Kirk Herbstreit recognizes Gators for their strong performance vs. LSU
Count broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit among those who were impressed by the Florida Gators’ 27-16 win over LSU last weekend at The Swamp.
Each Monday, Herbstreit recognizes college football’s top teams, coaches and individual performers from the weekend. And in his latest addition, Florida hit the trifecta.
The Gators were one of his top performing teams, coach Billy Napier made Herbstreit’s list of the top performing coaches and Florida linebacker Shemar James was one of the top performing players.
For Napier, it was a huge win. After an awful 1-2 start, the Gators are showing positive signs and now sit at 5-5 overall, 3-4 in the SEC entering this week’s game at home against No. 11 Ole Miss. Napier improved to 16–19 at Florida in his third season; that was only his second win over a rival.
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James, a junior linebacker, was the SEC Defensive Player of the Week. He had one of the best defensive performances by a Gator in recent memory. He posted career-highs in sacks (2), pass breakups (2) and tackles for loss (2), while adding a season-high 11 tackles. Behind James’ play, LSU averaged only 2.9 yards per rush as the Gators totaled 11 tackles for loss as a team.
“I was a big win coming off that ‘L we took in Texas,” James said. “We kind of preached, wipe that out, review, go into next week. That’s what we did. I’m proud of the offense, special teams and defense for coming up with a big win.”
After the game, James made sure the praise the fans, too.
“They were very helpful for us,” he said. “On the third down they got very loud. First and second downs they were very loud, and that was like our 12th man, the 12th man on the field. I appreciate every fan in the stands tonight.”
