Florida coach Dan Mullen desperately needed a win at Missouri on Saturday to somewhat quiet the noise surrounding his future with the program.
Sure, beating one of the worst teams in the SEC wouldn’t have warranted erecting a statue of Mullen on campus, but it would’ve at least given fans some glimmer of optimism and prevented his players from having to answer questions about his future next week.
Well, that’s certainly not going to be the case. Due to an offense that was dormant for large stretches of the game and some missed opportunities late on both sides of the ball, the Gators fell to Missouri, 24-23, in overtime. Florida (5-6, 2-6 SEC) will finish a season with only two conference wins for the first time since the SEC expanded to an eight-game schedule in 1992.
“Just way too many mental mistakes, opportunities to make plays we didn’t make in critical moments of the game,” Mullen said. “I think that’s our seventh straight loss in one-possession games. That’s on us coaches. [We’ve] got to create the mental toughness for the guys to make sure we have the right guys in the right position to make a play when the game’s on the line. We haven’t been able to do that. Really disappointing that way.
“You’re obviously disappointed because … as a coach, I want to try to make sure I’m putting these guys in a position to go succeed and do really well and make plays all the time when they have opportunities to, and we’re not doing that.”
UF had multiple opportunities to win the game in regulation. They got the ball back after a Missouri punt with 5:51 to go and the score tied at 16. A sack by Jatorian Hansford on first down set them behind the chains and led to a three-and-out.
After the Tigers’ usually reliable kicker, Harrison Mevis, pulled a 46-yard field goal attempt wide right, the Gators took over on their own 29-yard line with 1:04 to go but with no timeouts remaining.
They didn’t throw a single pass. Instead, they ran the ball three times for a combined loss of two yards. Missouri (6-5, 3-4) got the ball back and took a knee to send the game into overtime.
“You know they’re going to be back in prevent pass defense, so you call the draw on the first play to kind of get the drive going,” Mullen said. “We were in our two-minute mentality, two-minute mode coming off the sidelines. You’re trying to look to get in that situation. You’re looking to get an 8-yard gain on the first play. Then you get into the two-minute rotation.
“There’s all different philosophies. You go in for the first call of a two-minute drive, but, in that scenario, we thought, ‘Hey, they’re going to be spread out,’ and they were. They were in a split front, with two three-techniques. We called a draw play to go hit it, and we slipped and fell. So, at that point, we actually probably have the next three plays called, but we changed it once that happened and it was second down and 14.”
Florida scored a touchdown to begin overtime when receiver Trent Whittemore took a reverse pitch from running back Dameon Pierce and tossed a 6-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Emory Jones.
On Missouri’s possession, Tyler Badie carried the ball twice and scored on a 13-yard run around the left edge. Tigers coach Eliah Drinkwitz opted to go for two points and the win.
Mullen could’ve taken his timeout after he saw how Missouri lined up to give the defensive coaches a chance to call something based on what they thought Missouri was going to do.
Instead, per their request, Mullen opted to not take the timeout.
The Gators got pressure on Connor Bazelak, which forced him to backpedal and throw off of his back foot. Tight end Daniel Parker lined up on the right side of the line and snuck past the Gators’ defense, which busted the coverage. Parker caught the pass to win the game for Missouri.
“We got lined up, we had the call, and we had a timeout available,” Mullen said. “I said, ‘Hey, are we ready for what [we] expect what they’re going to do out of that formation?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ I asked if you want to take the timeout just to go over; they said, ‘No, I think we’ve got it covered.’
“We felt we’d have it defended. We had a guy right in the quarterback’s face. Obviously, [we] weren’t able to make the play, and then we blew the coverage.”
The loss spoiled what was an impressive rebound effort by Florida’s defense. After giving up 49 points to LSU, 40 points to South Carolina and 42 points in one half to Samford in the last six weeks, they held the Tigers to just 286 total yards. After giving up an average of 266 rushing yards in their three prior conference games, they limited Missouri to 121 yards and 3.4 yards per carry. They only gave up 11 rushing yards in the first half.
Badie, the SEC’s leading rusher, did gain 146 yards, but it took him 27 carries to do so.
UF also only allowed Missouri to convert three of 15 third downs. They made 10 tackles-for-loss, including four sacks of Bazelak.
Linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper had a terrific game, with a career-high 12 tackles, including a career-high two for losses. Defensive end Zachary Carter notched 1 ½ sacks.
