Florida's 2-1 SEC start meets 0-3 South Carolina at Homecoming

By Brenden Martin

No. 16 Florida in the AP poll hosts South Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 10, in Homecoming. The Gators (4-1) are 2-1 in the SEC after a 45-17 loss at Missouri on Oct. 3. South Carolina is 0-3 in league play. Kickoff is 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

The series

Florida leads the series 31-10-3, according to South Carolina's game notes and the SEC's Week 6 release. The notes say the first meeting was a 6-6 tie on Oct. 21, 1911, and Saturday is the 45th. They list the Gators at 17-2 in Gainesville, where South Carolina's last win was 23-20 in overtime on Nov. 15, 2014. Florida holds an 8-6 edge in the last 14 meetings, according to the notes.

The last meeting was Florida 41, South Carolina 39, on Oct. 14, 2023, in Columbia. The notes say the Gators scored two touchdowns in the final 4:40 to erase a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit, and Graham Mertz hit Ricky Pearsall for a 21-yard touchdown with 47 seconds left. Florida also won 38-6 in The Swamp on Nov. 12, 2022, according to the notes. South Carolina's notes list the 2023 game as the most recent meeting, so the Gators have won the last two.

Homecoming

Week 6 is Florida's 2026 Homecoming game, according to Florida's game notes. Last season the Gators beat Mississippi State 23-21 for their seventh straight Homecoming win. Florida's notes put the Gators at 31-5 in their last 36 Homecoming games and 73-26-2 all-time.

The standings

In the SEC's Week 6 release, Alabama and Georgia are both 3-0 in league play, and Texas is 1-0. Florida, Kentucky and Mississippi State are each 2-1. Florida has scored 113 points and allowed 112 in conference games. Its two conference wins are 44-39 at Auburn on Sept. 19 and 52-28 over Ole Miss on Sept. 26. The conference loss came at Missouri, which is 1-1 in the SEC.

Overall, Florida is 4-1 and 3-0 at home, according to the release. The Gators average 46.2 points a game and allow 27.2, by GatorBait's calculation from the release's 231 points scored and 136 allowed.

Around the league

The SEC has seven league games Saturday, including Florida's, according to the release. All times are Eastern. Texas A&M is at Missouri at noon, South Carolina is at Florida at 12:45 p.m., Ole Miss is at Vanderbilt and Texas plays Oklahoma at 3:30 p.m., Tennessee is at Arkansas at 4:15 p.m., LSU is at Kentucky at 7 p.m. and Georgia is at Alabama at 7:30 p.m. Auburn and Mississippi State are on open dates.

Two of those games touch Florida's schedule. The Gators are at Texas on Oct. 17 and play Georgia on Oct. 31, according to the release. Kentucky, tied with Florida at 2-1, hosts the Gators on Nov. 14.

What a win would mean

Start with arithmetic, not a forecast. A win Saturday would give Florida three SEC wins, a total only Alabama and Georgia have now. It would move the Gators from .667 to .750 in league play.

South Carolina is 0-3, the only SEC team with three conference losses. No other team has more than two. The standings do not say how Saturday goes. They say Florida is 2-1, behind two 3-0 teams, in the same bracket as Kentucky and Mississippi State.