Missouri walked into Saturday with a handful of issues that had been dragging it around for the first month of the season. By the time the Tigers were done with Florida, those problems looked a lot smaller.
No. 25 Missouri rolled past No.
8 Florida 45-17 in Columbia, landing its first win over a ranked Southeastern Conference opponent since 2023 and delivering one of the biggest conference wins of the Eli Drinkwitz era. The Tigers improved to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in SEC play, while Florida dropped to 4-1 and 2-1.
The turnaround was obvious from the start. Missouri had been living with slow starts, penalties, tackling issues and secondary breakdowns, but none of that showed up in the same way against the Gators.
The Tigers committed a season-low four penalties for 50 yards, and none of them came close to swinging the game. Only one, an unsportsmanlike conduct on Dominick Giudice during a fourth-quarter kickoff, involved the offensive line.
None of Missouri’s flags led to a scoring drive.
That clean play carried over on defense, where Missouri smothered Florida running back Jadan Baugh. Baugh came in leading the nation with 34 missed tackles forced and ranked third with 358 yards after contact, but he managed just 13 yards on 12 carries against the Tigers and forced zero missed tackles, according to Pro Football Focus.
“Bottom line is, we had to shed blocks, create penetration, set edges, and that's what we did,” Drinkwitz said. …”We had to set edges and tackle, and there was a lot of really strong edges out there today.”
Missouri also tightened up in the back end. Florida’s longest catch of the day was a 24-yard grab by Dallas Wilson on the opening drive, and only one other Gator had a reception of 20 yards or more in the first three quarters. Sione Laulea, Chris Graves and Jahlil Florence handled the cornerback work, while Santana Banner and Trajen Greco helped keep the coverage firm at safety.
Despite Florida quarterback Philo attempting a season-high 34 passes, he finished with just 197 yards, which was only one more than his previous low in 23 attempts against Ole Miss.
“Last week, we didn't play our best game. We knew we had to attack it this week with a different mindset,” Safety Kensley Louidor-Faustin said.
“We had to erase last week and then just approach this week with a different mindset. That's what we did - limit explosives, stop the hunt.
That’s what tough teams do.”
The Tigers were just as sharp on offense, and that started with a fast opening. Missouri scored on its first drive with a 32-yard Blake Craig field goal, then stretched the lead to 10-3 on Donovan Olugbode’s 47-yard touchdown on the third possession. That field goal was Missouri’s first first-quarter points since Week 1 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
That early cushion mattered because it kept Florida from settling into a steady diet of Baugh carries. Missouri never let the Gators control the pace.
Jamal Roberts made sure the Tigers’ ground game kept landing blows. In the absence of 2025 Doak Walker finalist Ahmad Hardy, Roberts delivered a career day with 211 rushing yards and three touchdowns. He also ripped off the two longest runs of his career, one for 77 yards and another for 80.
“He's such a leader for our team. Nothing rattles him,” Drinkwitz said. He’s playing more than he probably needs to, but he just does whatever he can to help us win, and really proud he doesn't get rattled.”
Austin Simmons kept the passing game humming, too. The starting quarterback completed 23 of 30 throws for a season-high 340 yards and two touchdowns, and he remains spotless on the year with 13 touchdown passes and no interceptions. That already puts him ahead of former starter Beau Pribula’s touchdown total from his 10-game 2025 season.
“Our ability to throw the ball was the difference in the game,” Drinkwitz said. Our two runs came late - well, they were kind of both knives in the final of the game, nail in the coffin type thing - but I thought the ability to throw the ball was the difference in our success today.”
Cayden Lee was once again Simmons’ favorite target. The wideout posted his second straight game with at least 100 receiving yards, finishing with eight catches for 110 yards and a touchdown. On the season, Lee now sits third in the SEC with 412 receiving yards and is tied for second with 27 receptions.
Lee and Donovan Olugbode have given Missouri a dangerous pair of receivers, and Saturday’s win showed how hard that combination is to slow down when the Tigers are playing clean football on both sides.
Missouri’s ugly loss to Mississippi State a week earlier had raised questions about whether the Tigers had already let an opportunity slip away. Drinkwitz didn’t want the Florida win framed that way, and the team’s message matched his.
“I knew that this team could continue to get better,” Drinkwitz said. “That (loss to MSU) wasn't the summation of a season, and (the win over Florida) isn't a summation of the season.”
Roberts echoed that same approach.
“Everything ain't gonna be able to go our way, and that's part of life,” running back Jamal Roberts said. “And you go either dwell on it and just be stuck on the past, or you go find a way to figure it out and overcome that obstacle or that hill to get over that hump. So that's what we do every week.”
Missouri had spent much of the season digging out of early holes, falling behind Kansas 7-0, Troy 10-0 and Mississippi State 14-0 before rallying in two of those games. Against Florida, the Tigers got moving before the game could turn into a scramble. That made all the difference.
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Mizzou Just Delivered The Bounce-Back Tigers Fans Desperately Needed
For a program looking to reset the mood in a hurry, Saturday gave Mizzou exactly the kind of response it had been searching for. The No. 25 Tigers knocked off No. 8 Florida 45-10, a result that stood out not just for the margin but for what it meant in the bigger picture, as Mizzous first regular-season win over a Top 10 opponent since 2013. It was the sort of complete performance that can change the temperature around a team in a single afternoon.
Mizzou did it by controlling the game at the line of scrimmage and making Floridas offense look out of sync from the start. The defense held star running back Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 carries, while Jamal Roberts powered the offense with more than 200 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The passing game spread the ball around, Blake Craig added key field goals, and the Tigers left no doubt that this was the bounce-back performance their fans had been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]
Eli Drinkwitz Just Changed The Conversation Around Missouri
Saturdays rout of Florida did more than add another win to Missouris record. By taking down the No. 8 Gators 45-17, the Tigers delivered the kind of performance that can reset the tone around a program, and they did it by controlling the game in every phase. Missouri held Florida to just 42 rushing yards and finished with a 560 to 325 edge in total yardage, the sort of numbers that tell you this was no fluke.
For Eli Drinkwitz, it also marked another notable line on a rsum that is starting to look different than it did when he arrived in Columbia. He now has two top-10 wins during his tenure, and this one carried extra weight because of how thoroughly Missouri handled the moment. For a program trying to move from occasional spoiler to something more durable, a result like this changes the conversation in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou Defense Just Made A Huge Statement Against No. 8 Florida
Missouris defense delivered the kind of night that can change the way people talk about a team, smothering No. 8 Florida in a 45-17 win and making the Gators look uncomfortable from the opening stretches. The Tigers took away the run, kept Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 carries, and made Florida chase the game while the Mizzou offense turned the stops into points and steadily pulled away.
Kensley Louidor-Faustin was part of a front that kept the pressure on Floridas quarterback and helped produce multiple sacks, a sign that Missouris pass rush and run defense were working in sync. For a team trying to build real momentum in SEC play, the larger takeaway was less about one big play than the way the Tigers controlled both lines and left a top-10 opponent with few answers. [Read more 🡒]