Five interceptions propelled No. 3 LSU to a 20-10 victory over Florida in an SEC opener Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers improved to 3-0. The Gators dropped to 1-2.
Dashawn Spears had two interceptions. A.J. Haulcey, D.J. Pickett and Tamarcus Cooley had one apiece.
Spears returned his 58 yards for a touchdown to give LSU the 20-10 lead with 8:08 left in the third quarter.
LSU’s Damian Ramos kicked field goals of 47 and 45 yards. The latter came on the final play of the half and gave the Tigers a 13-10 lead.
LSU’s only offensive touchdown came on a 23-yard pass from Garrett Nussmeier to Zavion Thomas with 7:33 left in the second quarter.
Nussmeier completed 15-of-27 passes for 220 yards with one interception. Aaron Anderson caught four passes for 75 yards. Tight end Bauer Sharp had three catches for 71.
Caden Durham rushed for 93 yards on 15 carries. His 51-yard run late in the game enabled the Tigers to run out the clock.
LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly took exception to questions about the performance of the offense in his postgame press conference.
“Really, is that the first question?” he said. “We won the game 20-10. Try another question. What do you want me to tell you? I just laid it out for you. We played the game to win the game. We played the game to win the game.”
LSU converted 4-of-14 third downs. Kelly was asked about that.
“It’s one game,” he said. “Last game we were great on third down. You micro … You’re looking at this from the wrong perspective. LSU won the football game, won the game.
“I don’t know what you want from me. What do you want? You want us to win 70-0 against Florida to keep you happy.”
A question about the Tigers’ struggling to run the ball didn’t sit well with Kelly.
“We can run the ball,” he said. “Did you see the last play? And I’m getting tired of it. That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win and you want to know what’s wrong.
“You know what. You’re spoiled. This team is 17-1 at night. 17-1. Give them some respect. How about that? Give them some respect instead of microanalysing every little thing. This is ridiculous. For a group of seasoned reporters that kind of question is so out of line.”
In his opening statement, Kelly praised his team for finding a way to win. Here it is.
“That’s one of the SEC classics. Two teams just battling. We did whatever was necessary to win the game. Defensively, obviously the five turnovers playing to our defense. (Punter) Grant Chadwick was outstanding. Sorry that doesn’t sound appealing to you folks but I don’t care.
“We’re trying to win football games. We flipped field position and I think he had four inside the 20. He was our weapon on offense today and that’s how we needed to win the game. We came up with the big play with the run at the end of the game to salt it away. “Just really, really pleased with our guys and the way they handled things. You lose arguably your best defensive player (Whit Weeks) in the first series. Then his brother (West) goes down but we got a third Weeks so we brought in the third Weeks (Zach). I’m not sure he knew what exactly was going on but he’s game, which is great.
“And that’s what I love about this group. They just kept battling where a lot of groups would have been deflated the way that went against us early on. They kept playing, believed they were going to win. And sometimes as fans you’ve got to understand there are ways to lose that game if you’re not smart and I thought we were very smart with the way we managed the game and managing was for the outcome that we got and that is winning the football game in the SEC.
“This is a journey. This is a long time. Do we want to clean up some things? Absolutely. But again, holding somebody to 10 points that has talented players on the offensive side of the ball and then finding a way to win the game really proud of our group.”
Whit Weeks, an All-American linebacker, was ejected from the game for targeting on the game’s first series. His brother West suffered a calf injury per ESPN in the fourth quarter.
Zach Weeks, a freshman and younger brother of the other Weeks, replaced him.
Regardless of who was in the game, the Tigers put a lot of pressure on Florida quarterback D.J. Lagway. He completed 33-of-49 passes for 287 and one touchdown with the five interceptions. The Gators had just 79 yards rushing.
LSU hosts Southeastern Louisiana Saturday at 6:45 p.m. The Lions (2-1) defeated Mississippi Valley State 56-3,Saturday.