After a second sobering loss, can Florida's season still be salvaged?

After a week of thinking there was no place to go but up after Florida’s reenactment of the Titanic disaster in Columbia, Missouri, the Gators did a one-up job at The Swamp of all places. Lots of good teams go down for the count on road trips to CoMo, although not many top ten in the nation teams take so many jabs to the face that they’re punch drunk on the bad end of a 45-17 beatdown.

So, we spent a week rationalizing all that went wrong at Missouri, most of us concluding that (a) things couldn’t get any worse and (b) the cure for the common TKO was coming to Gainesville in the form of the South Carolina Gamecocks, whose fan base was busy putting out feelers to Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner to gauge his interest in replacing Shane Beamer, whose coaching career seemed to be on life support.

Not only were we wrong on both counts, but the blowtorch that was turning Beamer’s fanny into charcoal flamed out, offering a reprieve that will last at least two weeks. Instead of the bye-week pink slip that so many Gamecock faithful predicted, Beamer earned a hall pass that’s good at least until October 24 when the hated Tennessee Vols pay a visit to Willy Brice. Beating Florida 38-19 on a field named after Beamer’s former boss (Steve Spurrier) and on a day when Spurrier and the 1996 Florida national championship was honored will certainly cool off the hot to trot alums and boosters who haven’t been silent about their desire to skewer their head coach.

The way the Gamecocks (3-3, 1-3 SEC) came alive to put an end to a three-game losing streak rekindled déjà vu visions of 2024 in the minds of the South Carolina faithful. The 2024 Gamecocks were limping along at 3-3 when LaNorris Sellers began channeling his inner Patrick Mahomes, leading South Carolina to six straight wins while effectively zipping the loose lips of alums and boosters who were whispered to be gathering pledges to buy out Beamer. Beating the Gators decisively in Gainesville certainly wasn’t expected but for at least one day it revived hope that South Carolina can defy gravity in the second half of the season.

Once past the first quarter Saturday, Sellers dialed up a version of his former self and South Carolina’s beleaguered defense, which had given up 125 points in three straight losses, discovered it was capable of getting off the field. In those last three quarters, the Gamecocks looked nothing like an SEC doormat and the Gators (4-2, 2-2 SEC), who slipped from No. 8 to No. 16 after the Missouri debacle, had the look of a team that might struggle to become bowl eligible. Two weeks ago the Gators were the talk of college football, well on their way toward a mortal lock at-large bid for the College Football Playoff. Now, it’s not unfair to ask if there are two wins left in the final six regular season games that will allow the Gators the 15 days of practice that go along with a trip to an exotic locale such as Shreveport or Birmingham in December.

The loss earned time in detention hall for Faulkner, whose Lamborghini offense that made it a 4-0 September to remember has devolved into a ’77 Chevy Vega whose aluminum engine is melting. Those Gators who hung 96 points and 993 yards in wins over Auburn and Ole Miss have combined for 36 points and 713 yards in the last two games. The Gators had only 14 negative offensive plays in the entire month of September. There have been 17 in the losses to Mizzou and South Carolina. In a line of scrimmage league like the SEC, that many negative plays is almost a guarantee of failure.

South Carolina’s defensive front leaked like a sieve the previous three weeks. Against the Gators, they dominated.

“I felt like for the majority of the day their defensive front won the battle at the line of scrimmage over us in the run and the pass game,” Florida coach Jon Sumrall said. “Like when we wanted to get into obvious drop-back pass situations, it was bad too … And then, too, we missed a couple things in the run game at times. Just maybe a certain read on a couple of runs that could have been a little bit cleaner, but I think the physical component of the game, we didn’t win the line of scrimmage.”

Inadequate play at the line of scrimmage has had everything to do with the losses to Missouri and South Carolina. The Gators can’t block anyone, can’t run the ball with any consistency and rarely complete a pass more than seven or eight yards downfield. Jadan Baugh, who averaged 150 yards per game in the first four games, has 72 in the last two. He had 59 on 15 carries Saturday, 26 coming on one play in the third quarter that was blocked well enough that he found open space to run to. On most carries he was swarmed to the ground. Aaron Philo, who averaged 10.5 yards per pass attempt in September, is averaging a below average 6.8 per attempt the last two games. Some of that has to do with the inability of the O-line to give him a consistent clean pocket and some of it has to do with injuries to the wide receivers. For the second straight game, Vernell Brown III, Florida’s most explosive wide receiver, couldn’t go due to the lingering effects of a sprained MCL. That certainly hurt, but so did the inability to make downfield throws, especially in the middle of the field. Most of Florida’s passes were horizontal and of the dink and dunk variety.

“Calling a drop back pass sounds great until you realize, hey, we haven’t blocked those guys very well all day,” Sumrall said.

Philo was 21-28 for 227 yards with one TD and one pick against South Carolina. The TD came on a rollout when he found Bailey Stockton open on what became Florida’s only TD until a mercy score against the Gamecock scrubeenies late in the fourth quarter. The interception was a bad read against a zone defense when the score was tied at 10-10 with 3:29 left in the first half. That led to the go-ahead touchdown, a 12-yard pass from Sellers to Mazeo Bennett. Philo also fumbled in the fourth quarter at the South Carolina 13, killing a Florida drive when the Gators still had a mathematical chance to rally and make the game interesting.

