No. 21 Florida left no doubt in The Swamp, pounding No. 4 Ole Miss 38-17 on Saturday night to hand the Rebels their first loss of the season.
The Gators did it the way Pete Golding said they did: by leaning on the run and controlling the game from the start. Florida piled up 300 rushing yards, averaged 6.0 yards per carry and kept Ole Miss chasing all night. The Rebels, who entered at 7-0 and 3-0 in SEC play, were pushed around in a game that never really settled into their favor.
“It was an old-fashioned butt-whooping right there, man,” Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding said.
Florida’s ground game was relentless. Jadan Baugh ran for 98 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries, both scores coming in the first half.
The Gators finished with seven runs of 10 yards or more, including a pair of 20-plus-yard bursts from Baugh. Duke Clark closed things out with 124 yards on the night.
Ole Miss had its own moments early, but not enough to keep pace. The Rebels got 426 total yards and six touchdowns from Trinidad Chambliss, who was 24 of 43 passing for 256 yards, a touchdown and an interception while also rushing for 33 yards and two scores.
He also added a team-high 33-yard completion to Cayden Lee. Lee finished with 91 yards on six catches.
Still, the game turned on Florida’s ability to keep winning first down and stay ahead of the sticks. The Gators converted 8 of 15 third downs, while Ole Miss was 4 of 15. Florida scored on all five of its second-half possessions, punting only twice in the game.
Ole Miss was without junior running back Kewan Lacy, who was out with a shoulder injury suffered last week against LSU. In his place, junior Makai Frazie and sophomore YTJ Indy combined for 35 rushing yards. Golding also noted sixth-year quarterback Trinidad Chambliss threw for 256 yards and ran for 33, but the Rebels couldn’t get enough going on the ground to match Florida’s pace.
Florida opened the scoring with an 8-yard touchdown run from Baugh and later stretched the lead with a 2-yard touchdown run by Baugh to make it 15-0 at halftime. Chambliss briefly answered with a 35-yard touchdown strike to Eric Singleton Jr., but Florida kept coming back with big plays and finished the Rebels off in the second half.
Afterward, Golding said the challenge now is turning the page the right way.
“I think there’s points in time that you have to make decisions. And you have to make a decision that, you know, I’m not OK with that, and that’s not OK.
And that starts at the top for us, and we put some things on tape that we’ve got to clean up, and we’re going to continue to get exposed as long as they’re on tape,” Golding said. “… I love our group, I think they’re wired the right way.
But right now it’s not a good enough product, and that starts with me.”
In Other News...
Ole Miss Just Got Hit With A Problem Fans Feared
Floridas 52-28 win over No. 4 Ole Miss on Saturday was the kind of result that changes how a season is viewed, and it gave Jon Sumrall his first signature victory as the Gators head coach. Behind a punishing ground game, Florida controlled the tone at home and put the Rebels in a position they had rarely faced this season, with Jadan Baugh leading the way on the ground with 142 yards and three touchdowns.
For Ole Miss, the loss is a reminder that even a top-four ranking can come with some uncomfortable questions once the schedule tightens. Florida is now 4-0 for the first time since 2019, and the Gators are staring at a demanding run that will tell a lot about where this team really stands, with Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Florida State all still ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Fans Turned College GameDay Into A Lane Kiffin Message
College GameDay in Knoxville had the usual pregame energy, but Tennessee fans made sure Lane Kiffin remained part of the conversation. As ESPN set the stage for the Vols meeting with Texas, the crowd took aim at Kiffin, whose short and contentious 2009 stint as Tennessees head coach still lingers with the fan base.
Now at LSU, Kiffin is back in the SEC spotlight with another big week ahead, and the backdrop only added to the noise. Tennessee is preparing to host Texas while LSU lines up against Texas A&M, so the timing of the message was hard to miss for anyone watching the rivalry-adjacent scene unfold. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Just Exposed A Bigger Problem Than One Bad Loss
Ole Miss trip to Florida turned into more than just a bad result, with the No. 4 Rebels falling 52-28 to the No. 21 Gators in a game that exposed some uncomfortable truths on both sides of the ball. Trinidad Chambliss still kept the offense moving after an early injury scare, finishing 25 of 34 for 342 yards with three touchdown passes and one interception, but even that production could not overcome how vulnerable the Rebels looked once Florida started controlling the line of scrimmage.
The bigger concern came on defense, where Ole Miss had no answer for Floridas run game and never managed to sack the Gators quarterback. The Rebels gave up 302 rushing yards, and the situation worsened when Joenel Aguero was ejected for targeting, leaving a unit already under stress with even fewer answers as the game slipped away. [Read more 🡒]