Florida Football: Gators Poised to Exploit Demoralized Tigers (Saturday Smackdown)

There is a small amount of fan bases that enjoy watching their favorite teams play at noon.

Most of the time the student section is half empty at the time kick off, with students either dragging themselves through the turnstiles still hungover from a wild night of partying, or are still passed out drunk in their dorm rooms.

But for Florida fans, this Saturday’s noon kickoff has plenty to offer.

For starters, it is homecoming week in Gainesville. After experiencing a concert from multi-platinum artist Flo Rida at Gator Growl the night before, fans will have the opportunity to see several former Florida athletic figures honored throughout Saturday’s game.

One distinguished Florida athlete that will be honored Saturday will be former basketball player Chandler Parsons. Along with being named the honorary Mr. Two Bits, Parsons was also announced as one of this year’s inductees into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame.

Two other former athletes in attendance that Florida football fans will instantly recognize are former cornerback Joe Haden, as well as former running back and track star Jeff Demps.

Perhaps the most enticing part about this weekend’s festivities though is the idea of Florida capturing its first victory in SEC competition this season.

While the Gators enter Saturday’s conference with a 3-2 record, they are still winless (0-2) in the conference entering week 6 of the college football season. Luckily for the Gators, they may be able to take advantage of a demoralized Missouri Tigers team that is also 0-2 in the conference.

In each of Missouri’s last two games, they have been in prime position to secure the win late, yet have found a way to choke a win away at the end.

Two weeks ago Missouri found themselves tied at 14 on the road against Auburn, with a chip-shot 26-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds to win the game in regulation. Instead, junior kicker Harrison Mevis kicked wide right to send the game into overtime.

After a made field goal attempt by Auburn on their first possession of overtime, Missouri again found itself in position to win the game with a touchdown. Senior running back Nathaniel Peat took a handoff on 2nd and 5 at the Auburn 20-yard line, with open space on the left sideline to scoot his way into the endzone for the game winning score.

Instead of scoring the game winning touchdown, Peat fumbled the ball into the end zone to be recovered by an Auburn defender to seal the game for the home Tigers.

The following week Missouri hosted no. 1 ranked Georgia in a prime-time showdown on the SEC network. After several early turnovers and blunders made by Georgia’s offense in the first three quarters, along with five perfectly made field goals by Mevis from lengthy distances, the Tigers found themselves up by 10 points entering the final 10 minutes of the game.

But right on schedule, the Tigers choked the win away by totaling only eight plays for 14 yards on their final two drives. Meanwhile Georgia tallied 185 yards of offense on their final three offensive drives, including two touchdowns, and managed to keep their perfect record alive with a 26-22 victory in Columbia.

Though the Gators have the same conference record as the Tigers, a case could be made that Florida is entering the weekend with much more momentum.

After lethargic performances against Kentucky and South Florida, redshirt sophomore quarterback Anthony Richardson has started to hit his stride as Florida’s leader on offense.

Despite losing to an undefeated Tennessee team in Knoxville two weeks ago, Richardson still managed to set career highs in completions (24), passing yards (453), total yards (515) and total touchdowns (4).

Though Florida played a middle of the pack FCS team this past Sunday in the form of Eastern Washington, Richardson still was able to build up his confidence against the Eagles by completing 8 of 10 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns in one half of play.

While all eyes will be on Richardson in just his fourth career SEC start, the two biggest keys to the game will be which team can dominate the line of scrimmage and which team can have the higher conversion percentage on both third and fourth down.

The Gators currently rank 22nd nationally in terms of rushing offense. Along with Richardson’s occasional willingness to run the football, the Gators primarily have relied on a trio of running backs consisting of redshirt sophomore Nay’Quan Wright, sophomore Montrell Johnson Jr., and true freshman Trevor Etienne. All three running backs have combined for 658 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns through five games.

On the flip side, the Gators defense will need to have its best performance all season to pull off a win on Saturday. The Gators rush defense currently ranks last in the SEC and 113th nationally, giving up an average of 193.2 rushing yards per game.

Meanwhile Missouri has averaged 169.8 rushing yards per game in 2022, which ranks 57th in the country. While on paper it looks like Missouri has a fairly good rushing attack, it has not translated in any of their prior conference games. Against Auburn and Georgia, Missouri averaged 117.5 rushing yards and only 20 rush attempts in each game.

Missouri’s inability to convert on third down has also been a big issue in recent weeks, as the Tigers have converted only 26.9 percent (7-26) of the time in SEC play. Meanwhile the Gators in their two previous SEC games have converted 35.5 percent of their third down attempts (11-31), as well as an astounding 66.7 percent of their fourth down attempts (6-9).

One other crucial factor that will be on the minds of most Florida players this Saturday too will be retribution.

Since the Tigers entered the SEC back in 2012, the Gators have split the series evenly with them (6-6). Last year in Columbia the Gators had an opportunity to end their SEC schedule with an overtime victory.

Unfortunately, a bold two-point conversion by Missouri in overtime gave the Tigers the win and ended Florida’s conference schedule on a four-game losing streak and with an abysmal 2-6 record.

Less than 24 hours after the heart-breaking road loss, Florida would fire head coach Dan Mullen and begin courting Louisiana Lafayette head coach Billy Napier to replace him.

With the eventual conference realignment coming as soon as 2024, it is almost a guarantee that both teams will no longer meet each other on the gridiron annually. Saturday’s game could be the last time that Florida fans get to see these particular Tigers come to town for several years.

And while no Florida fan would call this a rivalry game, they would likely admit that they would prefer to be on the winning side, or have the last laugh, before this annual conference game goes away.

The Gators enter Saturday’s game as 11.5-point favorites against the Tigers. Though Florida is only 2-3 against the spread in 2022, do not be surprised to see this game end with another outstanding performance from Richardson and with a decisive homecoming victory.

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