Vosean Joseph has career night against LSU
GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- There is just something about LSU for Vosean Joseph.
The Gators linebacker always seems to shine against the Tigers - who could forget his huge hit in Baton Rouge in 2016, when the Gators secured the SEC East title with a win over LSU.
And he was at it again in Florida's latest win over its SEC foe.
"Every year LSU game gonna be big," said Joseph after Florida's 27-19 win over the Tigers. "But it's just another game to me, just go out there and keep level headed. You can't let all the hype boost you up or whatever. Me, I'm just a calm guy. I just go out there and play my game and then we came out with a 'W' so I'm happy for that. Gotta keep it going."
The Gators junior played his game and played it well.
Joseph posted his first multi-sack game of his career and recorded three tackles in just the first 20 minutes of the game on Saturday. He ended the night with a career-high 14 tackles and 3.5 tackles for a loss (he had three tackles for loss this year entering the game on Saturday).
“I want to say my defense helped me out with that," said Joseph about his performance in the win. "They opened up probably some of the pass rush so I can get in there and get a couple sacks, bouncing it out to me so I can get on the edge. Anything the team had to do. One-person cant. Do it by himself.”
The Gators defense stepped it up, especially after a first drive that saw LSU march down the field easily.
"They was moving it pretty fast. We didn’t expect that," he said. "Like [defensive coordinator] Coach [Todd] Grantham said, we do every week. We adjust and we fix the problem. The problem got fixed. We gave up a couple more yards but at the end of the day we came out with a W. I’m happy for that.”
Grantham and company certainly fixed the problem. The Florida defense sacked LSU quarterback Joe Burrow five times and made the signal caller's night far from pleasurable.
“We just felt comfortable," he said. "We just went out there and played our game. Every night somebody is going to have more than on person but at the end of the day somebody is always going to have his game.
"Today was probably my game but everybody on the team did absolutely well, I don’t want to miss nobody that played on the team today," added Joseph. "Everybody did an absolutely great job. We still have stuff we have to work on, including myself.”
Joseph is correct. The entire Florida defense played a major role in the UF win over its fifth-ranked opponent. When the Gators pass rush was busy causing havoc up front, the secondary was waiting for its opportunity. Brad Stewart found his in the fourth quarter.
The Louisiana native read Burrow well. The LSU signal caller aimed for Stephen Sullivan but found an eager Stewart in front. The Florida safety quickly made his way 25-yards for the pick-six.
And just as Stewart waited for his opportunity to be the first defensive back to intercept Burrow on the year, Joseph was waiting for his chance to leave yet another mark on this Florida, LSU rivalry.
Of course the linebacker already had left his mark on the stat sheet, however, the South Florida native had one more thing planned.
“I just had to do it because I seen it on Twitter," said Joseph about his celebration after Stewart's pick-six that left him facing a flag.
What did Joseph do exactly to draw an unsportsmanlike penalty? He took the ball from Stewart and punted it straight to the stands, playing homage to Brandon Spikes in Florida's 30-point win over LSU.
“I was like I’m gonna boot it," said Joseph. "I’m gonna kick it. Brad got it so I was happy for him but he gave it to me so I’m gonna kick it.”
The Tigers will certainly never forget Joseph, however, as the talented defender pointed out in the beginning, this win was bigger than his career numbers. It was an opportunity for Florida to build on.
“I want to say that we actually came together as a team and actually realized what we can actually do. Just buying in to the defense and sticking in to the defense really gave us more confidence with every game we played," Joseph said. "Our games will keep getting physical and physical based on the team we playing. But we not shyin' away from no one, we gonna keep putting in all our work, gonna keep getting better as we do.
" We will see the mess ups that we did on the film. We gonna correct them then come out the next week."