Greg McElroy didn’t need much time to figure out what he had just watched in Columbia: Mizzou flattened Florida, and the Tigers did it in the exact ways that win games in the SEC.
Florida came in as the No. 8 team in the country and had spent September doing nearly everything right. On the first Saturday of October, that all went sideways.
Mizzou piled up 560 total yards, handed the Gators their first loss of the season, and sent Eli Drinkwitz’s team to 4-1 overall with a 1-1 mark in conference play. The payoff showed up in the AP Poll on Sunday, when the Tigers jumped 11 spots from No. 25 to No.
The game was already tilting by halftime, when Mizzou carried a 20-10 lead into the break after scoring 10 points right before halftime. From there, the Tigers never let Florida back into it. They allowed just 7 points in the final 30 minutes and added 25 of their own to turn a solid advantage into a runaway.
McElroy broke down the performance on his Always College Football podcast, zeroing in on how thoroughly Mizzou controlled the line of scrimmage and the run game.
“They go for 220 (yards) on the ground, and they held the best running game in the country to marginal yardage,” said McElroy, with Mizzou holding Florida’s ground game to 42 yards on Saturday, to be exact. “(Mizzou quarterback) Austin Simmons, he was incredible, threw for almost 240 (yards) in the first half.
He now has 13 touchdowns against 0 picks this year. And Jamal Roberts carried it 24 times for 211 (yards) and 3 scores.
… Look, it’s pretty fascinating watching all this. … Very, very impressive performance.
Eli Drinkwitz himself said tough teams stop the run, and they run the ball and they cover kicks. And that’s exactly what they did (on Saturday).”
Mizzou didn’t just beat Florida. It imposed its style on the game and left little doubt about who controlled the afternoon.
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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
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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 🡒]