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Florida football: Despite history, Gators have no excuse against Missouri

By Benjamin Henderson

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 05: Head Coach Billy Napier of the Florida Gators speaks during a press conference introducing him to the Media at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on December 05, 2021 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 05: Head Coach Billy Napier of the Florida Gators speaks during a press conference introducing him to the Media at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on December 05, 2021 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images) /
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In literature, there is the concept of a foil character. The official definition of a foil is “a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist.” Since we are a site dedicated to Florida football, the Gators are always the protagonist.

Teams like Georgia, FSU, LSU, and even Tennessee are certainly antagonists for Florida but those are programs with similar goals and aspirations to the Gators.

But then programs like the Missouri Tigers exist. And with every comparable advantage that Florida football has compared to Mizzou, Florida has to stop playing against them as if they are equal to the Gators.

Florida football: Gators need to act like the Tiger’s king

Going back to our definition of a foil and treating Missouri as a program that exists “in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist,” let’s compare the differences:

  • Missouri hasn’t won more than eight games since 2015. Florida football has won nine games or more four times in that same span.
  • Missouri is 31st in the 247 Sports talent composite. Florida is 12th.
  • Missouri didn’t top 47,000 people in attendance for a single home last year. Florida had 47,000 show up on a Sunday against an FCS opponent and it was a massive drop-off in attendance.

There are of course other differences between the two programs, but the point is that Missouri is not a program that genuinely strives for excellence in the sport of football.

This is why it has been so frustrating over the past decade since Missouri joined the SEC that the Tigers have had the number of Florida football. The Gators are 5-5 against Missouri over the last ten years. Compare that to 8-2 vs Tennessee and 7-3 vs Kentucky and it’s perplexing why the Gators always struggle against Missouri.

One of the reasons why Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, and Dan Mullen were run out of Gainesville despite all of them making the SEC title game at some point is because of losing games to programs like Missouri. There always seems to be an excuse when Florida loses, whether it was the weather in Columbia, MO, or it was a noon kickoff the week before a bigger game, or the season was a lost cause anyway.

Billy Napier is cerebral enough to know this. He could say “We have one less day to prepare and Missouri just gave Georgia all it could handle,” but it’s doubtful. Napier was the guy trying to warn Florida football fans things weren’t as great as they seemed following the win over Utah.

Missouri isn’t good. They were smacked by Kansas State and lost the Dumpster Fire Bowl against Auburn. Florida’s offense looked remarkable better against Tennessee and put up 35 points in 20 plays against Eastern Washington.

The defense for Florida football still needs improvement, but if Auburn and Kansas State can hold Missouri to 14 points so can the Gators.

Napier and friends have tougher tests coming up against LSU, Georgia and Texas A&M. And while Florida football might not win anything of significance this season, that doesn’t mean we can’t expect growth against old nemeses such as Missouri.

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