By Brenden Martin Saturday's Homecoming game between Florida and South Carolina is sold out, the university announced Thursday. It is the 22nd straight sellout at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Kickoff is 12:45 p.m. The streak is the longest for the Gators since they sold out 138 consecutive games from 1989 to 2011. Florida's ticket office announced last month that student season tickets were sold out. Single-game tickets remain on sale only for home games against Oklahoma on Nov. 7 and Vanderbilt on Nov. 21. Ticketmaster.com is the only authorized seller of Florida Gators verified resale tickets. The Gators also learned Thursday that former receiver Chris Doering is their representative in the SEC's 2026 Football Legends class. The league named 16 former players and coaches, one for each school. South Carolina's honoree is receiver Sidney Rice. Doering, a Gainesville native, played at Florida from 1991 to 1995. He finished with 149 catches for more than 2,000 yards and 31 touchdown receptions, a program record. As a senior in 1995, he caught 70 passes for 1,045 yards and 17 touchdowns and was a Second-Team AP All-American. He helped Florida win SEC titles from 1993 to 1995 and played 10 NFL seasons. The class will be honored during the SEC's "Weekend of Champions" on Dec. 4-5 in Atlanta. The SEC Legends Celebration is Dec. 4 at the College Football Hall of Fame, and the group will be recognized before the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 5 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

By Buddy Martin / GatorBaitMedia.com Every once in a while, somebody comes back through the door and reminds you just how fast time moves. Laura Rutledge did that for me this week. Most of America knows her now as Laura Rutledge of ESPN — host of NFL Live, a Saturday college football fixture and one of the most recognizable people in sports television. Around here, there is another chapter to the story. Before she was Laura Rutledge, she was Laura McKeeman, a University of Florida student trying to figure out where she belonged in this business and willing to take just about every rep she could get. And, yes, Brenden will remind me — and he is right — that he spotted her first. He brought her into the fold, got her involved in recruiting shows and gave her some of those early opportunities. I had the good fortune to watch the reps pile up and to put her in front of a camera at a time when doing live video on the internet still felt like we were building the airplane while flying it. A FLIP PHONE AND AN IFB The best story Laura told on The Buddy Martin Show might be the one that explains her whole career in about four minutes. She was a senior at Florida when Fox Sports Florida called and gave her a shot around the Tampa Bay Rays. Her previous internship work had been about as glamorous as most internships are: copying DVDs, helping behind the scenes and writing for the website. Then suddenly she was being asked to handle live pregame and postgame television. Opening Day arrives and somebody tells her to put in her IFB. One problem: Laura had no idea what an IFB was. So she pulled out a flip phone and Googled it. That is not a punch line at her expense. That is the lesson. She did not fake knowing. She figured it out, asked questions, went live and came back the next day for another rep. WATCH: Laura remembers the early live-TV learning curve, Brenden Martin and the road from Gainesville to the big stage. THE REPS BEFORE THE SPOTLIGHT There was another story I had almost forgotten until she told it again. Laura took a 5 a.m. shift at WRUF. On one of her first sports reports, she forgot to hit the button that actually put her on the air and delivered part of the thing to nobody. Dead air. Welcome to broadcasting. You learn quickly in this business that embarrassment can either make you hide or make you better. Laura chose better. She talked about those early days as part of the foundation. The shows were live, unscripted and sometimes held together by enthusiasm and extension cords, but that was exactly the point. You learned to listen. You learned to recover. You learned what to do when the next question or the next technical problem was not in the script. That skill still shows up every time she is standing on a sideline with the country watching. THE PART YOUNG BROADCASTERS SHOULD HEAR When I asked her what she would tell somebody trying to get into the business now, her answer was better than anything you are going to find in a television handbook: do not trade away who you are to get ahead. Be authentic. Work harder than the next person. Stay grateful. That sounds simple until you get around television, social media and the constant pressure to become whatever somebody thinks will get the next click. Laura's point was that the long game matters more. AND THEN WE TALKED FOOTBALL This was not just a reunion show. Laura also gave us the view from where she works now. She walked us through the sideline confusion involving Steve Sarkisian and Holly Rowe, explaining how a camera problem created a delay that viewers could not see and why she felt it was important for the broadcast crew to own the production issue instead of leaving a coach to wear it. We talked Arch Manning, the pressure of those big games and the strange weekly commute between NFL Live and a college football sideline. Then we got to what everybody around Gainesville wants to talk about this week: Florida at Auburn. Laura liked what she has seen from Florida's offense, the running game and the improvement up front, but she also knows exactly what Jordan-Hare can do to a football game. When we put a number on the season, she landed at at least seven wins for the Gators and hoped they would push beyond it. The conversation bounced from Florida-Auburn to Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss, then back home to ESPN's “14 Days in Gainesville” and the memories of Steve Spurrier's first season during one of the darkest stretches this community ever endured. Carlton Reese and Ali Peek Wilbur joined us, and for a while it felt less like an interview than one of those old newsroom conversations that just happened to have cameras on it. COMING BACK HOME Before she left, Laura told us she will be back in Gainesville for Gator Growl and homecoming. That felt right. Careers get big. Networks get bigger. Schedules get ridiculous. But every so often somebody circles back to the place where the reps started and tells the story again. The young woman who once had to Google “IFB” now spends most of her life wearing one. Funny how this business works. And it was mighty good to have her back. TONIGHT ON GATORBAIT TV The Buddy Martin Show is live tonight at 9 PM Eastern. Watch from the new Buddy Martin Show page on GatorBaitMedia.com and stay with us for the latest Florida–Auburn coverage.

