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

The faculties meet for the 69th time on Saturday evening at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, together with for the 52nd consecutive season. Florida owns a slight edge (33-32-3) in the sequence, however as UF followers know all too properly, has misplaced three in a row to the Tigers.

 

Kyle Trask and Co. marched up and down the sphere till the top towards the eventual nationwide champions at Death Valley three years in the past. Two years in the past at The Swamp, Marco Wilson‘s shoe toss earned a place in the rivalry’s lore. And final yr in Baton Rouge, quarterback Anthony Richardson turned Gators followers into dreamers in Florida’s 49-42 shootout loss.

In flipping via the again pages of this rivalry, Saturday’s matchup has an unusual flip in this colourful and typically teary affair. The Gators and Tigers have first-year head coaches on the time of their assembly, which has occurred just one different time.

In 2005, first-year Gators coach Urban Meyer took his staff to Baton Rouge to face the Tigers and their new coach Les Miles. LSU gained 21-17 in a slugfest in which the Gators managed solely 206 yards of offense. Meyer, pausing for greater than 20 seconds throughout his postgame press convention, launched Urban Crier as a part of the sport’s lexicon.

Florida-LSU isn’t uninteresting.

Meanwhile, that 2005 matchup that pitted Meyer and Miles towards each other for the primary time was a preview of massive issues to come back. The two coaches gained the following three nationwide championships — Meyer in 2006 and ’08 and Miles in ’07.

When the Gators and Tigers conflict Saturday evening, Florida coach Billy Napier and LSU’s Brian Kelly meet for the primary time. Both took over applications coming off 6-7 seasons and much from the expectations of their rabid supporters.

 

Coincidentally, Napier and Kelly had been linked collectively as potential candidates to exchange fired LSU coach Ed Orgeron after final season. Napier was head coach at Louisiana and had sturdy ties to the state. Kelly was at Notre Dame and one of many recreation’s most confirmed coaches.

Napier was requested Monday about these unsure offseason moments and his rumored connection to the LSU job.

“I don’t know that’s something you talk publicly about,” he said. “I believe we’re all properly conscious of chaotic instances in faculty soccer once you get to November, December, January. I’ll let you know one factor. I’m grateful for the chance I used to be given right here. I am unable to think about being at a significantly better place.

“This path was right. That’s what I would say.”

As we take a nearer take a look at Saturday’s recreation, right here is a look on the two first-year coaches:

(Note: Before turning into UF’s athletic director, Bill Arnsparger was in his first season as LSU’s head coach in 1984 when Florida and LSU tied 21-21 in the second recreation of the season; Galen Hall changed Charley Pell as Florida’s head coach two weeks later).

 

CHARTING THE GATORS