Mekhi Garner on learning from Auburn road game: SEC fans are crazy

LSU cornerback Mekhi Garner joined the Tigers this year as a transfer from the Louisiana Lafayette, a Sun Belt school where crowds look a little different than what he’s seen so far in the SEC. Garner’s first road game experience with the Tigers was two weeks ago against Auburn, and he spoke on what he learned from that experience headed into his second SEC road game against Florida.

“Man SEC fans are crazy, I’d say that, and also it’s an experience too, especially coming from UL,” Garner smiled and said. “Not every game was packed on the road, but when here you get it all. The fans are dialed in, they’re just as much as the players.”

Garner will be playing in yet another sold out away crowd this weekend in a matchup that’s particularly special for him, as he takes on his former coach from Louisiana Billy Napier, who is now the head coach of the Gators. Garner said he wanted to show Napier Saturday that he created a monster in him, but still leans on his humble beginnings as he navigates through his first season in college football’s premier conference.

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“One, staying humble and staying down, that’ll be my biggest thing. Two, just enjoying the experience, this is definitely one of the best seasons I’ve probably had, just having experience wise, traveling wise, seeing fans wise. Just coming out into Tiger Stadium just seeing how the fans react to us and stuff like that, that’s it,” Garner said.

Garner has played big for the Tigers this year despite his small school start up, recording 17 tackles and two pass breakups so far this season at his corner spot, and will be looking to make more plays against Napier’s defense this weekend.

Ali Gaye on Florida: Hostile environment but we had success there last time

Saturday’s 7:00 p.m. primetime ESPN matchup between LSU and Florida is between two teams with a lot in common at the moment. Both teams enter the game with 4-2 records, led by first-year head coaches Brian Kelly and Billy Napier, both looking to hit the ground running in their first seasons coaching in the SEC.

With both teams having so much in common, home-field advantage could be a major factor, as the Tigers travel to The Swap, one of college football’s loudest environments. Tiger’s defensive lineman Ali Gaye spoke about their upcoming road trip to Gainesville ahead of their matchup against the Gators.

“That’s a hostile environment, but last time we went down there we had success, we came out and we hope to do it again when we go down there this weekend,” Gaye said.

The last time Gaye and the Tigers played on the road at Florida was during the 2020 season, the game was initially postponed and played towards the end of the season where LSU won in upset fashion 37-34. The crowd attendance was limited in that game, held to around 16,000 fans, and will be much different this time around with the Gators announcing in August that Ben Hill Griffin Stadium would be sold out for their battle with the Tigers.

LSU did get the best of a Gators team ranked No. 6 in the country in 2020, and has also gotten the best of them in their past three meetings. In their last two matchups the Tigers were unranked, facing ranked Florida teams favored by double digits.

The Gators are favored yet again in this matchup, but only my 2.5 points, and it will be interesting to see how these two teams that seem relatively evenly matched fare in primetime at The Swamp.