An Early Look at LSU Football's Matchup With No. 6 Florida

LSU moves from one explosive offense to another as a week after surrendering the most yards of the season (650) to Alabama, the Tigers set their sights for Gainesville and the high powered Florida Gators.

Florida is led by Heisman frontrunner Kyle Trask, who continues to exceed expectations week in and week out en route to an 8-1 record that has helped the Gators clinch the SEC East. The senior quarterback is among the most veteran returning players in the SEC and has looked the part throughout the 2020 season.

Trask has thrown for 3,243 yards and 38 touchdowns for an offense that ranks No. 3 in the SEC in total offense (502.9) and No. 2 in yards per play (7.35). LSU has struggled with big plays, most recently allowing Alabama to go nine yards per play and that's exactly what Florida feeds off of.

Immediately following the SEC East clinching win over Tennessee, Trask was already focused on closing the regular season the right way with the Tigers now set to come to town.

“It feels amazing," Trask said. "That was one of our main goals at the beginning of this season, because in order to do all of the bigger things, you first have to win the East. That was our first main goal and we completed it, so now we are just focused on LSU.”

Tight end Kyle Pitts has been the go to option for Trask all season as he ranks No. 2 in the conference in receiving touchdowns (11) and has posted 641 yards through the air during the 2020 season. He'll be a big key for linebackers Jabril Cox and Micah Baskerville as both have shown coverage ability but have struggled with consistency in coverage.

In past seasons, Dan Mullen has had the likes of Lamical Perine to lean on in the run game but the program has been so dominant through the air, the run game has fallen by the wayside a bit. Florida's leading rusher is Demeon Pierce, who has run for 417 yards on 85 carries in a largely by committee approach.

The big threat out of the back field is the pass catching ability of Kadarius Toney, who has 55 catches on 69 broken tackles.

On defense, the Gators have proved exploitable throughout the season but have improved in recent weeks against inferior talent. LSU will have some opportunities to get the offense going with Florida allowing 381 yards per game in its 3-4 defense under Todd Monkin.

If TJ Finley and the LSU offense can get in the redzone, there's a good chance the program will be able to capitalize with touchdowns as the Gators have allowed 19 redzone touchdowns to its opponents this season. LSU's offensive line improved from its debacle against Texas A&M but far too often against the Crimson Tide, the offense stalled in third-and-long situations and being beat at the line line of scrimmage.

For example, the pivotal play early in the Alabama game was LSU getting stuffed on fourth-and-one on the first possession of the game. Alabama had scored quickly but LSU was on the verge of answering before the questionable call to handoff to Tyrion Davis-Price instead of sneaking it with Finley.

Those are the kind of plays the Tigers will need to capitalize on if they hope to keep up with Florida. When getting in the redzone, anything other than a touchdown is a lost opportunity.

"We've got to go to war, come ready to fight and get ready to play Florida," Orgeron said after the Alabama loss. "They were ready to fight and we didn't execute. Could've called plays better but Florida's a good football team and we gotta go in the Swamp and play them and it'll be a tremendous challenge."