The rain in Spain may indeed fall mainly on the plain, but Saturday there is a very good chance the rain in Gainesville will fall on Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, which could turn the Gators' game with South Carolina into a slip sliding wet grass mess. The latest out of Las Vegas has 16th-ranked Florida (4-1, 2-1 SEC) favored by 11.5 points against a South Carolina (2-3, 0-3 SEC) team still reeling from last week blowing a 17-0 lead and losing to Kentucky in overtime. The visiting Gamecocks don't lack for talent, especially on offense. The numbers bear that out. South Carolina ranks third in the SEC in total offense — 491 yards per game, 256 on the ground and 235 through the air — but the Gamecocks struggle to put teams away. However, the Florida defense the Gamecocks will face is coming off a game in which Missouri threw for 340 yards and ran for 220 while lighting up the scoreboard for 45 points. South Carolina offensive coordinator Kendal Briles has to see this as an opportunity for the Gamecocks to move the ball and put points on the board. This is where the rain might come into play in a frustrating way for the Gators. South Carolina does run the football well, which typically is a necessity for winning in rainy conditions with a soggy field. Complicating matters for the Florida defense is quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who is averaging 7.38 yards on designed runs and scrambles. Can the Florida defense contain the running game and keep Sellers in the pocket? "When he [Sellers] gets out of the pocket he's really dangerous," Florida defensive coordinator Brad White said. "You saw the run against Kentucky when they had him for a sack in the backfield. He escapes and then he goes for 70-whatever to set up a score." Sellers' dual threat ability makes running back Matt Fuller even more dangerous. He's run for 433 yards (6.1 per carry). Backup Jabree Coleman is a breakaway threat who averages 8.65 per carry. These guys on a field made slick by the rain will be a challenge, particularly if South Carolina can get the lead and then play keep away by running the ball down the Gators' throats. The Gators proved in SEC wins over Auburn and Ole Miss that they are very good when they have the lead. The rain that could benefit South Carolina's run game could have the same effect on Florida. And, this is the type of game where getting the lead and holding it with the run could be the key to winning. The odds of Florida winning are much greater if the Gators can pick and choose when to throw because they've got the running game going. If UF is behind and forced to throw, things could be a bit dicey. When the Gators fell behind Missouri last week and were put in a must throw situation, they performed rather poorly. Aaron Philo struggled to find receivers open downfield, so the dink and dunk approach was good for only 5.8 yards per pass attempt. It's rare to win games when averaging less than 7.0 yards per attempt against SEC defenses. "We've got to be able to run football," Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said. "It was kind of the way the [Missouri] game unfolded. Probably got away from it in the second half when you get down. We're not built for that right now, right?" Throwing the ball will be a necessity as well, but if the Gators can get Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark untracked in the running game, it will allow Faulkner to pick and choose when he wants Philo passing. It has been raining all week in Gainesville, so Philo has had opportunities to work with a wet ball in practice. "The good thing is we've got rain early this week and you just go out in the rain and do it," Faulkner said. INJURY REPORT South Carolina: DB Jalewis Solomon, WR Jayden Sellers, EDGE Koby Sakyi-Prah and OL Josiah Thompson out; WR Mazeo Bennett Jr. and OL Carter Miller questionable; and DB Quay'sheed Scott, EDGE Julian Walker and DL Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy doubtful. FLORIDA: WR Vernell Brown III and RB/KR London Montgomery questionable; S Bryce Thornton and CB Dijon Johnson probable. COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY: OCTOBER 8, 2026 EDITION EXTINCT SPECIES LIST A lot of nervous people in Columbia, South Carolina. Stay tuned if South Carolina goes belly up in Gainesville. ON LIFE SUPPORT Shane Beamer, South Carolina: The knock on Beamer is he beats the non-conference teams he's supposed to beat then goes into the tank against the SEC. The hire of Kendal Briles has done wonders for the offense, but the defense stinks and the Beamers are 0-3 in SEC play. A Saturday loss combined with the schedule that is ahead spells the end of Beamer Ball in South Carolina, maybe as early as this weekend if the loss to the Gators is a blowout. Mike Norvell, Florida State: There is bad news and here is bad news for FSU. First the bad news. The Seminoles could actually beat Louisville which could be playing without its starting QB. Now for the really bad news, a win will make the Seminoles 4-2 which gets Norvell closer to you can't touch me territory. Six or seven wins combined with his buyout means Norvell is close to untouchable status for the remainder of this year. They want Norvell gone. The bad news is he's liable to get to six or seven wins and force Richmond to keep him at least around another year. Dave Doeren, North Carolina State: The Wolfpack are 3-2 and the next three are all winnable games. Doeren's history is 7-5 or 8-5. The fans want championships not another trip to scenic Birmingham or Shreveport. Mike Locksley, Maryland: The last thing a coach whose team has lost three straight and has given up 102 points combined in the last two is a trip to the Horseshoe. After Ohio State delivers a ritual beatdown Saturday odds are that Locks won't be the head coach of the Turtles on Monday. Greg Schiano, Rutgers: The good news is Rutgers cannot lose this week but that's only because it's an open date. Next week the Scarlet Knights travel to Maryland, where they might be facing a team with a brand new head coach. It's probably the last chance Rutgers (1-4) has a chance to win. Schiano is actually a good coach, but Rutgers is the football equivalent of a toxic waste dump. Bill O'Brien, Boston College: The Eagles are 2-3. That's the good news. The bad news is any win from here on out will be a major upset. OB is a good coach, but like Schiano at Rutgers, he's coaching at a place that is light years beyond the reach of the living. No chance of losing this week. Open date. Bill Belichick, North Carolina: For three quarters the Fighting Belichicks had a chance against mighty Notre Dame. Unfortunately games last four quarters and by the time the final 15 minutes rolled around UNC was gassed. The Tar Heels are 2-2 and a 6-win season is do-able. That might keep the boosters from demanding a new coach. ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST Dell McGee, Georgia State: The Panthers are off to a surprising 4-1 start and they're averaging 39 points per game. There are two or three winnable games on the remaining schedule. A 7-5 record certainly seals the deal that he will be back next year, but 6-6 could do it. Deion Sanders, Colorado: Prime Time is always good for sound bites and attention. The folks in Colorado wish he was good for more wins. The Buffs are 2-3 with three straight losses. Next two are Utah and (at) Oklahoma State. Once the record goes to 2-5, the clock starts ticking for Deion. Dave Aranda, Baylor: Here's a shocker for you. DJ Lagway threw four TD passes last week without an interception. The Bears have won four straight and they have a week off to get ready for TCU, which is struggling. There are at least three very winnable games on the schedule. If DJ can remember to throw to people wearing the same color shirt as he's wearing, the Bears could easily get to eight wins this year. DJ couldn't save a coaching job last year, but he might save Dave Aranda's. Lincoln Riley, Southern Cal: Yes, the Trojans are 5-1, but it's the same old, same old for every Riley-coached team. They can score points and lots of them. They can give up points and lots of them. The faithful believe the Trojans should be in the hunt for a national title every year, so they are growing weary of Riley's all offense, no defense approach. Butch Jones, Arkansas State: If Butch can find a way to get the Red Wolves to a fourth straight bowl game and maybe a third straight bowl win, the faithful will be happy. Jonesboro, Arkansas isn't exactly the garden spot of the earth so winning seasons, even the 7-6 type, should be celebrated. Brent Venables, Oklahoma: Yes, they gave him a contract extension but that was when folks thought the Sooners were going to have an offense capable of scoring points against an all-star team from a convent. It's unlikely he gets canned this year, but it's possible if the Sooners go in the tank. There is no Plan B for the offense. Dabo Swinney, Clemson: The folks at IPTAY aren't happy campers, but unless they take out their brains every evening to play with them, they'll do their best to let Dabo leave Clemson on his own terms. He's 10 wins away from 200. Once he gets to 200, he's fair game to be fired or to announce he's riding off into the sunset.