“Defensively, I think we played lights out all night except for a couple plays that were extremely late in the game,” said defensive tackle Antonio Valentino, who recorded his first sack as a Gator. “So, that’s what I’m taking this as. As a defense, a lot of people were questioning us, questioning our desire, willingness to play, especially after last week giving up how many points we gave up. I’m taking this as our defense came together, and we played together as one, just like what coach [Christian Robinson] always says. ‘Play as one. Hunt as one.’ I think we did that tonight.
“Obviously, we were backed into a corner. We’ve been backed into a corner the majority of the season. You’ve got two options when you’re in the corner: You either die in the corner, or you fight out. And, the best part about that, to me, is that we’re still in the corner, and we’ve still got another opportunity to fight outside of it.”
Unfortunately, the Gators’ offense played one of their worst games of the season. They only gained 360 total yards, including just 93 on the ground against a Missouri defense that entered the day ranked next-to-last in the FBS in rushing defense. The offensive line also allowed the Tigers to sack Jones twice and make 11 tackles-for-loss.
The Gators converted only five of 18 third downs and only scored one touchdown in three trips to the red zone.
Receiver Jacob Copeland was one of the few bright spots offensively, as he hauled in a career-high eight passes for 102 yards.
The Gators moved the ball down the field with ease on their first drive of the game, but a fumbled exchange between Jones and running back Malik Davis on third down forced them to settle for a 42-yard field goal by Chris Howard.
A shanked 11-yard punt by Jeremy Crawshaw on their next possession led to Mevis’ 39-yard field goal.
The Gators were set to go for it on fourth-and-9 at the Missouri 37 on their next possession, but a false start penalty on right tackle Jean Delance forced them to punt.
A 19-yard completion from Jones to tight end Kemore Gamble and a pass interference penalty in the end zone gave the Gators a first-and-goal at the 2 early in the second quarter. A 2-yard loss by Davis, two incomplete passes and a false start by tackle Michael Tarquin caused them to settle for another field goal.
Missouri answered right back with a 46-yard Mevis field goal to tie it.
On Missouri’s next possession, linebacker Mohamoud Diabate jumped offsides on fourth-and-1 at the Missouri 21 to give them a first down. A 50-yard completion from Bazelak to Tauskie Dove eventually led to Mevis’ 31-yard field goal that gave the Tigers their first lead of the game.
The Gators’ offense finally came to life on their first drive of the second half. Jones connected with Whittemore down the seam for 45 yards to the Missouri 5. Two plays later, Pierce plowed through the pile for a 2-yard touchdown to give Florida a 16-13 advantage.
That lead held up until early in the fourth quarter.
On first-and-25 at the UF 41, Bazelak froze Hopper and Khris Bogle with a shoulder fake. Tight end Niko Hea ran past them, and Bazelak dropped it in for a go-ahead touchdown.
Florida moved the ball 60 yards on seven plays on the ensuing drive. However, on third-and-1 at the Tigers’ 15, Pierce was forced out of bounds for a 1-yard loss. Rather than rolling the dice on fourth-and-2, Mullen opted to send Howard out there for a game-tying 33-yard field goal. That set the stage for the tense final moments.
Mullen has been highly scrutinized by the fans this season for the way that this once-promising season has completely unraveled. The Gators have lost five of their last seven games, and they’ll have to beat Florida State next week just to make a bowl game. Overall, they are 2-9 in their last 11 games against Power Five competition dating back to last season.
Mullen’s job is to win games and compete for championships, and they haven’t done that this season.
Mullen, though, still sounded optimistic about his standing with athletic director Scott Stricklin in his postgame press conference.
“We had meetings last week about what direction we need to go in the future with assistant coaches and who we’re going to bring in here and what our candidates are, looking for the future and changes we need to look to make,” Mullen said. “I’ve had those discussions with him. For the Gator Nation, that’s seven times we’ve lost one-score games in a row over the past couple of years. We’ve got to find a way to make that one more play for the Gator Nation right there. That would be a seven-game swing, which would be a pretty big swing right there.
“I love being the coach of the Gators. We’re out there trying. We’re giving it everything we have every single week. We go in there, try to coach our guys up, try to put them in position, try to motivate them. Like I said, our guys have got a great attitude this whole year. At practice, guys come out, they work. It’s pretty unfortunate. It’s tough. It’s a play here and there, and, looking at our guys, that’s on us. It’s making sure that we have got every aspect of the game covered and our players have every aspect of their preparation covered to make that one more play.”
Will Mullen get the opportunity to make those corrections?
That remains to be seen, but it definitely looks less likely now than it did when the sun rose on Saturday morning.