Many Florida players skip alma mater, heading to locker room after loss at LSU
By Adam Spencer
Published:
College football is steeped in tradition. Saturdays are a ritual in the South, with traditions that date back more than a hundred years in some cases.
One of those traditions is the playing of the school’s alma mater. Home or away, win or lose, the alma mater is almost always played following the game. And in most cases, players are expected to join with the fans in the tradition.
On Saturday night in Death Valley, though, many Florida players were seen skipping the alma mater and heading straight to the locker room after a disappointing 20-10 loss to rival LSU:
As you can see, there was a chunk of players who stayed for the alma mater, but many headed to the locker rooms early.
The frustration from Florida players was understandable. This was the Gators’ second loss in a row. Billy Napier is on the hot seat. DJ Lagway threw a whopping 5 interceptions in the loss. The offense couldn’t put points on the board despite having a better day statistically than LSU. The Gators had 23 first downs to 10 for the Tigers.
A couple of years ago, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian had to apologize to fans after his team left the field before “The Eyes of Texas” was played following a loss to Oklahoma State, so this sort of thing isn’t nothing.
We’ll see if Napier addresses it this week.
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Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