SEC fans should be the angriest of anybody, because the SEC Championship Game is in the crosshairs. By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com I'm not a member of the team Steve Sarkisian fan club. But this week the Texas coach said the smartest thing anybody in college football has said in years, and he said it about corn dogs: "I love all of that. I love all that this thing comes with. I love that it's at the State Fair. The smell of corndogs, the funnel cakes, all that. It's so special, it's so unique. I do not take it lightly but I would not change it for anything. I think it being there at the old Cotton Bowl is very, very special." Translation for the commissioners: some things aren't for sale. They won't hear it, of course. They're too busy counting. Rivalries Built in a Boardroom College football used to be regional, tribal and petty in the best way. You hated the school across the state line because your daddy did, and his daddy before him. Then the TV money showed up and the suits started drawing maps with a dartboard. Bedlam? Gone. The Pac-12? Sold for parts. Now fans are supposed to get fired up over "rivals" who sit three time zones away and have no history with them at all. You can't create hatred with a press release. It takes a hundred years and a few stolen goalposts. Twenty-Four Teams, Zero Stakes Twelve playoff teams wasn't enough. Now the people running the sport want 24. College football used to have the best regular season in sports because one loss could sink you. In a 24-team field, a loss is just a bump in the road. Two losses get you a first-round home game. Rivalry Week turns into a scrimmage where a coach who's already in sits his starters against the school his fans have hated since the Eisenhower years. It isn't expansion. It's dilution with a bracket attached. Atlanta on the Chopping Block SEC fans should be the angriest of anybody, because the SEC Championship Game is in the crosshairs. There are only so many weekends on the calendar and only so many hits a player's body can take. Stretch the playoff and something has to go, and the people in charge have already said conference title games could be cut. So December in Atlanta, a real championship that sells out a city and was earned over a whole season, could be traded for a 9-3 team playing a Friday night first-round game in front of empty seats. People like me, and the followers of Steve Spurrier who value the SEC championship game right up there next to the natty game, are downright outraged at the idea that they would throw out the baby with the bathwater. Kill the SEC championship game? Is nothing sacred anymore? Ask the bowls how that works out. The Rose, the Sugar and the Orange were once the prize for a great season. Now they're filler between playoff rounds, and half of every roster is in the transfer portal before kickoff. Dallas Got It Right Texas and Oklahoma could have walked away from the Cotton Bowl years ago. A home-and-home series would bring more money and more control, which is all anybody in charge seems to care about. They stayed. In 2023 the schools extended the deal through 2036, and the City of Dallas committed $140 million to fix up the old stadium. Some of that work will be on display this weekend: the stadium split at the 50, burnt orange on one side and crimson on the other, with the State Fair going on outside. That's what saving a tradition looks like. Somebody looks at the extra dollar and says no. Go Eat a Corn Dog So here's my advice to every commissioner, athletic director and TV executive with a bracket and a calculator: go to Dallas this weekend. Walk the midway. Eat the corn dog. Stand in the tunnel when 92,000 people start screaming at each other. Then go back to your conference room and explain with a straight face why a 24-team playoff is worth more than that. You can't. Sarkisian already said it for you. He would not change it for anything. Neither should you.

Nobody slowed Florida's offense for four games. Missouri did it in one afternoon in Columbia, and the numbers show how far the No. 8 Gators fell in their first loss of the season. Florida came to Faurot Field averaging 53.5 points and 532.8 yards per game, second nationally in scoring and fifth in total offense, according to floridagators.com. It left with 17 points and 325 yards. The ground game vanished Through four games, Florida averaged 260.0 rushing yards and 5.9 yards per carry. On Saturday it ran 25 times for 42 yards. That's 1.7 a carry. It was the first time in 11 games the Gators were held under 100 rushing yards, according to UF. Jadan Baugh arrived averaging 7.2 yards per carry. His first carry went for 12. Over his last 11 he gained one yard, finishing with 13 yards on 12 carries, and his streak of five straight 100-yard games was over. Missouri's run defense had been allowing 2.8 yards per carry coming in. Florida didn't come close to that. With no run game, Aaron Philo threw a season-high 34 passes. He completed 21 for 197 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked three times. "At the end of the day, running or passing, we've got to be able to move the ball down the field, and that's on me," Philo said, according to the Gainesville Sun. Where drives died Florida got to the red zone twice and came away with a touchdown and a field goal. The field goal finished the opening drive, a 15-play, 73-yard march that took 6:54 off the clock. A third-and-goal throw from the Missouri 2 fell incomplete, and Florida settled for a 20-yarder. Florida was 6 of 16 on third down. Missouri was 7 of 13. By GatorBait's math from UF's season totals, the Gators had converted 21 of 44 third downs through their first four games. Florida drew eight flags for 80 yards to Missouri's four for 50. Two hurt. A personal foul on Aaron Chiles tacked 15 yards onto Missouri's first drive of the second half, moving the Tigers from the Florida 34 to the 19, and Jamal Roberts scored two plays later. An illegal formation call wiped out a 21-yard catch by Eric Singleton Jr. A month of defense, gone in an afternoon Missouri gained 560 yards, 220 on the ground. Florida had allowed 1,405 total yards and 412 rushing yards in its first four games combined (GatorBait arithmetic from UF's season totals). In one afternoon, Missouri piled up nearly 40% of the first number and more than half of the second. Missouri averaged 8.5 yards per play. Florida averaged 5.1. By GatorBait's count from ESPN's play-by-play, eight Missouri plays went for 20 yards or more and totaled 343 yards, about three-fifths of the Tigers' offense. Two of them were Roberts runs of 77 and 80 yards. Roberts finished with 211 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries. Austin Simmons completed 23 of 30 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns. It was 10-10 with 4:26 left in the second quarter. Missouri scored the next 35 points. Florida didn't score again until 47 seconds remained. "As a defense, sometimes the offense needs to lean on us. We can't always depend on them to put up 40, 50 points a game. Sometimes we got to keep us in the game. I take full accountability." Florida linebacker Myles Graham, according to the Orlando Sentinel Past the box score DraftKings had Florida as a 5.5-point favorite, according to ESPN. The Gators lost by 28. The win was Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz's first regular-season victory over a top-10 team in 11 tries, according to The Associated Press. It also snapped the Tigers' nine-game losing streak against ranked opponents. What's next Watch Florida's rushing total. The ground game carried the offense for a month, and the Gators need it back at home. Florida (4-1, 2-1 SEC) hosts South Carolina for homecoming Saturday, Oct. 10. Kickoff time and TV are TBA. The Gamecocks are 2-3 and 0-3 in the SEC. Their last time out, they led No. 24 Kentucky 17-0 and lost 35-34 in overtime. Sources: ESPN's game summary, box score and play-by-play (event 401856708), including its team stats and DraftKings line; ESPN's pre-Missouri team stats and Aaron Philo's 2026 game log; the official UF box score and season cumulative stats on floridagators.com; UF game notes; Chris Harry's "FINAL: Missouri 45, Florida 17" Quick Slant on floridagators.com; and The Associated Press game story. Quotes from full articles in the Gainesville Sun (Kevin Brockway) and the Orlando Sentinel (Edgar Thompson). Figures labeled GatorBait arithmetic or GatorBait's count were calculated by GatorBait from those sources; no source published them as stats.

