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Gators try to maintain a level head against LSU

The Tigers have beaten a highly ranked Florida before.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 6, 2001

GAINESVILLE -- If you listen to LSU coach Nick Saban, you'd think this season's Gators are the best team ever. "This team that we play this week is as good of a team that anyone has ever seen in all of college football," Saban said. "It's a great football team that Florida has. ... From our standpoint, I think we are going to be underdogs."

If the Gators are listening -- and believing -- then the trap is set. Just like 1997, when Florida went to Baton Rouge with the No. 1 ranking and left with a 28-21 loss.

"Certainly we've reminded our guys about '97," Florida coach Steve Spurrier said. "But I think we have a different bunch of guys. Every team is a little different."

This Florida team (4-0, 2-0 SEC) enters today's 3:30 game at LSU sporting the No. 2 ranking and the nation's No. 1 passing and scoring offenses. It is fresh off a 52-0 win over Mississippi State, hasn't been challenged this season and seems like a prime candidate for an upset.

"The game last week came too easily for us," Spurrier said. "Hopefully, we're smart enough to realize that."

And smart enough to realize that while LSU isn't the best team in the nation, it's far from the worst.

"I really think the tough games are going to begin this week," Spurrier said. "We're not going to get way ahead of everybody we play. (LSU) played Tennessee pretty much down to the wire in Knoxville, so they're a good team. They're tough, they are going to be ready, they want to beat us. It's not going to be easy."

Despite a 26-18 loss to Tennessee last week, the Tigers have the 12th-best passing offense in the nation (282 yards per game), led by quarterback Rohan Davey, who has thrown for 838 yards and no interceptions.

He's big, he's mobile and he's not easy to take down, Florida defensive coordinator Jon Hoke said.

"We have a lot of challenges ahead of us with their ballclub, because they have a lot of skill people," Hoke said. "The quarterback is very talented, they have three talented wide receivers and the running back is excellent. They are averaging 178 yards rushing, so obviously a big concern of ours is we've got to do a good job shutting down the run and try to make them as one-dimensional as we can."

Florida's defense expects to see a different Davey than it faced last season, when he was 4-for-12 for 65 yards with an interception. "He was a little injured in last year's game, but this year through film and through the paper it seems that he's the leader of the team, he's healthy and he's ready to run that offense," safety Todd Johnson said. "It's going to be our biggest challenge yet. You look at their receivers, they've got four or five wide receivers who are going to be hard to stop."

LSU's primary receivers, Josh Reed and Jerel Myers, have combined for 505 yards on 30 receptions. Reed is one of the top playmakers in the conference and last week moved from 11th to ninth on the LSU all-time receiving list (1,645 yards).

But Saban is downplaying his top player.

"In comparison with the Florida guys, I don't know if he's in that category," he said of Reed. "For us, he's a pretty good player. He makes a lot of good plays and he's pretty effective running with the ball after he catches it when he gets the opportunity."

LSU's biggest challenge may be containing Florida's offense. The Gators are averaging nearly 600 yards -- 145 yards on the ground and 441 in the air. The Tigers were unable to contain Tennessee receiver Kelley Washington last week and face an equally tough challenge in Florida's receivers. "They are going to come out and throw the ball out of every formation that you possibly can throw it," linebacker Trev Faulk said. "So I think we need to try to make them one-dimensional. Last year, we gave up too much of the running game, so we need to get ahead early in the downs and make it second and long and third and long so we can get into different packages that we have, and put pressure on the quarterback." "

Florida quarterback Rex Grossman has the nation's best passing efficiency rating (190.98), but Spurrier said his biggest concern is that Grossman stay focused.

"I hope Rex learned his lesson from last year because he had two really good games against LSU and Auburn, then (against) Georgia we had to take him out in the second quarter and then we had to take him out against South Carolina too," he said. "He realizes he needs to prepare well and realizes, I hope, that he needs to play better also."

The Florida players insist that despite the obvious pitfalls, there won't be a letdown today. There's too much at stake.

"After a big win like we just had, you don't want to get complacent," defensive end Kennard Ellis said. "We've still got business to take care of. This is the SEC. You can lose on any week."

'Insufficient evidence' in Mitchell case

Florida sophomore defensive end Clint Mitchell will not face prosecution on allegations of sexual battery, the Alachua County State Attorney's Office said.

"He's been cleared by the university and now today, the threat of criminal prosecution is gone," said Mitchell's attorney, Thomas Edwards. "His name was dragged through the mud, but through corroborating evidence ... he's been exonerated."

The state took sworn testimony from nearly a dozen people and concluded that there was "insufficient evidence in which to file criminal charges against anyone in the case," investigator Spencer Mann said in a two-paragraph statement. The formal paperwork is expected to be filed Monday.

Mitchell, 21, a second-team freshman All-American last season from Clearwater, expects to play after he has served a six-game suspension imposed by Spurrier for "something completely unrelated to this," Edwards said. A student judicial affairs hearing cleared Mitchell of a conduct violation Wednesday.

"Clint's eager to play; he's hungry to play," Edwards said, adding that his client has "learned lessons" from this situation about exercising proper judgment.

-- Times staff writer Brian Landman contributed to this report.

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