GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Florida came into Saturday looking for a reset after the Georgia loss. Instead, the Gators got another reminder of how far things have slipped. Oklahoma walked out of the Swamp with a 23-7 win, handing Florida its fourth loss in five games and shutting the door on any College Football Playoff hopes.
The score told the story early and never really changed. Oklahoma grabbed a 10-point cushion in the first half behind a field goal on its opening possession and a short touchdown pass to former Gator Hayden Hansen, then spent the rest of the afternoon controlling the game while Florida kept chasing.
John Mateer was steady all day for the Sooners, throwing for 207 yards and two touchdowns without a turnover. Oklahoma finished with 20 first downs to Florida’s nine and converted 10 of 18 third downs, a big reason the Gators never found a rhythm.
Florida tried to shake things up by starting Tramell Jones Jr. at quarterback in his second start of the season, but the offense never got rolling. Jones Jr. completed 10 of 22 passes for 133 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. The Gators managed just 200 total yards, punted five times, and again struggled to stretch the field vertically.
There were a few bright spots, even if they were small ones. Duke Clark caught four passes for 70 yards, and Jadan Baugh added another note to his season by tying for second all-time in program history with 14 rushing touchdowns. But Baugh was held to 35 yards on eight carries, and Florida’s offensive line issues kept showing up at the worst possible moments.
The defining sequence came in the third quarter with Oklahoma leading 13-7. Florida put together a long drive and had a chance to pull even tighter, but after failing on third down, the Gators went for it on fourth. Jones Jr. threw off his back foot and was picked off in the end zone, preserving the six-point margin and killing a chance to flip the game.
Oklahoma put it away two drives later with a marathon possession that lasted 12:45 and covered 89 yards in 20 plays. Mateer finished it with a touchdown pass to Isaiah Sategna III, and Tate Sandell added a 31-yard field goal after Jones Jr. was sacked for 16 yards on fourth down to make it 23-7 with less than two minutes left.
Jones Jr. then threw his second interception to close out the loss.
Florida is now 5-4 overall and 3-4 in the SEC and heads to No. 6 Kentucky next week, still searching for a way out of its midseason slide and hoping to land a third top 10 win of the season.
In Other News...
Florida Takes Another Hit As Oklahoma Game Nears
Floridas availability picture got a little thinner heading into the Oklahoma game, with the Week 10 SEC report listing seven players for the Gators. The biggest change came at wide receiver, where Vernell Brown III was downgraded from questionable to out after being diagnosed with a grade-1 PCL strain, leaving Florida to adjust again on the eve of a matchup that already carried plenty of weight.
Defensive lineman Jeramiah McCloud will also miss the game because of a suspension, while Bailey Stockton and Emmanuel Oyebadejo were both upgraded to probable. Oklahoma has its own long injury list, with eight players ruled out and several more sitting in the doubtful, questionable or probable ranges, so both sides are navigating a shortened roster as kickoff approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Former Florida Tight End Has Extra Reason To Hurt The Gators
Hayden Hansens move from Gainesville to Norman already gave Florida fans a familiar face to track on Saturdays, and now the former Gators tight end has an added layer of intrigue attached to his next game. After three seasons at the University of Florida, Hansen transferred to Oklahoma following the firing of Billy Napier, and he has settled into a role with the Sooners as they head deeper into SEC play.
Hansen has appeared in five games this season and has chipped in as a reliable target, with seven catches for 84 yards and a touchdown. The next stop brings him against Florida, turning a routine conference matchup into something a little more personal for a player who spent plenty of time on the other sideline. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas Offense Just Raised A Bigger Concern Than One Loss
Floridas trip to Oklahoma brought more than a lopsided final score. It exposed just how little rhythm the offense had on a night when the Gators struggled to stay on schedule, protect the ball and even keep drives alive long enough to make the game competitive. The penalties piled up early, and the offense never really recovered from the self-inflicted damage.
Tramell Jones Jr. threw two interceptions, and Florida had trouble converting possessions into anything meaningful. In a telling sign of how the night unfolded, punter Alec Clark finished with more total yardage than the offense itself, a stat that says plenty about how often the Gators were forced to punt and how little push they found when they had the ball. [Read more 🡒]