Photo supplied by Buddy Martin; photo illustration. Sumrall didn't care about Mizzou's homecoming, but he certainly does his own this week. The scoreboard lied to Florida for four weeks. Missouri finally told the truth. Jon Sumrall said so himself Monday, in fewer words: "Plenty of that had already showed in previous outings, but it didn't cost us wins and losses." There's your autopsy. The secondary leaked in September, and the run defense had soft spots. Nobody minded at 4-0 with a No. 8 ranking. Then came 45-17 in Columbia, and now the Gators are 4-1, No. 16 and in need of a hard look. To his credit, Sumrall didn't blame the officials, the turf or the plane ride home. "It starts with me," he said. "You have to tell yourself the truth, tell each other the truth, and own it." It was refreshing to hear. It would be more refreshing to see. "I've seen plenty of our downfalls through the first four weeks," he said. Good. Somebody in the building was watching the tape while the rest of Gator Nation was pricing playoff hotels. His fix was simple: "Really simple, we just gotta get better." Simple to say, anyway. Florida celebrates at The Swamp after the Ole Miss game. File photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media. The Gamecock Sales Pitch Then Sumrall went into full hype mode for South Carolina. He called the Gamecocks "the best talent team that we have played" and said they've "got NFL guys everywhere." South Carolina is 2-3 and hasn't won an SEC game. If those are NFL guys, they're playing like the Jets. Every coach since Robert Neyland has talked up the next opponent, and Vegas isn't buying it either. Florida is a 14.5-point favorite. Still, the message was clear: nobody gets to sleepwalk into homecoming. The Infirmary Report The bigger worry is who's healthy enough to catch a pass. Vernell Brown III, the sophomore who stretches the field and makes things happen after the catch, missed Missouri with a knee strain. It showed. Without him, Aaron Philo looked like a man trying to parallel park a bus. "When you take him off the field, maybe there's some things that we don't do as well without him out there," Sumrall said. That's coach-speak for "the offense flatlined." Brown is cleared but didn't practice fully Monday. Sumrall called him "trending positively," then said the most honest thing of the day: "What does that mean for Saturday? I don't know yet." Eric Singleton Jr. and Bailey Stockton both played at Missouri after sitting out practice until Thursday. "It's hard to play at a really high level when you don't get the practice reps," Sumrall said. It's harder when your best deep threat is a game-time guess. The Verdict The good news: the coach is owning it, Jadan Baugh texted an apology Sunday, and Brown is close. The bad news: Texas and Georgia are coming up after South Carolina, and owning it doesn't stop a go route. Back to the reconstructive, reaffirming warm confines of The Swamp Saturday, where the Gators are a two-touchdown favorite. A team whose coach hates losing more than he likes winning isn't finished. It just has to prove the scoreboard wasn't lying about everything. Remembering Mac Steen Mac Steen in an archival Florida Gators football photo. Photo: UAA Archives. Special thanks to Scott Carter. It grieves me to say that my good friend and former 1969 Gator captain Mac Steen passed away on Friday with his family in DeLand. Mac had taken sick recently, but didn't want to disclose it to anyone. Services are Saturday morning in DeLand. I surely didn't know it would go this fast but will always have great memories of Gator Football in 1969 with Mac. God bless him and condolences to Kathy and his family. Such a huge loss. Mac was a great friend and beloved Gator with whom I collaborated on many stories, including a popular 10-part series that appeared in seven state papers leading up to the Camelot 1969 season in which Ray Graves' team upset SEC champ Tennessee in the Gator Bowl. He was a DeLand orthodontist who put braces on several generations. I'm going to miss Mac terribly. Thus was my last communique with him after the Ole Miss win: "Great one Buddy… Well written. I watched it with my son from Taiwan and daughter from Australia. In the words of the immortal Jimmy Buffett, 'Twas surely our night to win.'" "It was a pleasure and a hell of an evening / Truly was our night to win / But the authorities insist on my leaving / Take care, my American friend" — Jimmy Buffett Spurrier says he might call Sumrall And tell him about getting blasted 45-3 in his first season at Florida when the Gators traveled to Knoxville. It was 1990 and we were just learning about the power of the new Gator offense, but in Knoxville, the "FunNGun" offense was not effective vs the Vols. After trailing 7-3 at halftime, things spiraled out of control for the Gators in the third quarter following a 91-yard kickoff return touchdown by Tennessee's Dale Carter. Shane Matthews, who was plagued by a relentless Vols pass rush and dropped balls, was pulled in the third quarter. "At least his team scored 17 points," the HBC said of Sumrall. Spurrier even put in backup quarterback Kyle Morris, who also threw an interception during the game. Despite that brutal game, Matthews remained the starter, bounced back, and went on to win SEC Player of the Year honors for both the 1990 and 1991 seasons. "But you know what?" Spurrier added. Florida won the rest of its SEC games. But NCAA probation made the Gators ineligible for the SEC title, despite finishing with the league's best record at 6-1. The SEC championship game did not begin until 1992. Spurrier still counts that as an SEC title because he promised players he would never forget them. The Tessitore Jinx Maybe there really is a Joe Tessitore curse on Florida. According to the site In All Kinds Of Weather, since 2010, he's called 19 Florida games. The Gators have won just TWO of them. And Florida is 0-3 against Missouri specifically with him on the call. Yeah, that's the ticket! It's Tessitore's fault! Watch The Buddy Martin Show Join Buddy tonight for more Gators conversation on The Buddy Martin Show. Visit the show page for the latest episodes and viewing links. Watch The Buddy Martin Show

For an entire month Jon Sumrall had been warning that the Florida Gators would be exposed somewhere down the road if they didn't change their ways. Somewhere down the road was Columbia, Missouri, where Saturday afternoon the 8th-ranked Gators (4-1, 2-1 SEC) took one of those leave no place on their body without a bruise beatings at the hands of the 25th-ranked Missouri Tigers (4-1, 1-1 SEC). Just a couple of days prior to this 45-17 mauling at Memorial Stadium one revised forecast after another had Florida penciled in as a College Football Playoff at-large. When this debacle came to a merciful end it seemed as if those 7.5-win predictions were far closer to reality than the Gators living large among the 12 teams that will duke it out for the national championship. That Missouri hung 45 on the Gators and won by 28 points is almost irrelevant. Neither points nor point spread can even come close to adequately describing just how bad this beating was and it's not like Sumrall hadn't forecast something like this was inevitable. Rather than take him at his word, however, the first 4-0 start to a season since 2019 glossed over a lengthy laundry list of flaws that Missouri seemed to have no difficulty exposing. Florida certainly had no way of covering things up. Cover up certainly wasn't on Sumrall's mind at his post game press conference. To his credit he didn't spend the time trying to spin the loss in a positive way. "I've seen all of our flaws and they've all been called out in front of the team," Sumrall said. "We don't hide them. There's going to be a lot of things that get called out. It's going to feel a lot different because sometimes when you win, I think everybody thinks, 'Oh, it didn't cost us. We're okay.' Well you don't have that performance today and not have