 31-17, Miles says that he gave serious thought to on-side kicking, but decided to give his defense another chance to make a stop. While the LSU defense would only yield a field goal in the game's final stanza, not on-siding may have been a serious tactical error. The Gators were able to chew clock by running Rainey, backup Emmanuel Moody and former Heisman winning QB Tim Tebow. Florida would finish with 291 rushing yards compared to 68 for LSU.
This loss drops the Tigers to 4-2 (2-2 in SEC play) and has brought out the critics who think that Miles has lost his touch after last year's disappointing 8-5 season. The Tigers will limp into the bye week after losing consecutive SEC contests, but will need to use the extra time wisely as the rival Auburn Tigers will travel to Death Valley from the plains after the off week.
