What they said: Gators drop fourth straight game to LSU

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A fourth-quarter comeback by the Gators fell short Saturday night, as rival LSU pulled out a 45-35 win in The Swamp on Tom Petty Day. It marked Florida’s first four-game losing streak to the Tigers since 1977-80.

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels stole the show, throwing for 349 yards, rushing for 44 yards and scoring six total touchdowns (three passing, three rushing) as the offense converted 8-of-12 third-down attempts. Gators QB Anthony Richardson threw for 185 yards and touchdown while rushing for 109 yards, including an 81-yard TD run.

The Tigers improved to 5-2 (3-1 SEC) on the season while Florida fell to 4-3 and 1-3 in conference play heading into its bye week.

Here’s what both teams had to say after the Gators’ loss to LSU.

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Billy Napier on the Gators’ third-down defense:

“You’ve got to give a little bit of credit to LSU tonight. Their skill players, the quarterback, certainly, I don’t know that we tackled. I don’t know that was one of our better days from a tackling perspective. Individual matchups, you know, they won their fair share tonight. We got the guy and rolled over the guy a lot of times and the guy outruns us or breaks the pocket. You know, I think when we look at it, we’re going to see a combination of things.

“We’re going to see a lot of things that we can do better schematically, we’re going to see things that we can do fundamentally better, and I think there’s going to be opportunities for guys to make plays. It’s going to be a combination of all those things. I do not think it’s one thing or the other. I think it’s a combination of all those things, and you know ultimately, the things that we can control, from a coaching perspective, and the things that we can do better we need to do those things better. But I think that we’re going to be sick when we watch this tape, that’s what I can tell you.”

Napier on not using timeouts before the half:

“I think we got the ball back. I think it’s two-fold, they got two, as well. So, you’re in a mayday, two-minute situation where there’s a certain level of aggression that you’re going to use based off field position. We never really got the field position to where you needed to be aggressive. Ultimately, I think they got two. Last thing you want to do is give them the ball back again. So, I think it’s a delicate situation there. You to try help manage the players.”

Brian Kelly opening statement:

“Proud of my coaches and certainly the players. They competed. It’s a tough place to play. Give credit to Florida too, they kept fighting. I can’t be more pleased to take a group of guys that didn’t play up to their capabilities the week before and they were able to go back to the practice field and really be more purposeful, be more through, and come out here and play well and beat an SEC team at their home stadium. Really proud of our group.”

On if he expected this from Jayden Daniels:

“Absolutely. We were hoping that he was going to be more assertive with the football and he was going to push it down field. The offense is coming to him. It’s a new offense he is in, and it is slowing down for him. Throwing for three and running for three [touchdowns], you saw his athletic ability and his ability to move this offense.”

Jayden Daniels on how the game felt for him:

“It just felt great for the whole offense. That’s what we were talking about the whole week. We considered this game a breakout game. We put in the preparation. We saw what we did last week, it was right there. We just went out there, we trusted each other and played four quarters of football.”

BJ Ojulari on how the LSU defense played:

“It wasn’t our best defensive performance, but I think we made plays when we needed them. Tackling was a little sloppy all around. Hats off to Florida, they made a couple good plays when they needed to. Our whole team played very well, and the offense made plays when they needed to. The defense came through when we needed it.”

Anthony Richardson on his 81-yard TD run:

“When you make a play like that, it just brings back some faith to the team and to the stands. Being down 21, a lot of people thought they were just going to run off with the score. But being out there and just playing it play by play, making plays, it brings the team back into the game and crowd into the game.”

Richardson on the pressure in a close game:

“Some people might think it’s pressure, but I don’t think it’s pressure. It’s our job to put up points as an offense, and we didn’t put up more points than they did, and that’s on us. Regardless of how many points they score on our defense — if they put 100, we ought to be be to put up 101. We need to do a better job at that.”

Richardson on emotions going into bye week:

“Another SEC loss. We wanted to win that one, needed to win that one. So, we’re not really happy about that. But it also gives us a chance to come back and check to see what we need to work on, improve on, and it gives us a little bit more time to prepare for the next game and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Justin Shorter on the Gators’ locker room scene:

“I would say it was definitely hard, especially coming after a loss. Everyone was kind of down. But Ventrell Miller came in and he really picked the team up and brought us back together. He just told us that we needed to really just go back to the drawing board and come in every day and really work as hard as we can and have great practice. That’s the only way we can really get better and really improve.”

Shorter on Napier’s message afterward:

“Coach Napier came in and said some really, really positive stuff. I would definitely say this was a big game and it gets very emotional when you put this much work into it, when you’re really fighting with a chance to win. We really fought to get back into it and have a chance to win. I think we’re all really thinking it took a little toll on him, but we all picked him up like how he picks us up too.”