The air inside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium had long been let out. The announced crowd of 88, 825 Florida Gators faithful that sat through driving rain in the first quarter was waiting for something to happen.
Florida won the toss and, for the first time as the Gators’ head coach, Jim McElwain deferred to the second half, sending his defense out first. They responded with a three-and-out, bringing back Luke Del Rio to lead the offense.
Del Rio completed a 46-yard pass to freshman Tyrie Cleveland to keep the opening drive alive. Rushes from Mark Thompson and Jordan Scarlett moved the chains again before the drive stalled. Eddy Pineiro’s took the field to familiar chants of “Eddy, Eddy” but heard the chants fizzle when he pushed a 32-yard attempt right.
The crowd tried to get back into the game but Florida’s next 10 plays amassed 31 yards and yielded two punts.
Florida racked up 128 first quarter yards but couldn’t get into the end zone.
“The mentality of winning the next play, they just have not kind of established yet,” McElwain said of the offensive struggles, which were exacerbated by eight false starts during the game. “I think there’s been so long, it’s like OK, now what’s gonna happen, right? Instead of, no, I’m gonna go make something happen. And that’s where we’ve just got to continue to grow.”
Pineiro provided a lift with a 53-yard field goal, his longest of the season and the first time a Florida kicker has made two 50-plus yard field goals in the same season since Caleb Sturgis (2012). Pineiro drilled another from 24-yards but the 6-0-homecoming lead was hardly moving the needle inside the stadium.
Leave it to Jalen Tabor to do something to get the homecoming party started. Tabor jumped in front of a Dre Lock pass and took it all the way back to the end zone for six.
“Coach Spurrier came in and he talked about how one guy can affect the whole team. I just wanted to be that guy today and I felt like anytime you get a defensive score or a non-offensive score it’s a momentum shift for the whole team,” Tabor said. “And I felt like I did that for my team today and I was glad I could help my team out.”
The interception was Tabor’s tenth as a Gator and his third pick-six and the only pass that was thrown to his side of the field on Saturday night.
Lock looked to be on the way to making up for the mistake but he didn’t get the memo that Florida has more than one cornerback.
Following Tabor’s touchdown Missouri took the kickoff and drove 48 yards down the field in just eight plays, gashing the Gators on the ground for 38 yards before Lock tried to pick on Quincy Wilson.
That went how Gator fans expected it would.
“They had run that same play on me earlier in the game so I was just ready for it the next time,” Wilson said. “I stepped in front of it. I saw I had one guy to beat. I stiff-armed him and went the distance.”
Out of nowhere, and with no thanks to the offense, the Gators had a 20-lead and they never looked back.
Del Rio’s return was far from what was expected. The redshirt sophomore threw a career-high three interceptions, and was close to being picked off multiple other times.
“I played terrible,” Del Rio said. “I didn’t take care of the ball. It’s my responsibility to take care of the ball. As an offense I thought we played well, we ran the ball at will.”
That they did. Lamical Perine rushed for a team-high 106 yards, the second 100-yard performance of his young career putting him on a list with Jeff Demps (2008), Fred Taylor (1994), Errict Rhett (1990), Emmitt Smith (1987), Neal Anderson (1982) and Tony Green (1974) as the only freshmen with multiple 100-yard games.
Sophomore Jordan Scarlett carried a team-high 12 times for 101 yards and a touchdown, but had a fumble on the one-yard line. As a team the Gators rushed for 7.4 yards per carry and 287 yards, the second highest total of the season. Even Mark Thompson got in on the action adding 65 yards on 10 carries himself.
“I just like the way that they’re competing. And I like to see that guys aren’t hanging their heads. When they get the opportunity, they run hard. Probably missed a couple cuts early. I thought Mark ran hard, too. The thing we’ve got to do is give those guys the ball in space a little bit. That’s what we’ll work on this week.”
Even before the final whistle blew on Saturday night the Gators had already reclaimed the top spot in the SEC East, thanks to a 49-10 Alabama victory over Tennessee in Knoxville. Florida’s offense has a lot of work to do, Del Rio was far from sharp in his first action in over three weeks, but the Gators will have the bye week to make corrections and enjoy their new view of the SEC from atop the east.
“It definitely feels good. Actually, it feels great,” CeCe Jefferson said after the game. “I ain’t even gonna lie. It feels great knowing this thing is back how it’s supposed to be.”