Charting The Gators: Napier-Kelly Matchup Highlights a Rarity in Florida-LSU Rivalry

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — If you rank your Southeastern Conference rivalries strictly on entertainment value, the Florida-LSU game has to be near the top of the list.

The schools meet for the 69th time on Saturday night at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, including for the 52nd consecutive season. Florida owns a slight edge (33-32-3) in the series, but as UF fans know all too well, has lost three in a row to the Tigers.


Billy Napier

Kyle Trask and Co. marched up and down the field until the end against the eventual national champions at Death Valley three years ago. Two years ago at The Swamp, Marco Wilson's shoe toss earned a place in the rivalry's lore. And last year in Baton Rouge, quarterback Anthony Richardson turned Gators fans into dreamers in Florida's 49-42 shootout loss.

In flipping through the back pages of this rivalry, Saturday's matchup has an uncommon turn in this colorful and sometimes teary affair. The Gators and Tigers have first-year head coaches at the time of their meeting, which has happened only one other time.

In 2005, first-year Gators coach Urban Meyer took his team to Baton Rouge to face the Tigers and their new coach Les Miles. LSU won 21-17 in a slugfest in which the Gators managed only 206 yards of offense. Meyer, pausing for more than 20 seconds during his postgame press conference, introduced Urban Crier as part of the game's lexicon.

Charting The Gators: Napier-Kelly Matchup Highlights a Rarity in Florida-LSU Rivalry - Florida Gators