When the deficit reached 38-13, Philo was replaced by Tramell Jones, who finished the game with 6-8 passing for 40 yards. Jones was charged with an interception when he hit tight end Evan Chieca in the hands and the ball deflected into a Gamecock defender. Jones did lead the Gators on a 10-play, 57-yard scoring drive that ended with a TD run by Baugh with 3:07 left in the game.

In the week ahead as the Gators prepare to road trip to Austin to face Texas, certain to lose its No. 1 ranking after a 27-24 last second loss to Oklahoma, it’s almost a certainty that who starts at quarterback the second half of Florida’s season will be a rather hot topic of discussion. When the Gators have fallen behind the last two games, they have needed a playmaker capable of bringing a team back. Philo didn’t look the part either against Mizzou or South Carolina. In the short time he was on the field Saturday, Jones looked more decisive, more playmaker and less like a game manager.

Those are just some of the issues on offense. Defense? Where to begin? There aren’t enough fingers to point to all the problems. The offensive issues pale in comparison to Brad White’s defense, whose game plans seem to come from Chapter 14 of “Third and Grantham.” If there is one thing consistent about the Florida defense it is the inconsistency to get stops. It’s reminiscent of the 2020 Gators who had a national championship-capable offense and a defense with a penchant for shooting itself in the feet. The 2020 edition of Third and Grantham gave up 30.7 points and 41 percent on third down conversions. The 2026 Gators are giving up 29 points per game and 48.3 percent on third down and it’s still early in the season. Things could get worse.

Florida’s defensive troubles against South Carolina pretty much fit in three categories: (1) Too many missed tackles; (2) too many chunk plays in the passing game; and (3) inability to get stops on third down.

Tackling issues have plagued the Gators all season and Saturday was no different. Sellers had at least eight escapes when he turned a potential loss into a gain or a completed pass downfield. The play that defined Sellers’ effort came on the Gamecocks’ first quarter touchdown drive when he broke tackles and outran defenders while escaping the pocket for a 17-yard gain on third-and-10 from the Gamecock 35. Later in the same drive, the ball was snapped over his head, landing some 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Sellers calmly retrieved the ball then turned what should have been a huge negative into a one-yard loss. Two plays later he threw a 15-yard TD pass to Nyck Harbor, the first of four he would throw against Florida’s clueless defense. The TDPs covered 15, 12, 28 and 21 yards. Altogether, Sellers completed ten passes that covered at least 15 yards. The Gamecocks converted 10 of 16 third downs.

Almost in a replay of the previous five games, it really didn’t matter what the Gators schemed defensively. None of it worked with any sort of consistency. As Sumrall explained in his post game press conference, the defense is using the throw something against the wall and hope it sticks approach.

“We’ve played man, we’ve played zone,” Sumrall said. “We’ve played man with pressure. We’ve played zone with pressure. We’ve played man and been in a drop-8 and spy the quarterback. We’ve played zone and been in a drop-8 and spy the quarterback.

“We’re throwing a lot of things at it to try to get it fixed. I think when it’s not going the way you want it to, you’re searching for answers and there’s nothing you won’t look at. We’ve looked at different front groups. We’ve subbed some nickel fronts and some dime fronts and some penny fronts and some different personnel groupings to try to create some advantages for us maybe in the line of scrimmage.”

Death by a thousand cuts is what the defense seemed like in the month of September. In the two games in October, the small cuts have become gaping wounds that require tourniquets. Schemes aren’t working which means one or a combination of four things: (1) They’re so simplistic that opponents have no problems figuring them out; (2) the schemes are so complicated that the players are like lost balls in the tall grass when it comes to understanding their assignments; (3) the coaching stinks; or (4) there is an overwhelming lack of talent.

Point No. 4 alone is sure to light up message boards and talk show phone trees. Ron Zook once said winning football isn’t about the X’s and O’s but about the Jimmys and Joes. Even the best of schemes won’t work without talented people to make it work. We tend to forget the other teams have scholarship players and well paid coaches whose job it is to exploit any weakness they see in the Florida Gators.

Florida’s talent or lack of certainly factors in the inability for the defense to get off the field without giving up points just as the issues on the offensive line, injuries at wide receiver and need for a playmaking quarterback have contributed to the offense taking an ice plunge after a scorching hot start. This is college football, not the NFL where you can cut unproductive players and find replacements on the waiver wire. As the late, great Bum Phillips once said, “You gotta dance with the ones that brung ya” which doesn’t bode well for the remaining six games on the Florida football schedule. Sumrall and his staff need answers in a hurry and they’re going to have to find them with the same people who haven’t gotten the job done.

None of the six games remaining on the schedule seem particularly winnable at this particular moment. That isn’t a panic statement, but instead a realistic look at what is ahead. Faulkner has to find a way to regenerate the offense, White has to find a scheme that is a better fit for the personnel on hand and Sumrall has to keep morale high to prevent a listing Gator ship from joining the Titanic on the bottom of the ocean. When the season began back in September, nobody in his right mind thought it was going to be easy but that 4-0 beginning sent tsunami waves of hope through the Gator Nation. The last two games have had a sobering effect and now the hope is that it’s not too late, that the season is still salvageable.