Through the first four games of the season, Jadan Baugh had put himself in the Heisman Trophy conversation.
The Florida running back had rushed for 600 yards and 11 touchdowns, emerging as one of the most productive players in the country and a major reason for the Gators’ 4-0 start. He was coming off a 142-yard, three-touchdown performance against Ole Miss and had scored at least two touchdowns in each of Florida’s first four games.
Then came Missouri.
Baugh was held to 13 yards on 12 carries in Florida’s 45-17 loss to the Tigers, with just one yard coming on his final 11 attempts. Missouri’s front seven consistently swarmed to the football and prevented Baugh from finding the running room that had been there throughout the first month of the season.
For Baugh, the disappointing performance didn’t simply end when he left the field. He reached out to head coach Jon Sumrall the following day, taking ownership of his performance and making a promise to his coach.
“He texted me yesterday. He was like, ‘Coach, I’m sorry, I won’t let that ever happen again. I didn’t play my best,'” Sumrall said.
Sumrall appreciated Baugh’s willingness to own his performance, but he didn’t put the loss entirely on the Florida back.
“We didn’t do enough to help him as a team on Saturday, in my opinion. Across the board. And I don’t think it was his best, either. But I love Jadan because he owned it and he’s ready to move forward,” Sumrall said. “I thought they did a really nice job with swarming into the football and populating hats to the football, and making it to where it was hard for him. Credit to them for that, but he’ll bounce back.”
Baugh’s response also gave Sumrall a glimpse into the type of person the junior has become.
“You have a great appreciation for guys that want to step up and go, ‘Hey, we’re going to get this fixed. I want to take ownership in my part of this.’ It speaks to their character, and I think usually it has a lot to do with maybe what their background is because you don’t do that without somebody in your life usually helping mold you to become someone that’s not afraid of accountability,” Sumrall said.
Sumrall wasn’t the only person Baugh apologized to following the disappointing loss. He reached out to the entire offensive line as well.
“He came up and talked to us and was like, ‘Look, I’m sorry, I need to do better,'” junior center Harrison Moore said.
“The first thing I said to him was like, ‘No, I need to do better. We didn’t give you the opportunity to play to the best of your ability,'” Moore added. “We didn’t give him the opportunity to be who he is. He was getting hit behind the line of scrimmage a lot. Two to three tacklers on the ball. So that boils down to us not doing our job.”
Baugh and Florida’s offensive line are moving past the loss with another critical SEC matchup on deck as South Carolina comes to town for Week 6.
“I talked to him today and he was pretty positive,” Moore said. “Like I said, just moving on to the next week. We’re going to get everything right, and tomorrow we’re going to have great practice, and that’s where it really starts.”