GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Will Muschamp sprinted off the field, his sweaty hair plastered down, his arms raised, high-fiving as many jubilant Florida fans as he could reach. The Swamp is Florida’s vaunted home field, but until yesterday it had never been Muschamp’s turf.
He was the guy who replaced Urban Meyer by posting a pedestrian 7-6 record last year. He was the guy who didn’t adore the camera and the sound bite, as Meyer had. He had been handed one of the crown jewels in college football and seem to lose it.
Yesterday, playing Will Muschamp football, the No. 10 Gators made a convincing statement that they are in the hunt for more BCS Championship jewelry. They throttled No. 4 LSU, 14-6, which came in with the aura as one of college football’s most physical teams, and left wondering what hit them.
“Were back to being a man’s team,’’ said Florida safety Josh Evans of Irvington, N.J.
Anyone who saw last week’s West Virginia win over Baylor might have wondered if they were watching the same sport. At halftime, the Tigers led 6-0, but had just four first downs. Baylor and West Virginia had 10 touchdowns.
Muschamp wasn’t about to make apologies for the smash-mouth win. Not when he spent the last year telling his team it was soft.
“That was a typical 1980 SEC right there today,’’ he said.
There never has been any question that SEC is a man’s league — it has won the last six BCS titles. But Florida’s place at the head of the table had been usurped by Alabama and LSU and South Carolina.
The Gators (5-0, 4-0 SEC) are back. They snapped LSU’s streak of 18 straight regular season wins. And they beat the Tigers (5-1, 1-1) at their own game.
Trailing 6-0, the Gators came out in the second half, buckled their chinstraps and starting busting the Tigers in the face mask. They gained 152 of their 176 yards rushing in the second half. Running back Mike Gillislee busted the Tigers for 146 yards on 34 carries with 12-yard touchdown runs in each of the third and fourth quarters.
Florida finished the game by calling 22 straight rushing plays.
“That was an offensive lineman’s dream,’’ said Florida guard Jon Halapio, “In the off season we trained for these moments. We felt like as an offensive line, the LSU line was tired. Their defense was very tired toward to the end. We basically out-physicalled them.’’
The Gators’ defense, led by Matt Elam, who stripped Odell Beckham after a 56 yard completion late in the third quarter that could have brought LSU back from a 7-6 deficit, held the Tigers to 200 yards in total offense.
“I felt like they were a physical group last year,’’ LSU coach Les Miles said of Florida. “I didn’t think there were any issues there.’’
Muschamp thought so. He beat it into his player’s heads that last season they were outscored 72-22 in the fourth quarter of SEC games. Yesterday they posted their biggest win in The Swamp since a 51-21 win over LSU on Oct. 11, 2008.
“We need to win in our place,’’ said Muschamp. “They haven’t really gotten any exciting wins maybe based on their perception of his good.’’
The Gators are good. And so is their coach.