some sort of sickness in your stomach about what you just did. Like I said, there's guys on our football team that [if they] don't own that, they won't be on this football team very long. I don't really care. Like, we're going to play with guys that are tough and love football and are committed to their development and improving as a team, which you can see we have a lot of improvement to do. We've had a lot of improvement to do. It's just been masked by winning some games, but we haven't played really good football yet in my opinion. We've just found ways to win some games and made some plays but haven't played at a high enough standard." It turns out the way the offense poured it on the first four games was like getting an overdose of Novocain in the dental chair. The high level offensive production numbed us to just how poorly the defense was performing. It created this we'll just win shootouts until the defense figures things out expectation. That is a lovely theory when it works. When it doesn't and the offense takes a powder like it did at Missouri, it gets ugly in a hurry. Evidence that the numbness was wearing off rather hurriedly came on Florida's first offensive possession. Jadan Baugh ran for 12 yards on his first carry. His longest carry after that was three yards. Wherever he went football in hand, it seemed no fewer than five Missouri Tigers were there to surround him. On the opening drive the Gators had to throw to move the ball downfield but once inside the Missouri five there was a dark omen of things to come. Florida's offensive line that pushed Auburn and Ole Miss all over the yard couldn't get any traction against Missouri's front. The goal line defense was impenetrable. Two unsuccessful runs led to a third-and-goal pass by Aaron Philo that went incomplete. Had Philo looked to his right he might have seen Duke Clark wide open for what would have been an easy TDP. Rather than the TDP, however, the Gators were forced to kick a field goal on fourth-and-goal from the Missouri one. Fourth-and-goal at the one and it's a field goal and not Baugh trying to power his way in for a TD? We should have known the kind of night it was going to be from that decision alone. Later in the quarter Philo was stuffed on a fourth and inches quarterback sneak at the UF 34. Why the gamble at the UF 34 and not at the goal line? This loss can't all be pinned on underperforming players. Coaching decisions have to be included in who is responsible and accountable for what happened. When the final whistle sounded the Gators had a loss pinned on them marred by nearly as many negative plays in one game (11) than they had in the four previous games combined (14). Over on the other side of the ball, the Gators gave up eight pass plays that covered at least 21 yards and running plays of 77 and 80 yards. It's hard enough to win on the road in the SEC when everything is going right. At Missouri, even things that needed to go right went sideways. The game didn't get out of hand until the final four minutes of the second quarter when Missouri went from a 10-10 tie to a 20-10 halftime lead. From that point onward the Tigers took on the look of a runaway freight train. The first half pain transformed into throbbing in the second half and the Gators seemed helpless to do anything about it. Name the flaw on this Florida football team and Missouri exposed it, a blueprint for every team the Gators will face from here on out. Fixing the pass defense would be the obvious problem that needs to be solved, but that's only one solution. There are so many others that we are reminded of the sage philosopher Roseanne Rosannadanna who said, "It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it isn't one thing, it's always something else." With these Gators it is always something. Sumrall warned that the cuts suffered in weeks one through four would become gaping wounds. Saturday at Missouri the Gators ran out of tourniquets to stop the bleeding. "I can't pin it down to one thing," Sumrall said. "Look, what bothered me was our lack of execution, our lack of discipline, our lack of detail. I did not feel that this week, but, man, today, it's like, guys, you get 12 regular season opportunities, you can't let one get away from you without giving your best, and the fact that we put less than our best out there absolutely makes me freaking sick. I am freaking livid over the fact that we just did that. "I told the guys in the locker room, anybody that's comfortable with that, come see me tonight. We ain't moving forward like this. The score is the score. But it's not just what we do, it's how we do it, and how we just did what we did, it's not acceptable, and it will not be acceptable. I'm livid. I'm frustrated about so many things that I can't pin it down to one thing." This is a first for Sumrall at Florida, but it isn't the first time in history the Gators have had to recover from a disastrous loss on the road. Here are five examples of double digit losses away from The Swamp that required changes in attitudes and changes in latitudes to recover. Tennessee 45, No. 9 Florida 3, 1990: Steve Spurrier's first season at UF. The Gators were 5-0 when the Vols nuked them in Knoxville. The Gators dropped from 9th to 17th in the AP poll but didn't lose again until FSU in Tallahassee in the season finale. Tennessee 31, No. 4 Florida 14, 1991: The Gators were ranked fourth, the Vols 14th. A dominating loss in Knoxville. The next week the 13th-ranked Gators lost badly to Mississippi State in Starkville, dropping all the way down to No. 23. From that 1-2 start the Gators finished 9-4 and came within one play of beating eventual national champ Alabama in the first SEC Championship Game. Georgia 37, No. 6 Florida 17, 1997: A couple of weeks earlier the Gators were No. 1 when they lost to LSU in Baton Rouge, 28-21. They were No. 6 when Georgia ran all over them in Jacksonville, the only time Spurrier lost to Georgia in his 12 seasons on the job at UF. The Gators won their last four games including a 32-29 heart throbber over FSU, knocking the then No. 2 Seminoles out of the national championship picture. Mississippi State 47, No. 4 Florida 35, 2000: The Gators couldn't stop unranked Mississippi State from running the ball, but rebounded with five straight wins before falling to FSU in Tallahassee. The next week the Gators beat Auburn to win the SEC championship, the last of Spurrier's six league titles. Auburn 27, No. 2 Florida 17, 2006: Auburn beat the Gators without scoring an offensive touchdown. Florida won the next seven games including Arkansas for the SEC championship and then No. 1 Ohio State, 41-14, for Urban Meyer's first of two national championships. Those five losses are worth mentioning because each one required plenty of soul searching in the aftermath. In. much the same way, Sumrall and the Gators have to dig deep to find answers after this loss to Missouri. It can have an end of the world effect if they let it or they can use this as motivation to ensure nothing like this happens again. Sumrall predicted exposure. Now we get to see how the Gators respond because that is going to define the season. "Sometimes you can write like a sentence or a page of a story when you win because it like masks a deficiency," Sumrall said. "When you lose, you're going to write a chapter. We got to learn from this. We got to sit on this a little bit, and we have to see our guys look in the mirror and take the accountability. And everybody in our program, top to bottom, like I said earlier, starting with me, all of the coaches, the staff, the players, everybody in the building, like, look at it, look into it, own it, don't shy away from it. "It sucks. It's not fun but I expect these guys to respond. I can promise you this. I'm going to do everything in my freakin' power, everything to help them respond. That's my job and we're not going to be okay with this. This is not our standard here and [I am] disgusted by it but have to help this team grow."

