Columbia, MO. — Playing in the “Show Me” state the Florida Gators didn’t show up but was most concerning is they didn’t seem to care either.
A week after their head coach came to a mutual agreement with the University to leave his players they looked as if they left with him. Florida’s 45-16 loss drops them to 3-5 on the season — the worst start Florida’s had since 1979 when they started the season 0-7-1 on the way to the only winless season in program history.
Saturday also marked the first time the Florida Gators have given up 42 points or more in consecutive games since 1917.
Last week isn’t acceptable but understandable. Georgia is the No. 1 team in the country. They make teams look bad weekly.
This week? Unfathomable.
The Tigers were winless I the SEC and were losing conference games by an average of 21.5 points.
This Missouri defense was supposed to be a panacea for offenses. They were giving up 38.5 points per game and 453 yards a game. Florida scored a meaningless touchdown with five minutes to go, or else they would have scored just three field goals.
Speaking of field goals. What is Florida doing kicking field goals down 14-0 against a bad defense?
Missouri’s offense had gone up and down the field on Florida’s defense in the second quarter, and yet, with the ball on the Missouri 21 yard line and down 14 points Randy Shannon called on the kicking unit.
“It was all about points in the first half, trying to get points for the second half to have an opportunity to come back,” Shannon said.
Missouri drove 69 yards on five plays and scored a touchdown immediately after the field goal.
Florida went into the half trailing 28-6 and came out of the locker room seemingly uninterested in resuming the game.
“It’s disappointing when everybody doesn’t want to come together and just play for each other,” sophomore linebacker David Reese said. “That’s sad to see.”
The Gators have had to deal with a lot this season. They lost nine players to suspensions, they’ve had double-digit injuries, lost a coach but there is no excuse for quitting.
Shannon says he isn’t concerned about guys checking out of the next three games.
“Never have to worry about guys checking out,” he said. “If somebody wants to play the game, you gotta find the guys who wanna play. If guys want to check out, you go to the next guy.”
But it’s clear that a defeatist attitude took over in the second half. Freshman cornerback C.J. Henderson quit on a play, a 50-yard pass that brought Missouri down to the one-yard line. He was pulled from the game immediately after.
“If we don’t feel like a guy’s giving it his all, we’ve got to go to the next guy,” Shannon said. “We cannot sit around and say just because a guy’s athletic and talented enough to get those things done.”
There appears to be a disconnect between players and coaches and even in he locker room. Reese and quarterback Malik Zaire both spoke about playing for something more this season and not giving up but the actions of some of their teammates show otherwise.
Florida needs to win out to go to a bowl game this season. That won’t happen with the attitude they played with in the second half at Missouri.
Right now, with respect to Tennessee, Florida looks like they’re the worst team in the SEC. How have they fallen this far and are they even done free falling?