The Best of Tiger Stadium: 2007 vs Florida

This year, LSU's Tiger Stadium is celebrating its 100th birthday. The Cathedral of College Football was erected in 1924, and now 100-years later can hold over 102,000 of the rowdiest and best fans in all of American sports.

We're beginning a new series where we go back and highlight some of the best games ever held in one of the most famous stadiums in all of sports, and we're beginning with a bang.

The 2007 Florida Gators (4-1) marched into Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night in October as the No. 9 ranked team in the nation. Led by Tim Tebow, they came in and looked to hand No. 1 ranked LSU Tigers (5-0) their first loss.

The Gators wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. They received the opening kickoff and Tebow led them 47-yards down field to put them inside field goal range. On the Tigers opening drive, Matt Flynn dropped back to pass to a wide open Brandon LaFell, but his pass was a little bit behind him and he tipped it right up to the Florida defender, setting Florida up in plus territory.

The Tigers defense held strong, holding Florida to just one yard before forcing a punt, but once again, LSU's offense couldn't get anything going and were forced to punt themselves shortly after.

The Gators got going again on their next drive as Tebow found Percy Harvin over the middle for a 27 yard gain, which set up a passing touchdown two plays later. However, thankfully for Tiger fans, their offense also found some rhythm and pieced together a 16-play, 80-yard drive that took up over eight minutes of time as they made it 10-7 with just over six minutes to play in the first half.

The Gators got the ball back, and the Tigers defense once again had no answer for the Gators offense as they drove 72-yards downfield in 10 plays to score another touchdown and push their lead to 10. Matt Flynn was able to lead LSU's offense 42-yards downfield to the 26-yard line, but they weren't able to convert the field goal and they hit the locker room trailing by 10 points.

Right out the break, the Tigers marched downfield on the back of Jacob Hester, who totaled 30+ yards on that drive, and used a fake field goal to pick up a fourth down and punch in their second score of the game later that drive, making it a three point game once again.

On Florida's next drive, Tebow once again dissected LSU's defense, completing three passes of 10+ yards, which included a 37-yard touchdown to Cornelius Ingram. To add insult to injury, the Tigers were forced to punt after picking up just one first down their next time out.

The punt set Florida up nicely on the 39-yard line, and it looked like they were going to go downfield and put the dagger in the heart of 92,000 Tiger fans, but instead, Ali Highsmith forced Kestahn Moore to fumble, giving LSU the ball near midfield.

After a beautiful option play set them up for a short field goal, Colt David missed his second field goal of the night, wasting a perfect scoring opportunity for the Tigers.

Trailing by 10 points with 12 minutes to go, it seemed like Florida could all but wrap the game up with a long, methodical drive, but the Tigers defense had other plans. On the second play of the drive, Glen Dorsey got his hand on a pass, tipping it up in the air and Kirston Pittman brought it down to set LSU up on the 24-yard line. Five plays later, Flynn found Demetrius Byrd for a four-yard touchdown, making it a one score game.

Florida would get the ball back, but the Tigers defense held strong again, forcing a three-and-out and giving the offense the ball on the 40 yard line after a punt. LSU got the ball back with 9:20 on the game clock. Trailing by three, they needed a field goal to tie and a touchdown to win.

After a seven-yard rush from Hester on the first play of the drive, Jared Mitchell was flagged for offensive pass interference, setting up a 2nd-and-18. Les Miles being Les Miles dialed up a run play, which netted just two yards, and put LSU in a 3rd-and-16 situation.

Matt Flynn dropped back to pass, but when nothing opened up downfield, he bailed out right and ran for 15 yards, setting up a 4th-and-1 conversion from Hester to reset the chains.

They continued to move the ball downfield slowly, but after a few plays, Hester ripped off a 19-yard run to put LSU inside the 20 yard line. A four and five-yard rush on first and second down put the Tigers in a 3rd-and-1 situation, and on that play, Hester was stuffed for no gain. For the fourth time that night, LSU faced a fourth down, and for the fourth time that night, they picked up a fourth down conversion on the back of, you guessed it, Jacob Hester.

LSU got the ball within two yards of the endzone, setting up a third-and-goal from the two. Both teams knew exactly what was going to happen: Hester was going to get a handoff up the middle. It was about who's line was going to get the push and whether or not Florida's linebackers were going to be able to stuff Hester. In the end, we all know what happened.

Florida got the ball back with just over a minute left, and actually drove down the field pretty nicely, but they ran out of time and the Tigers completed a 10-point fourth quarter comeback to beat their bitter rivals in their home stadium.

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