Postgame Analysis: Florida Gators (4-1, 2-1) v. Missouri Tigers (4-1, 1-1) Florida is humbled in Columbia as Sumrall faces his first week of adversity as Gator head coach. By Loren Meadows, GatorBaitMedia.com Football Analyst, Host of the Gator Lowdown with Loren Meadows What We Thought: While the Gators have always struggled in Columbia since the addition of Missouri to the SEC, there was very little reason to think an offense that had averaged over 50 points per game and rushed for over three hundred yards a week ago would have any issues with a Missouri team that had missed over 50 tackles on the season. Missouri showed an inability to get the Mississippi State backs on the ground at key times, so Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark would be able to find running lanes despite Missouri stacking the box with a number of variable fronts. Defensively, Florida had found a way to get enough stops and create enough turnovers to keep teams off balance, and a decent showing against Ole Miss had many thinking that the Gators were ready to turn the corner and begin to match an offense that had imposed their will against their opponents for four straight weeks. Aaron Philo looked poised to take the unit even higher as Buster Faulkner would prepare a gameplan to get his quarterback going in the face of the hostile CoMo crowd. What We Got: To quote Jon Sumrall, yesterday's performance was an "earned loss" for the Gators. The running game that had been the pillar of the team's resurgence was held to 42 yards, with Heisman candidate Jadan Baugh rendered null and void with just 13 yards on 12 carries. While the focus on Baugh was expected, the lack of creativity and execution on offense was only overshadowed by a defense whose sins finally came home to roost. While Buster Faulkner seemed to have no Plan B or C for a Missouri defense that wasn't having it, defensive coordinator Brad White has a unit that is looking softer and less connected than they have all season. Austin Simmons learned from Trinidad Chambliss and improved on his friend's success against the Gators, completing 23 of 30 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns. The run game was equally as effective, as Jamal Roberts bludgeoned the Gator defense for 211 yards, including an 80-yard run that resembled Tommie Frazier's escape of the Gators in the Fiesta Bowl that decided the 1995 national championship. The Skinny: In a lot of ways, a loss like this reminds me of my coaching days, where there are so many issues one can only show up for practice next week with a devotion to fundamentals. This was a sound lack of execution in all three phases, and throw in a lack of physicality and the Gators of October 3, 2026 look like those same Gators one year ago. Jon Sumrall has built up a ton of equity by saying yes to any and everybody that wanted to have a word this season. Ultimately, it comes down to twelve Saturdays in the fall, and for the first time, this one did not go his way. Sumrall told his team to own it and accept responsibility for the loss. It is at these times men show what they are made of. My guess is that there will be a low threshold for mental and physical complacency the next 6 days, and if Sumrall is who we think he is, there will be a different tenor when the team returns home to face a wounded South Carolina team. You get 12 trips to the show a year — trip five was not very good at all. Final Score: Missouri 45, Florida 17 (Prediction: Florida 41, Missouri 24)

Eli Drinkwitz didn't want to talk about streaks after Saturday. He wanted to talk about a plan. The one Missouri used to take Florida apart is on film now for every opponent left on the Gators' schedule, starting with South Carolina. "We talked all week if we wanted to win this game, we need to be a tough team, and tough teams stop the run, run the ball, and cover kicks," Drinkwitz said in his postgame news conference. "And that's exactly what we did today." Florida has a week to make sure nobody else can copy it. Baugh never got going Missouri told everybody its priority days before kickoff. "We have to stop the run first," Drinkwitz said at his Tuesday news conference, according to Sports Illustrated. "If you let two running backs rush for over 100 yards, we got no shot in the game because everything else in their arsenal plays off of your inability to stop that run." Then the Tigers went out and did it. Jadan Baugh gained 12 yards on his first carry. According to The Associated Press, he gained 1 yard on his next 11. Florida finished with 42 rushing yards on 25 carries, and an offense that came in averaging 532.8 yards a game, per AP, left with 325. None of it was improvised, Drinkwitz said. "We play outside zone, outside zone every day," he said. "... The more that this coordinator is on tape, there's more tendencies that show up. There were things that we could tell, hey, this is what's going to happen here." Missouri did it shorthanded, too. Starting edge rushers Darris Smith and Langden Kitchen were out, so Drinkwitz slid Sterling Webb to the boundary as a 5-technique. Florida, he said, is a "predominantly boundary run team." The Tigers had something to prove after missing tackles in last week's loss to Mississippi State. "After last game we came in and said we need to make tackles," Webb said. "We can't allow this guy to run for however many yards." Drinkwitz kept his version short. "Guys are allowed to improve," he said. "... There's the thing called practice." The counterpunch Running the ball is the other half of "tough teams," and Jamal Roberts handled that part: 211 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries, with a long of 80. "It takes all of us and for us to play as a unit to dominate the line of scrimmage, that's our identity," Roberts said. Drinkwitz still pointed to the passing game. Austin Simmons completed 23 of 30 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns, one of them a 47-yarder to Donovan Olugbode. Cayden Lee caught eight balls for 110 yards. "Our ability to throw the ball was the difference in the game," Drinkwitz said. That's the part Florida should study hardest. Once Missouri took the run away, the Gators had nothing to come back with and went 6 of 16 on third down. Missouri did have an answer. Simmons averaged 11.3 yards per attempt. Noise, and a handshake The win meant plenty to Drinkwitz. According to AP, it was his first regular-season win over a top-10 team in 11 tries at Missouri, and it snapped the Tigers' nine-game losing streak against ranked opponents. He wanted no part of that conversation. "That's just noise that people create on social media for no reason," he said. "... It's people searching for crap to talk about." He made another point that fits Florida just as well: the game "isn't a summation of the season. This is just the next game." A week ago, his team was the one picking up the pieces. So the Gators have homework. Missouri found tendencies on tape, which means Florida has to self-scout. When a defense commits to stopping Baugh, the offense needs an answer ready. And everything else turned into a guess once the line of scrimmage was lost. South Carolina visits Gainesville on Saturday, Oct. 10. Kickoff time and TV network are still to be announced. Drinkwitz has already shared what he told Jon Sumrall in the postgame handshake. "This league's tough. You have to have a bounceback factor," Drinkwitz said. "... That's exactly what I said to Jon when I shook his hand is, 'Hey, man, you got to have a bounceback factor.' That's life in this league." Missouri quotes are from the Tigers' Oct. 3 postgame news conference video posted by Mizzou Athletics unless noted, read through YouTube's auto-generated captions with filler words removed. Drinkwitz's Tuesday quote is from Sports Illustrated (Killian Wright). Game statistics are from ESPN. Baugh's carry-by-carry split, Florida's season yardage average, Missouri's edge-rusher injuries and Drinkwitz's record against top-10 teams are from The Associated Press.

