BATON ROUGE — So if this is the glorified JV team LSU is stuck with for the rest of the season, maybe it’s not such a bad deal after all.

The injury-depleted Tigers were written off by their own fan base and spent the week “blocking out the noise” before the blah atmosphere of a morning kickoff with a shell of the team that started the season.

But for what was left of them, the only noise they soaked in was the cheers from their student section as they mimicked the Gator Chomp after pulling off one of Tiger Stadium’s great shockers with a 49-42 upset of No. 20 Florida on Saturday.

“What a great win for our team,” said embattled LSU head coach Ed Orgeron, who may have at least temporarily silenced the noise surrounding his job security.

Never mind that, he said.

“I’m happy for our team. Our team went through a lot this week.”

But who were those guys who were missing six defensive starters and their best offensive playmaker in Kayshon Boutte?

Mainly the team that couldn’t run the ball a lick all season suddenly gashed the Gators for 321 yards rushing, including a school-record 287 yards, straight out out of nowhere, from Tyrion Davis-Price, who scored three touchdowns on runs of 18, 40 and 25 yards.

“Wow,” Orgeron said. “To see us rush for 321 yards … physicality, running the ball, staying committed to it.”

You could have put LSU’s second half to the music from “Patton,” Davis-Price left, right, left, right in big gashes courtesy of an embattled offensive line.

“You could see those were big holes I was running through,” Davis-Price said. “The offensive line has been coming together with it every day, every day, busting their tails in practice and doing extra work. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

“We were more physical,” Orgeron said.

The winning drive summed it up — a 10-play, 60-yard drive. Johnson’s 1-yard scoring pass on a fourth-and-goal gamble was the lone pass.

“We were going to run the football,” Orgeron said of the play with 3:30 to play. “(Offensive coordinator) Jake Peetz called a pass. He said, ‘Coach, do you want me to run? I said, ‘It’s your call.’ It was a great call. It could have gone the other way, but (quarterback) Max (Johnson) made a great play to avoid the rush.”

“The reason I didn’t throw the ball the whole fourth quarter was because our offensive line was dominating,” said Johnson, who competed 14 of 24 passes for 133 yards and three touchdowns, all to Jaray Jenkins. “Shout out to those guys … it just speaks to how hard the O-line and backs have been working.”

LSU’s defense set the tone with interceptions on back-to-back possessions in the second quarter that led to a pair of Jenkins’ scoring receptions and a 21-6 LSU lead.

The Tigers (4-3, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) finished with a pair of interceptions each half, which was about the only way to stop the Gators (4-3, 2-3) after halftime as it turned into a track meet.

“Thank God for those four interceptions,” Orgeron said. “Our defensive backs were challenged today. Florida has a good scheme, but we answered the call.”

That same defense soured an otherwise stellar first half by allowing a 42-yard Hail Mary on the last play before halftime that cut LSU’s lead to 21-13.

But it made amends to start the third quarter on Dwight McGlothern’s 37-yard interception return for a touchdown and clinched the game when linebacker Damon Clark picked off a long pass to seal the victory.

Neither team punted in the second half, but just when it looked as if the team with the ball last would win, Clark made sure it was LSU when he made LSU’s fourth and final interception on a deep pass with a tick under 2 minutes remaining.

“I really could not believe that he threw that ball to me,” Clark said. “My first interception. I just ran stride for stride with him, turned around at the right minute and the ball fell in my hand.”

In the end, Orgeron and his players may have been the only ones in the stadium who saw the upset coming. It was LSU’s third consecutive victory over the Gators, the second in a row as a double-digit underdog.

“All week I felt like we were going to play very well,” Orgeron said. “They came to fight today. That’s our motto —were going to fight. We’re going to fight the rest of the season, one game at a time, one day at a time.”