No. 25 Missouri trounces No. 8 Florida 45-17 to snap 9-game skid against Top 25 opponents
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Austin Simmons threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns, Jamal Roberts ran for 211 yards and three more scores, and No. 25 Missouri trounced eighth-ranked Florida 45-17 on Saturday to snap a nine-game losing streak against ranked opponents.
Cayden Lee had eight catches for 110 yards, Donovan Olugbode and Caleb Goodie Jr. had TD receptions, and the Tigers piled up 560 yards of offense while giving coach Eli Drinkwitz his first regular-season win over a top-10 team in 11 tries with them.
“It's a good win against a really good team today. That's all it was,” Drinkwitz said, bristling at any discussion of the way the Tigers have performed against the SEC's elites. “Nobody in our locker room could care less about that. I couldn't care less about that. I really couldn't care less. The SEC is a hard league, and yeah, I'm done with that."
Missouri (4-1, 1-1 SEC) collapsed late Mississippi State last week, but it bounced back by stopping one of the nation's top offenses.
Gators quarterback Aaron Philo threw for 197 yards and a touchdown, but much of that happened as they played from behind. Jadan Baugh, who had been receiving some early Heisman Trophy hype after running for 11 touchdowns over his first four games, carried 12 times for only 13 yards, often struggling to even make it back to the line of scrimmage.
The Gators (4-1, 2-1), who routed No. 4 Mississippi last week, had been averaging 532.8 yards of offense. They had 325 on Saturday.
“We knew a couple of things were coming and still didn't stop it,” Florida coach Jon Sumrall said. “They played with physicality. Hat's off to them. They deserved the win. We earned the loss. We have a lot to work on.”
The Tigers clearly prioritized bottling up Baugh, the nation's second-leading rusher, especially after watching him rip off a 12-yard gain the first time he touched the ball. He carried 11 more times for exactly one yard the rest of the game.
Florida evidently didn't prioritize stopping anything.
Simmons was 16 of 21 for 238 yards and his two TDs in the first half alone, slinging the ball to all corners of the field. He hit Olugbode for a 47-yard strike and a 10-3 lead, then delivered Goodie his first career touchdown reception later in the half.
It was a handful of possessions spanning halftime that decided the game, though.
The Gators went three-and-out late in the first half, giving the Tigers the ball with 1:33 left, and Blake Craig's 50-yarder as time expired made it 20-10. Then, after getting the kickoff to start the second half, Roberts added a short touchdown run, the Tigers forced a quick punt, and Craig banged through a 52-yarder to make it 30-10 late in the third quarter.
The coup de grâce came on the penultimate play of the quarter, when Roberts spun out of a pileup and ran 76 yards, getting shoved out at the Florida 2. On the first play of the fourth, he slammed into the endzone, and a 2-point conversion made it 38-10.
“This is a really emotional league to play in," Simmons said. “There's going to be a lot of adversity. It's a tough league, especially in the trenches. Seeing Jamal bounce off all those tackles and break free, it's something I haven't seen.”
As if the Tigers needed an exclamation mark, Roberts added it with an 80-yard touchdown run a couple of minutes later.
By that point, the Tigers were mockingly chomping at the Gators, who have struggled mightily in Columbia over the years. They have now lost four of their last five games at Faurot Field — though unlike the rest, this one didn't come down to the wire.
“What an awesome win for our community, for our state and more importantly for our team,” Drinkwitz said. “Really proud of our guys, our coaches and players, the way they went about their business this week.”
Florida played without wide receiver Vernell Brown III, who led the Gators with 17 catches for 271 yards along with two touchdown catches and two punt return TDs in his first four games. Brown's been dealing with a strained right knee.
Missouri was missing starting edge rushers Darris Smith and Langden Kitchen, both of whom have lower body injuries.
Florida: Plays South Carolina next Saturday.
Missouri: Plays Texas A&M next Saturday.
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