Back in the day when Steve Spurrier started beating LSU in Baton Rouge (UAA Archive photo) Bad weather in Tuscaloosa threatens big SEC game. But The Swamp? By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com In the Southeastern Conference, we like to think we can handle just about anything. Hostile crowds. Bad officiating. A fourth-and-one with the season on the line. Hurricanes are another matter. They don't care about your national ranking, your kickoff time or how hard it is to find a hotel room in Baton Rouge. The initial forecast for Tuscaloosa and the Georgia-Alabama mega-game was looking so grim that there was some talk of moving it to Atlanta (although doubtful). Fans can sometimes be seriously imperiled. I learned that lesson in 1964, with Joni beside me in a little Chevy Chevelle and both of us wondering whether we'd ever make it home. Hurricane Hilda was bearing down on Louisiana, forcing the postponement of Florida's October 3 game at LSU. Football could wait. Unfortunately, I decided we couldn't. We had gotten caught in New Orleans and tried to drive back to Florida just as the hurricane was hitting. Let me offer my assessment of that decision, with the benefit of more than six decades of hindsight: Not my finest hour. There were tornadoes darting all around us as we drove through the bayous. We white-knuckled it toward Pensacola, trying to get ourselves and that little Chevy out of harm's way. I remember getting across one bridge and later learning it had washed out about 30 minutes behind us. Thirty minutes. That's not much of a cushion between a story you tell for the rest of your life and one you never get to tell. We passed through Mobile and finally found a room in Pensacola. After a good night's sleep, we made it home Sunday with a promise: Never again would we try to outrun a hurricane. Some lessons don't require a refresher course. Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, somebody else was having a considerably better time. Our crowd had been staying at the Roosevelt Hotel, including Tom McEwen of the Tampa Tribune and Red Mitchum, the Ocala humorist who could find an audience almost anywhere. Even during a hurricane. Red had called his wife Grace and assured her he was battening down the hatches. He would be safe. He would have a quiet night. Then he found the hotel bar at the Roosevelt. It was lit by candles, and the Hilda refugees gathered there were about to get something they hadn't booked with their rooms: a Red Mitchum performance. Red sang, made up songs and strummed a matchbook as though it were a guitar. The storm had supplied the audience. Red supplied the entertainment. Unfortunately for Red, one member of that audience was a newspaper columnist. McEwen wrote about the festivities in the Tribune — the singing, the improvised songs, the matchbook strumming and the fellow who had entertained the bar for much of the night. When Red returned to Ocala, Grace had left McEwen's column on his dresser. The offending passage was circled in red. Alongside it was a note: "Quiet night in New Orleans?" Hilda wasn't the only storm somebody had to face that weekend. The football game eventually was played December 5, with Florida returning to Baton Rouge for its regular-season finale. By then, Louisiana had found an entirely different way to make us uncomfortable. I remember temperatures somewhere in the twenties. We Florida writers had packed our usual summer suits, apparently believing December was merely October with a different page on the calendar. Our teeth chattered. Some of the Gator media wound up wearing LSU jerseys because that was what they could find to keep warm. I didn't get one. There are moments when journalistic independence is overrated. In my memory, it was so cold the mimeograph machine used to produce the game statistics froze up. We couldn't even get the numbers. A press box full of frozen sportswriters and no statistics. Try explaining that one to the desk. It remains one of the coldest nights I've ever spent at a football game. Steve Spurrier and the Gators, however, seemed considerably less bothered. Florida's sophomore quarterback helped the unranked Gators beat seventh-ranked LSU, 20–6, in Tiger Stadium. At night, no less. For Florida, a game postponed by a hurricane became a December upset worth remembering. Fortunately, it looks like we won't have to deal with anything more than maybe some rain this Saturday at the Swamp for homecoming. Here's the forecast: Gainesville, Florida on Saturday afternoon will experience scattered thunderstorms and thunderstorms with a high temperature of 83°F, a peak heat index feeling up to 92°F, and a 55% to 65% chance of rain. For me, that 1964 score is only part of the story. I remember the bayous. The steering wheel. Joni beside me. That bridge and the precious half-hour that separated us from whatever might have happened next. I remember shivering in Baton Rouge, too, and Red discovering that a hurricane could interrupt a football weekend but couldn't keep a good entertainer quiet. Or keep a columnist from writing about him. We love our football down here. Sometimes enough to make questionable travel plans and pack summer suits for winter. But the promise Joni and I made in Pensacola still stands after six-plus decades. Let the game wait. Get home alive.

By Eddie Gilley GatorBaitMedia.com The Florida Gators had it handed to them in Columbia on Saturday. They were whipped in every phase of the game. There is nothing you can point to where the Gators were better on Saturday. Missouri had the answer for Florida's run game. Load the box. Commit to playing man coverage and a single safety on first down and dare the Gators to throw the ball. Florida kept trying to run the ball right into the teeth of the Tigers defense. It didn't go well. The Tigers held the Gators to less than a hundred yards gained on the ground. 42 total yards on the ground. Baugh had 13 yards on 12 carries! The guy who led the nation in rushing touchdowns was kept out of the end zone on the first drive of the game and for the rest of the game as well. I thought the Gators would need to throw the ball to loosen up the run defense, but they just couldn't do it. The offensive line could not stand up against the basic rush of the Tigers. They were beaten up front all afternoon on rushes and passes. On defense, the Gators could not stop Austin Simmons and the passing game from completing big plays when they need to do so. Tiger running back, Jamal Roberts, had the game of his life. He rushed for 211 yards on 24 carries and had three touchdowns. It was Roberts not Baugh who looked like a Heisman hopeful on this Saturday. The Gator defense was shredded for over 500 total yards. The line could not get a rush at all. The secondary could not hold up with Tiger receivers running free and clear often. The flaws that Coach Sumrall warned about were on full display on a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon. As good as the Gators played last week at home, they were equally as bad on the road this week. Nothing seemed to work. Nothing went the Gators' way on Saturday. Not the calls, not the bounces, not the swing of momentum. Everything that could go wrong did. The first true test of adversity for the Gators was a blatant failure. They were punched in the mouth and never got up off the deck. The good news is that the points won't be carried to the game next week. At the end of the day, it is just the Gators' first loss of the season. It doesn't matter if you lose by one or lose by 28. You just went 0-1 on the week to borrow the phrase Coach Sumrall likes to use. This is a tape that you just lose quickly. There will be a lot of plays that were not up to the standard. If you showed them all, you'd have to watch most of the game back. There were not many plays that were positive enough to make a highlight reel. Maybe you just say let's get to work and get ready for next week. And maybe you remind them of how that felt and challenge them to not let that happen again. We know the Gators didn't handle success all that well. We'll see if they learn to handle the agony of defeat better and show up ready to battle against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the Swamp.

