Following last year's infamous debacle regarding the postponement of Florida and LSU's matchup in Gainesville regarding Hurricane Matthew, the intensity of the rivalry has since been taken up a notch.
The Gators, who ended up traveling to Baton Rouge last season in November, received two consecutive home games against the Tigers in 2017 and 2018. In that 2016 matchup at Tiger Stadium, Florida pulled out a 16-10 victory to clinch the SEC East thanks to a last-second goal-line stand.
LSU fired Les Miles early on in 2016 but has since removed the interim tag off of head coach Ed Orgeron. The Tigers went 8-4 (5-3 SEC) last season, finishing in a second-place tie in the SEC West standings. However, the Tigers return a solid group this season, despite the loss of key pieces like running back Leonard Fournette, safety Jamal Adams, cornerback Tre'Davious White, center Ethan Pocic, linebackers Duke Riley and Kendell Beckwith, and others.
Inside the Gators interviewed TigerBait.com senior writer Bryan Lazare to get his take on LSU coming out of spring practices, which concluded April 22. (You can follow Lazare on Twitter @bldore.)
After the spring, which positions do you think LSU feels best about on the roster heading into the 2017 season and why? On the flip side, what positions do you see as the Tigers' biggest concerns?
Lazare: Even though there are just four returning starters on defense, two of its areas appear to be pretty solid going into the 2017 season. Senior Donnie Alexander and sophomore Devin White, who were backups last season, are improving greatly. Alexander stepped into the starting lineup when Kendell Beckwith suffered a knee injury in last year's Florida game. White has all the talent to be an impact linebacker right away. Outside linebacker Arden Key has been away from the team because of personal issues. Key is expected to rejoin the team in June. With Key being unavailable, redshirt freshmen Ray Thornton and Andre Anthony were very impressive as rush linebackers during spring practice.
