Paul Finebaum didn’t wait long to cool off the Florida hype.
A week after the Gators surged 13 spots into the AP Top 25’s top 10, Finebaum said their College Football Playoff path took a major hit in Saturday’s 45-17 loss at No. 25 Missouri. On ESPN, he flatly dismissed Florida’s chances after the blowout.
"Florida now ... is not going to make the playoffs because I don't see how that team, after this woeful performance, can possibly beat Georgia or Texas," Finebaum said.
He also admitted he had been way too high on Florida just one week earlier.
"Before I get going, I want to hit myself over the head, Heather, for saying last week at this very hour how frighteningly great Florida looked and how they almost looked unbeatable," Finebaum said. "Well, they looked pretty beatable yesterday."
Missouri controlled the game with 560 yards and limited Florida to 42 rushing yards. Jadan Baugh, who had been averaging 150 rushing yards per game, was bottled up for just 13 yards on 12 carries.
Finebaum pointed to the matchup as a clash between a team still finding its footing and one that has settled into its identity. "I think what you saw is a new system getting run up against a more established system," Finebaum said. "Even though Eli Drinkwitz has not accomplished that much at Missouri, that was his biggest win and it was a very costly loss for the Gators."
The result was Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz’s first regular-season win over a top-10 team in 11 tries. Former LSU head coach Brian Kelly had also picked the upset before kickoff.
Heather Dinich said the loss matters because Florida still has Georgia and Texas ahead, and ESPN’s Football Power Index projects the Gators to lose both.
"This is very damaging long-term for the Gators because they still have to play Georgia and Texas, two games ESPN's Football Power Index projects them to lose," Dinich said.
Florida, now 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC, will face Texas, which is 4-0, and Georgia, which is 5-0 and was the top two team in last week’s AP Top 25, within a three-week stretch.
Dinich also noted that the playoff committee won’t react to one bad Saturday.
"The College Football Playoff selection committee never has a knee-jerk reaction to one game," Dinich said. "For 12 years, we have heard them say it is the whole body of work."
Florida does have wins over Auburn, 44-39 on the road, and then-No. 4 Ole Miss, 52-28 at home. Dinich said she still had the Gators ahead of Ole Miss in her latest projection because of that head-to-head result, but the Missouri loss puts more pressure on Florida to avoid piling up a third defeat.
In another assessment, Finebaum landed on the same sort of finish Dinich was warning about.
"I still think they're probably a 9-3 team, and I say that because they have to deal with Georgia and Texas fairly quickly," Finebaum said.
A 9-3 record would leave Florida with three losses, and ESPN’s latest playoff projection says a three-loss Gators team is unlikely to make the College Football Playoff.
In Other News...
Jon Sumrall Just Made Floridas Secondary Concern Even Bigger
Floridas defense left the Missouri game with more questions than answers, and the secondary is right at the center of it. The Gators gave up five touchdowns on drives that began with a punt or kickoff, a jarring jump for a unit that was supposed to have enough talent in the back end to hold up better than that. Instead, explosive plays kept putting the defense in bad spots, and the overall result made the problems look bigger than a single busted coverage or one rough quarter.
Jon Sumrall did not try to dress it up afterward, saying there are multiple issues in the secondary and no simple fix waiting to clean them up. His message was blunt enough to make the concern feel even more real: Florida needs players to win their one-on-one battles. For a defense built with highly rated talent, that is a tough place to be, and it leaves the Gators staring at a problem that goes beyond scheme and into execution. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas Ranking Hit Looks Bad But One Result May Save Them
Floridas latest result did enough damage to raise questions about where the Gators land in the next AP Top 25, especially with several ranked teams around the country also stumbling. The poll is expected to shift only modestly after a weekend in which just three teams in the rankings lost, but Floridas own situation stands out because a rough outing can look worse when the rest of the field largely holds serve.
There is still a chance the Gators avoid a deeper slide, though, because the committee of voters has a few other results to weigh, including Pittsburgh staying unbeaten and teams such as UCLA, Kentucky and Boise State adding their own wrinkles to the picture. Mississippi State and Alabama are part of the same crowded conversation too, which is what makes Floridas place in the next poll so uncertain until the new rankings are revealed. [Read more 🡒]
Jon Sumrall Just Challenged Florida's Maturity After Its First Loss
Floridas first loss of the 2026 season landed hard, and Jon Sumrall did not soften the blow afterward. The No. 8 Gators were thumped by No. 25 Missouri, 45-17, in a game that exposed problems on both sides of the ball, with the head coach pointing directly to defensive breakdowns and an offense that never got its ground game going.
Sumralls criticism went beyond scheme and execution, getting at the bigger-picture issue of maturity after a defeat that had been building for the wrong reasons. With South Carolina, Texas and Georgia next on the schedule, Florida does not have much time to let the sting linger, and the response in the coming weeks will say plenty about how this team handles its first real setback. [Read more 🡒]