Well, all good things must come to an end and the Florida Gators' undefeated start to the season came crashing down in an embarrassing 45-17 loss to No. 25 Missouri.
There isn't much to say about Florida's performance. Outside of the opening drive, the Gators were behind the 8-ball all day and looked completely overmatched against the Tigers. Austin Simmons threw for over 300 yards and Jamal Roberts rushed for over 200 yards as Missouri racked up the points against Brad White's defense.
These days are bound to happen, and it's a reminder that Florida is still a work in progress for Jon Sumrall. There will be very good days and occasionally bad ones. This was one of the bad ones.
Here are the five losers and one winner from Florida's loss to Missouri:
Missouri's trolling Florida by playing "I Won't Back Down" while showing sad Gators fans in the crowd.
— Graham Hall (@GrahamHall) October 3, 2026
The Tigers are relishing in what's all but guaranteed to be a massive win over a top-10 ranked team.
Loser: Missouri remains a house of horrors
The Gators dropped to 2-5 against the Tigers in Columbia and 6-8 overall against Missouri. They've lost four of the last five games at Folsom Field. Between Florida riding high and Missouri hearing the criticism about its No. 25 ranking, the recipe was there for disaster, but I don't think anyone expected this kind of blowout.
Loser: The secondary was no match for Austin Simmons
Florida's defense was active and jumpy against Trinidad Chambliss in Week 4, and it proved to be enough for them to contain the Heisman contender. The pass-rush didn't get to Simmons in the same way, and that allowed him to go to work on the Gators defensive backs. Simmons and wide receivers Cayden Lee (8 catches, 110 yards), Donovan Olugbode (6 catches, 94 yards, TD) and Caleb Goodie (2 catches, 67 yards, TD) had a party in the Florida backfield and no one from the Gators secondary was invited.
Loser: The offensive line couldn't handle the pressure
Missouri's defense went on the attack right away. They loaded the box to stop Jadan Baugh, and it forced Aaron Philo to try to beat the Tigers with his arm. That's just not the game that Florida wants to play, and the result was the best offense in the SEC through September looked very ordinary in the first week of October. Buster Faulkner has had a lot of fanfare this season and for good reason, now he'll have to show that his offense can bounce back from a bad week.
Loser: Jadan Baugh's Heisman campaign
A few days after "Run the Baugh" was trademarked, the Florida running back failed to live up to the billing. The nature of the score made the running game nearly non-existent and Baugh didn't have much of a chance to do anything. A non-quarterback winning college football's top individual trophy was going to be hard enough and Baugh's failure to get anything going against Missouri all but put an end to his Heisman hopes.
Mizzou has held Florida RB Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 carries. He entered with 600 yards rushing through four games. Total beatdown in Columbia, and it starts there.
— Wilson Alexander (@walexander) October 3, 2026
Loser: Florida's ranking in the Top 25
The Gators jumped from unranked to No. 8 in a matter of two weeks. My guess is they'll drop at least 10 spots after this showing in Week 5 and while I don't think Florida is going to drop out of the AP Poll, the pollsters that vote for the Gators will look at them with a bit of a side eye as they try to navigate this tough schedule that includes a trip to Texas in two weeks and a game against Georgia in Atlanta on Halloween.
Winner: Tramell Jones got some good snaps in garbage time
It was 45-10 when Missouri decided to show some mercy and Sumrall used it as an opportunity to get the second-team offense some much-needed work, and they were able to put together a late scoring drive. The result was going to be the same, but it's good to see Tramell Jones and the second team have some success because Florida might need them down the stretch.
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