A good day for Wilson on a bad day for Florida. Hannah White/UAA Communications. Teams lose. Good teams lose. Great teams sometimes get punched right in the mouth. By Buddy Martin Gatorbaitmedia.com My telephone and social media have been ringing, buzzing and generally behaving like the emergency broadcast system after a Category 4 hurricane in the past 24 hours. "What just happened?" "Was that real?" "Did we really get manhandled by Missouri?" "Is the season over?" No, the season is not over. Nobody died. There is no need to lower the flags to half-staff over Ben Hill Griffin Stadium or send FEMA to Gainesville with bottled water and emotional-support jorts. But make no mistake: What happened in Columbia was worse than a speed bump. It was a public mugging. It was a betrayal of sorts. The question is: Who betrayed whom? Maybe Missouri betrayed the script. Maybe Florida betrayed its own hype. Maybe the offensive line betrayed the quarterback. Maybe the quarterback betrayed the protection. Maybe the defense betrayed every poor soul who thought "physicality" meant something other than posing for photographs in sleeveless shirts. Or perhaps the biggest betrayal was committed by the people convinced themselves the past few years of football misery had been sent to the landfill. Put me in that group. I believed this was fgoing to be different. I saw Jon Sumrall's energy, his honesty, his toughness and his refusal to sell sunshine in a bottle. I heard him warn everybody about the dangers ahead. He sounded less like a football coach and more like the guy on the Weather Channel pointing at a red blob headed toward your house. Still, we looked at the schedule and saw 5-0. We saw a ranking. We saw a hot quarterback, a celebrated play caller, what we were told was the nation's best running back and enough muscle on both lines to make a WWE promoter start scouting Gainesville. Instead, Missouri took all those toys, put them in a box and locked the lid. The Gators' best weapons were neutralized. The great running back found no daylight. The red-hot quarterback found no heat. The genius play caller appeared to be calling plays from inside a phone booth during a power outage. Remarks like this from Eli Drinkwitz are troubling: "The more this coordinator (Faulkner) is on film, there's more tendencies that show up. There were things that we could tell, 'hey, this is what's going to happen here.'" One of the biggest offensive stars sat out with injury. The offensive and defensive lines that had been described as newly "nasty" were not nasty enough to bother Missouri, which treated the Gators like a rental car: drove them hard, ran them into the ditch and returned them damaged. That is the part that ought to sting. Not that Florida lost. Teams lose. Good teams lose. Great teams sometimes get punched right in the mouth by an opponent that arrived angry, capable and ready to settle a score. It is HOW Florida lost. The Gators were outplayed, outcoached, outmuscled and, perhaps most embarrassingly, out-believed. Eli Drinkwitz's Tigers played like a team that had been waiting all week to prove it could ruin somebody's happy little September story. Their quarterback was hot. Their receivers were quick, crafty and consistently open. Their defense came in annoyed, stayed annoyed and played like it had been denied a dinner reservation. Florida, meanwhile, looked like it had just been told the annual "Bloody Tuesday" practice was optional. Apparently, it was not. Artificial Intelligence? Try Artificial Confidence. Somebody asked whether the whole thing was the fault of "artificial intelligence." Well, it certainly was not intelligent. But looking back, some of it does feel artificial. The confidence. The assumptions. The easy belief that a few wins, a shiny ranking and an exciting new coach had erased every scar from the battered hide of Gator Nation. Florida had started to feel good again. That alone is suspicious. Florida football fans have spent the last several years walking around like people who have been informed by their doctors that bacon is now medicine. Then Missouri showed up with a syringe full of reality. This was not a Billy Napier flashback. Let us not get ridiculous. The atmosphere is different. The leadership feels different. The accountability is different. Sumrall is different. That is why this loss hurts more than the ordinary garden-variety embarrassment. Under the previous regime, disaster often felt like regular Tuesday. There was always an explanation, a process, a spreadsheet, an analytics chart, a five-year plan and somebody promising that the operation had gone well even though the patient was lying face down in the parking lot. Sumrall did not try to perfume this one. He did something refreshing after the game: He admitted what everybody with a television had just watched. The Gators got hit in the mouth. It was embarrassing. Winning had masked problems. And now people are going to be called out. That is not panic. That is the beginning of grown-up football. "There's gonna be a lot of things that get called out, and it's going to feel different," Sumrall warned. Good. It should feel different. Because if guys on this team do not own what happened in Columbia, then they should not be around very long. You cannot build a serious football program with players who think accountability is something that happens to the other guy in the meeting room. Sumrall also said there are players who will not be on the team long if they refuse to accept responsibility. Again: Good. Put that on the locker-room wall. Put it on the scoreboard. Put it on the helmets, right under the Gator logo. And while they are at it, put it in giant letters at the entrance to the football complex: WINNING DOES NOT ERASE WEAKNESS. IT ONLY HIDES IT UNTIL MISSOURI FINDS IT. The Bloody Tuesday Fallacy The most amusing part of modern football is the language. Everybody wants a "culture." Everybody wants "physicality." Everybody wants "edge." Everybody wants "Bloody Tuesday," which sounds less like a football practice and more like a doomed British pub after a soccer match. But Missouri did not care what Florida called Tuesday. Missouri did not care if the Gators had a bruised Thursday, a violent Wednesday or a "Let's Get Physical" playlist blasting through practice. And, by the way, if you are going to get physical, please make it the old-fashioned football version. Not the Olivia Newton-John version, although Florida looked more prepared for synchronized aerobics than trench warfare. The Tigers showed Florida what real physicality looks like. It is not chest-thumping. It is not social-media video. It is not coaches shouting "strain" while players bounce around in padded shorts. It is winning first down. It is protecting the quarterback. It is tackling somebody before he gains eight more yards. It is getting off the field on third down. It is keeping the nation's best running back from turning into the nation's most expensive decoy. It is looking across the line at an opponent who believes he can whip you and convincing him, early and repeatedly, that he has made a terrible life choice. Florida did not do enough of that in Columbia. No More Rat Poison Now comes South Carolina, a team arriving in Gainesville with bad intentions and considerably more confidence than it probably had a few weeks ago. That is the dangerous part. The Gamecocks are better than expected, despite a heartbreaking one-point loss to Kentucky in overtime. They are rejuvenated. They will watch Missouri's film and see a road map. They will see what worked. They will see where Florida was soft, slow, confused or simply unable to respond when the game turned ugly. And they will bring every bit of that to The Swamp. This is where the Gators find out whether Missouri was a correction or a collapse. There can be no more rat poison. No more ranking worship. No more talk-radio or podcast coronations. No more weekly declarations that Florida is "back" because it beat somebody it was supposed to beat. Florida is not back because a poll says so. Florida is back when it can take a punch, respond with its own and refuse to spend four quarters looking like it is searching the sideline for a customer-service representative. The South Carolina game is not the season finale. It is not a playoff game. It is not, despite what the internet will tell you by lunchtime, the greatest crossroads in human history. But it is an answer game. It is the game that will tell us whether Sumrall's hard words were merely excellent content for TwitterX, or whether they were the first sparks from a coach who is about to make the inside of that building extremely uncomfortable. The Tebow Comparison? Slow Down! Then there is Curtis of TwitterX, one of those eternal optimists who sees every setback as a possible movie montage. "If he turns it around in a big way," Curtis says, "this could go down as the coach's equivalency to Tim Tebow's promise speech." Well, bless Curtis' heart. And he is not wrong in his conviction. That is the spirit. That is also how people end up buying crypto from a man wearing sunglasses inside a Waffle House. Tim Tebow's promise speech is sacred Gainesville folklore because it was followed by a response that changed the temperature of a season. It was not powerful because the words were dramatic. It was powerful because Tebow and his teammates backed it up with blood, sweat, stubbornness and victories. Sumrall's words will mean something only if his team answers them. Not with a motivational video. Not with a week of locker-room theatrics. Not with a bunch of grown men tweeting flame emojis under a quote graphic. With blocking. Tackling. Catching. Covering. Finishing. With a football team that looks angry at what happened in Missouri — angry enough to make somebody else pay for it. That is the assignment now. Gator Nation is stunned because it had finally started to hope again. Hope is dangerous around here. Hope is expensive. Hope has a long history of arriving late, overstaying its welcome and leaving with the stereo. But Sumrall has earned the right to fix this before anyone starts throwing dirt on the season. He has also created the obligation to do it. Missouri exposed the Gators. South Carolina will test whether they learned anything from being exposed. And if Florida comes out Saturday still playing like it has been practicing in a Pilates studio, then the Kool-Aid needs to be dumped into Lake Alice. Because this fan base has swallowed enough artificial intelligence/confidence to float a parade.