No. 3 LSU anticipates a tough test from humbled Florida and embattled coach Billy Napier

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU coach Brian Kelly calls any talk of firing Florida counterpart Billy Napier “crazy.”

And yet, Kelly's No. 3 Tigers (2-0) could very well contribute to Napier's demise when they host the Gators (1-1) in both teams' SEC opener on Saturday night.

"(Napier is) a really good football coach. He knows his team. He knows what their strengths and weaknesses are,” said Kelly, whose Tigers lost at Florida last season. “He’s building a culture that is fit to his eye in terms of what he wants to do. He’s doing it his way.”

The negative speculation swirling around Napier — who arrived at Florida after winning a Sun Belt Conference title at Louisiana-Lafayette — stems from the Gators’ loss to visiting South Florida last weekend.

Kelly, however, sees that result — which knocked Florida out of the AP Top 25 — as more indicative of a good team having a bad day than the Gators suffering from a lack of talent or poor coaching.

“It takes time to put in your philosophy and the way you like to do things,” said Kelly, who is no stranger to criticism from LSU's fan base after coming up short of the College Football Playoff in his first three seasons in Baton Rouge.

“Billy’s come in after two or three other head coaches that changed the way the other coaches did it. And now he’s starting to stabilize that program," Kelly continued. "So, people talk about whatever they want. It’s crazy. It takes you what it takes, and he’ll get that thing where he wants it. I think he’s got it right now. They beat us last year.”

Florida defensive end Tyreak Sapp asserted that last week's loss “doesn’t reflect who we are, because who we are isn’t what we have done once. It’s what we do consistently.”

Indeed, LSU's recent history could be instructive for the Gators.

The Tigers were in the midst of a three-game skid when they lost at Florida last November. LSU hasn't lost since, winning its final two regular season games of 2024, a bowl game, and now the first two contests this season.

“Getting beat — that can go both ways,” Napier noted. “I’m anxious to see how we are going to respond.”

LSU was riding high after a season-opening victory at Clemson, but received a dose a humility in its 23-7 victory over Louisiana Tech last weekend.

The Tigers were favored by five touchdowns in that game, after which Kelly initially lamented a lack of production “across the board.”

After reviewing video clips of the game, he amended his evaluation somewhat, praising his defense — anchored by linebackers Harold Perkins and Whit Weeks — for not letting Tech even threaten to score until LSU had a multi-possession lead in the fourth quarter.

LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier, widely seen as a Heisman Trophy favorite, had fewer than 250 yards passing and just one TD toss against Tech on a day when a number of other power conference teams were posting gaudy blowouts over less prominent opponents.

“The encouraging thing is we’re 2-0,” Nussmeier said. “We can learn from our wins and don’t have to learn from our losses.”

The Gators have only two wins in Death Valley over the last two decades. They are 2-8 at Tiger Stadium during that span, winning a defensive struggle 13-3 in 2009 and eking out a 16-10 victory in 2016 thanks to a goal-line stand.

“It’s a very fun place to play,” said Florida center Jake Slaughter, who lost 52-35 at LSU in 2023. “It’s a hostile environment. It’s loud. My first memory of being there in Baton Rouge, there’s fans throwing beer cans at the bus. They are a passionate fan base. They get after it.”

Florida has a chance to show last week’s dumpster fire was more of a fluke than a foreshadowing. Coach Billy Napier insists his team won't “shrink” after the home loss to USF, and players believe they can rally like they did last season.

“This is a phenomenal opportunity,” Sapp said. “The best thing about it is that we get to prove to ourselves who we really are.”

LSU enters the game with health questions surrounding two prominent offensive players.

Center Braelin Moore returned to practice this week after going down with an ankle injury on the first offensive play against Louisiana Tech.

Kelly was optimistic that he'd be upgraded from questionable to probable by the end of the week. If not, Kelly expressed confidence in DJ Chester, who "went in there and he did a heck of a job” after Moore went down.

Meanwhile, tight end Trey'Dez Green, who caught a touchdown pass against Clemson in Week 1, has a knee sprain that is likely to sideline him this week — although Kelly initially declined to rule him out.

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AP Sports Writer Mark Long contributed from Gainesville, Florida.

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