Florida returns home this week fresh off a successful two-game road trip, which included a physical, impressive win over Mississippi State that sent a statement about the positive direction of Florida’s program and culture under new head coach Dan Mullen.

As much as the Gators would love to keep celebrating Saturday’s victory in Starkville, this is the SEC and in the best conference in America, there’s no time to rest on your laurels.

A powerful LSU team ranked No. 5 awaits Saturday in The Swamp, and for the Gators, a win would immediately redefine the parameters and expectations of the 2018 season.

Following Florida’s loss against Kentucky, we wrote, with much justice, that the Gators were staring down the barrel of a lengthy rebuild, both from a personnel and cultural perspective.

Beat an undefeated LSU team Saturday afternoon, and suddenly Florida isn’t just hoping to advance to a decent bowl game — they are in the conversation for a New Year’s 6 bowl and at least dreaming of a Cocktail Party game with Georgia that has meaning beyond the traditional implications of a rivalry game.

All that’s fun, and a reason there’s an energy around the Florida program that’s been missing for the past few seasons ahead of Saturday’s game, which will mark the first time since 2015 that the Gators have welcomed a top-5 opponent into The Swamp.

Florida won decisively that night, feeding off an electric environment in pummeling then-No. 3 Ole Miss. Two weeks later, star-in-the-making quarterback Will Grier was suspended for failing a PED test and in truth, Florida football hasn’t been the same since. Saturday in The Swamp likely will feature a similar insane-asylum of an environment and gives Florida the chance to secure a national-attention-grabbing, signature home win early in Dan Mullen’s first season.

It won’t be easy.

LSU is as complete a football team as Kentucky, which came to Gainesville and dominated the Gators on both lines of scrimmage last month, and with all due respect to the marvelous Wildcats, the Tigers have a more talented roster.

LSU has as impressive a resume as anyone in America to date, boasting a rout of Miami on a neutral field and a win at Auburn in a juiced-up Jordan-Hare Stadium. What’s more, the Tigers are coming off their best performance, a 45-16 demolition of Ole Miss that saw LSU accumulate nearly 600 yards of total offense and limit one of the nation’s best offenses to a singe touchdown.

In other words, the Gators better have their chin straps buckled.

Much attention will be paid this week to Florida’s offense, and how they’ll handle Dave Aranda’s mix of press coverages on the perimeter and exotic pressures, both likely designed to make Florida establish the running game.

That’s all fair game, but in truth, not as interesting or decisive a matchup as what will occur on the other side of the ball, where Steve Ensminger, Joe Burrow and a revitalized LSU offense will be the best test for Florida’s new-look defense since the Kentucky debacle.

LSU doesn’t wow you statistically on offense. They rank 38th in S&P+ offensive efficiency, a somewhat pedestrian 52nd in rushing offense, and average 5.7 yards per-play, which is actually more than half a yard behind Florida (6.4) in that category. But the Tigers are efficient in the red zone (91%) and Burrow is one of two Power 5 quarterbacks in America who has thrown for over 1,000 yards this season without tossing an interception. The other? Some guy named Tua Tagovailoa.

In truth, Saturday’s game is a contest between two teams with eerily similar statistical profiles.

The Gators have good defensive metrics in most categories: 19th in total defense (LSU is 32nd), 6th in pass-efficiency defense (LSU is 23rd), and 13th overall in S&P+ defense (LSU is 15th).

Florida also enters with momentum and confidence, having played great defense the past two weeks against offenses with similar efficiency profiles to LSU. But LSU will be by far the most physical front Florida has played since Kentucky, and the Wildcats gashed the Gators for 300+ on the ground.

Further, Florida has two obvious weakness defensively that play into LSU’s strengths as a physical football team that uses the run game to establish play-action shots down the field.

First, Florida doesn’t tackle at a high rate (three games with 10+ missed tackles, tied for most in the SEC, per PFF), a problem that appeared fixed against Tennessee but returned last week against a more physical football team in Starkville (12 missed tackles).

Second, Florida’s lack of interior line depth and a true 3-technique who can disrupt  the running game has forced Florida’s thin linebacker corps to repeatedly fit run gaps, and while it has improved since the return of All-SEC middle linebacker David Reese, the Gators will still enter Saturday’s game ranking 85th nationally in rushing defense.

LSU knows the best way to control the crowd will be to establish the running game and hit explosives in the passing game, the formula that worked masterfully for Kentucky last month.

It’s a winning formula for LSU, especially when the Gators’ offense, much improved but still not capable of winning a football game on its own, will likely sputter at times against a salty LSU defense that like the Gators, enters the game ranked in the top 40 nationally in total defense (32nd).

If the Gators want to erase the taste of last season’s 17-16 home loss to LSU, redefine the expectations for the 2018 season and send a sellout Swamp home happy Saturday, they’ll have to be physically and mentally prepared for the task of standing toe to toe with the Tigers up front for 60 minutes.

That starts where it has often started in Gainesville over the past decade — with the Florida defense.