LSU survives, beats Florida 35-28

Published 12:00 am Sunday, October 18, 2015

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Perhaps someone at Florida should have reminded first-year coach Jim McElwain about Les Miles’ propensity to gamble against the Gators.

Leonard Fournette ran for 180 yards and two touchdowns, Miles victimized Florida with a fake field goal for the second time in five years, and the No. 6 Tigers beat the No. 8 Gators 35-28 on Saturday night.

Kicker Trent Domingue’s 16-yard touchdown run on the fake was LSU’s only scoring play of the second half, breaking a 28-all tie in the fourth quarter.

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The Tigers’ defense held from there — barely. Florida receiver Antonio Callaway, who had a 72-yard punt return for a score, also had his hands on a long pass to the end zone from Treon Harris in the middle of the fourth quarter, but LSU’s Dwyane Thomas punched it out to prevent a tying touchdown.

Harris, starting for the suspended Will Grier, passed for 271 yards and two touchdowns for Florida (6-1, 4-1 SEC), with both scoring passes to tight end Jake McGee. Brandon Harris threw for 202 yards and two scores for LSU (6-0, 4-0).

The fake field goal had to be a bad case of deja vu for Florida fans, even if not for McElwain, who still probably should have known Miles’ reputation for such gambles.

In 2010, LSU completed a fourth-quarter comeback by converting a fake field goal for a first down. Then-kicker Josh Jasper had to scoop the pitch off the ground to complete the play, which allowed the Tigers to score a winning touchdown on a pass from Jarrett Lee to Terrence Toliver in the final seconds.

This time, Domingue bobbled the lateral pitch in the air as he ran at full speed, but was able to gather it in as he sprinted around the left end for a go-ahead score.

Fournette finished with 195 yards from scrimmage, including a 15-yard gain on a screen. His rushing total was the highest by any player this season against Florida, eclipsing the 136 yards gained by Tennessee’s Josh Dobbs. The Gators entered the game allowing only 99.2 yards rushing per game.

LSU also proved it could hit on explosive plays through the air against a strong SEC defense.

Brandon Harris hit Malachi Dupre, who was covered by Vernon Hargreaves III, for a 52-yard gain on a flea-flicker that began with Fournette taking a pitch from Harris and lateraling the ball back to his quarterback. That play set up Fournette’s second touchdown on a 6-yard run.

In the final half-minute of the first half, Brandon Harris escaped Florida defensive end Jordan Sherit’s grasp, and launched a deep pass to Dupre, who made the catch in front of Marcus Maye and scampered a final few yards for a 50-yard TD that made it 28-14 at halftime. That was Dupre’s second touchdown catch of the game.

Florida tied the game by outscoring LSU 14-0 in the third quarter.