LSU whips Western Kentucky, 42-7

This one had 'trap game' written all over it. And for a half, it was true.

Western Kentucky coach Willie Taggart had one bragging right after his team got whipped 42-7 by the top-ranked team in the country.

“We scored more points than Alabama,” he said.

Can't argue there. The Hilltoppers came into Death Valley and kept the game competitive into the third quarter.

“We played hard and didn’t give up,” Taggart said. “I believe we were going to win, but I knew it wouldn’t happen if we didn’t play perfect.”

LSU (10-0) came in favored by nearly six touchdowns, but perhaps due to not taking WKU seriously only led only 14-7 at halftime.

“We just were flat,” said LSU defensive end Barkevious Mingo. “There really is not much you can say about that. Early on we were just not ready to play.

“This game kind of woke us up and we won’t let this happen any more games this year. The Alabama game is over now. We are going to move on and hopefully play for a lot more the rest of this season.”

Jordan Jefferson completed a beautiful 59-yard bomb to Rueben Randle to open up the scoring for the Tigers.

Jefferson played until 12 minutes remained in the fourth quarter, when Lee relieved him, drove down the field and threw a 5-yard scoring pass.

Hilltoppers quarterback Kuwaun Jakes completed 11 of 24 passes for 97 yards and was intercepted once by linebacker Tahj Jones.

Gators won, but Vols didn't back down

Let's be honest, Tennessee brought that wood.
Florida was still the superior team, and quarterback Tim Tebow still had control ... but not by much.
Tebow, for the first time this season, was running for his life.
Due to his athleticism, he can make that look pretty easy, but it wasn't. The Gators 23-13 victory Saturday over the Tennessee Volunteers was a moral victory for UT in their long journey back to SEC elistism.
For Florida, the mystique may be broken.
With the hard running of tailback Montario Hardesty (96 yards on 20 carries) the Vols almost had a 100-yard rusher for the afternoon.
Tim Tebow's streak of at least one touchdown pass in 30 straight games came to a resounding stop.
First-year Vols coach Lane Kiffin, who can talk smack with the best of them, was impressed him Superman. “I probably said it three times on the headsets, ‘Is the guy ever gonna wear out?’"
Note to Kiffin: Um, no, Lane. He's not unlike a Terminator, he's not going to stop.
"It’s unbelievable. Not only physically, when you hit him, but some of those (short, crucial) gains, he runs 50 yards to get them. He doesn’t wear out."
But alas the Volunteer defense -- which played admirably -- finally began to.
Tennessee held Florida to 323, which was good considering the Gators ran up 663 yards
on Troy and 624 in the season opener against Charleston Southern.
When the Gators smashed the Vols in the mouth, the Vols smacked back.
Symbolic of the teams' play was when Tebow and UT All-American safety Eric Berry closed in on each other in the first half - POW!
“I just bit down on my mouthpiece and tried to give it everything I had,” Berry said of the train-like collision. “All the power cleans and the squats from the summer, I had to use everything I had. At first I was like ‘dang, he done got me y’all.’ But I looked up at the JumboTron and we kind of hit each other and fell to the side ...You can call it what you want, but it was a good collision.”
Tennessee will win the rest of their games, it seems, if they can get pass Georgia.

LSU ends frustrating '08' by destroying Ga. Tech

Well, LSU has concluded the 2008 campaign, at 9 - 5, playing their first complete game in the final game of the season. The 38-3 thumping of Georgia Tech in the Chick fil A Bowl brought a tantalizing end to the ups and downs experienced by the true LSU fan. On there third quarterback of the season, LSU finally hit a stride, found a zone. Jordan Jefferson's steady if green hands were more than enough to get the Tigers to play in a relaxed, confident tone as the Tigers rolled to a 28-3 lead midway through the 2nd quarter. If the recruiting season shapes up, the quarterback play may not be an issue for at least another 5 years.
The special teams play proved to be the firestarter: Georgia Tech's Andrew Smith fumbled a punt early in the second quarter with LSU up only 14-3. LSU’s Ron Brooks jumped on it and soon enough thoroughbred running back Charles Scott scored the second of his three first-half touchdowns to make it 21-3.
The LSU defense, a frustrated lot for most of the season, played poise and inspired football, foiling the Tech spread option attack for the most part.
Looking back, the SEC West was never LSU's to grab, not with troubling nemesis Arkansas completing its 2-year deal with the devil, not with Ole Miss resorting to all kinds of trickery. But, hey, it was a good ride.
What can we expect in 2009? From the looks of it, the defense will lose a step, but the offense figures to return to a solid nucleus. In the SEC, that's all you can ask.