Freshman Mohamoud Diabate smothers Vanderbilt quarterback Allen Walters, forcing a sack/fumble that was returned 80 yards for a touchdown by Jonathan Greenard during Saturday's 56-0 blanking of the Commodores.
UF Not Thinking About a Mizzou Mystique
Monday, November 11, 2019 | Football, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Don't look now, folks, but Missouri looms next on the Florida football schedule. Why put it that way? Because more often than not of late, a date against the Tigers has been cause for UF fans to cover their eyes or turn away.
Try four losses over the last six seasons — involving three different Gators head coaches — with those defeats coming by an average margin of 24 1/2 points, including last year's 38-17 shellacking at the "Swamp." That Mizzou squad won eight games on the way to handing UF, winner of 10 games and a New Year's Six bowl, its most convincing defeat the season.
In the big picture, the team the 10th-ranked Gators (8-2, 5-2) will face on the road Saturday is not as good as the 2018 version, but the present-day Tigers (5-4, 2-3) have a phenomena working in their favor that is nearly as inexplicable as UF's recent struggles in the series.
They'll be playing at Memorial Stadium.
OK, so it's not exactly "Death Valley," but the venue has made for a big advantage for Coach Barry Odom and his squad this season.
"A very different team at home than on the road during the year. I can't tell you why, you'd have to ask Barry why that is," Gators coach Dan Mullen said Monday. "But we're playing them at their place, so we have to deal with the good side of things."
Good for the Tigers, that is.
Mizzou is unbeaten in five games at home, having outscored opponents (including Southeastern Conference foes South Carolina and Ole Miss) by a combined count of 182-28 — or an average score of 40-7 — compared to 0-4 on the road and getting outscored 114-52. Offensively, the Tigers average nearly 462 yards per game at home, but just 319 on the road, which is where they've been the previous three games in losing at Vanderbilt, Kentucky and sixth-ranked Georgia in succession. The latter was an 27-0 defeat that produced just 198 yards of total offense and was played minus quarterback Kelly Bryant (hamstring), the transfer from Clemson, who may return this weekend.
UF, of course, had its own woes in trying to move the ball against the Bulldogs in a 24-17 loss the week before, but bounced back by smashing Vanderbilt, 56-0, on Saturday and remain in the thick of the running for a second straight New Year's Six bowl. A road win in Columbia, Mo., in the next-to-last regular-season game will put the Gators, still mathematically alive in the SEC East Division race, in an even more solid standing on that front.
The game has been pegged for a noon start, which in the "Show Me State" means 11 a.m. That can be a concern for a coach; if he lets it be, that is. Mullen will be so inclined, especially after pounding Vandy in that noon slot. This time, though, the Gators will be waking up early in a hotel room and stepping out into temperatures in the 30s or 40s.
Rise and shine, fellas.
"I like it. Get up and go play," Mullen said. "If you're a competitor, I don't care if you put the ball down at 2 o'clock in the morning in the middle of a parking lot. Let's go play. If that's not your mindset, then you're not really a competitor."
Missouri had a good ol' time at Spurrier/Florida Field last season en route to soundly beating the Gators 38-17.
Offensively, the Gators got up Saturday and played the first half against the Commodores like they needed another cup of coffee. In Mullen's words, they kind of stopped themselves with a couple turnovers, a failed fourth-down conversion and missed field goal. UF's 14-0 lead at halftime could have been much larger.
Then came a 28-point third-quarter barrage when the Gators averaged 21.6 yards over their 10 offensive snaps and also scored on an 80-yard fumble return for a touchdown by linebacker Jonathan Greenard. On defense, the Gators, led by three sacks from linebacker and SEC Defensive Freshman of the Week Mohamoud Diabate (the aforementioned fumble-forcer), limited the Commodores to just 128 yards.
Save the pseudo-slow start by the offense, it was a pretty good day all around for the Gators.
"There were some offensive miscues, obviously, couple here and there, in the first half," said fourth-year junior quarterback Kyle Trask, who set career highs with 25 completions and 363 yards to go with three touchdown passes. "I think we did a great job just sticking with the game plan."
UF exited the afternoon with 560 yards of total offense and the most lopsided shutout of a SEC foe since the 1996 national-championship season. The Gators will hit the road this week ranked fifth in the league in scoring offense (33.3 points per game) and seventh in total offense (419.5 yards per). Defensively, Florida rates second in the league in scoring (15.0 points allowed per game) and third overall (308.2 yards).
The Gators are expected to get a pair of starters back in offensive guard Brett Heggie and defensive end Jabari Zuniga, both of whom were held out against Vandy (Heggie with headaches; Zuniga with a sore ankle).
Missouri's overall numbers are skewed by the home-vs-road discrepancy. No question, the Tigers are a more dangerous team with Bryant (62.2 percent, 1,845 yards, 14 TDs, 5 INTs) at quarterback, as opposed to either Taylor Powell or Connor Bazelak, who both took turns getting beaten on at Georgia. The Tigers do boast the SEC's No. 2-ranked defense (behind Georgia) in allowing just 287.8 yards per game — led by standout linebacker and SEC tackles leader Nick Bolton — and the No. 1 pass defense at 147.7 per game.
But numbers haven't meant much in this series of late. They mostly been stacked against the team wearing orange and blue. The Gators want to flip that, of course, but do so while keeping to their plan.
Trask got a taste of the Tigers last year when he took over for benched starter Feleipe Franks and actually looked good enough (10 of 18, 126 yards, 1 TD) in mop-up duty that he likely would have started the next game against South Carolina — until breaking his foot during practice that week. It was a tough turn of events for Trask, but his teammates didn't lose again.
Now Trask is trying to direct his offense — his team — on a similar path down the home stretch. The trouble-causing Tigers are next in line.
"It's really important for us not to focus on all the outside noise about the struggles we've had recently [against Missouri]," Trask said. "What we need to do is just focus on who we are, what we can do, and do our best to work through it even harder [Monday] in practice. I think if we do that, we'll perform well on Saturday."
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