Stopping star running back Jadan Baugh will be key for No. 25 Missouri to bounce back against No. 8 Florida on Saturday in Columbia, Mo.
A leading Heisman Trophy contender, Baugh rushed for 142 yards and three touchdowns for the Gators (4-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) in their 52-28 thumping of visiting Ole Miss, which was ranked No. 4 coming in.
Baugh leads the FBS in total touchdowns with 11, and the junior is the third back in school history to top 100 yards rushing in five consecutive games, joining Emmitt Smith (1987, 1988) and Fred Taylor (1997). Baugh’s streak started in the 2025 season finale against Florida State and has continued through four games this campaign.
Missouri (3-1, 0-1) fell 31-24 at then-No. 24 Mississippi State last Saturday. The Tigers allowed 499 total yards to the Bulldogs, who consequently rose eight spots to No. 16 in the Associated Press poll this week while Missouri slipped six spots from No. 19.
Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said on Tuesday that the Tigers will have to tackle better than they did against Mississippi State’s Fluff Bothwell, who gained 122 yards on 25 carries.
“(Baugh is a) tremendous running back; probably, right now, the best one in the country,” Drinkwitz said. “He’s downhill and physical.”
And he’s not the only weapon. Florida rolled up 302 rushing yards and 498 total against Ole Miss. Duke Clark’s 45-yard TD run was Florida’s first score of the second half against Ole Miss.
“They’ve got ‘Florida speed’ at the skill positions,” Drinkwitz said.
Florida’s victory against Ole Miss was its highest-ranked win in 11 years, and the 52 points scored tied its most against a top-five team since the 1996 season. The Gators had also dropped 12 straight games against top-five opponents.
Under new coach Jon Sumrall, the Gators are off to their best start since 2019, when they won their first six games before capping the season with an 11-2 record as Orange Bowl champions.
The Gators went 4-8 a year ago, their fourth losing season in the past five. Sumrall told his players that their good start this season is something to build on but not something to lean on.
“Be where your feet are,” said Sumrall, the head coach at Tulane the past two seasons and at Troy in 2022-23. “Just be in the moment. You get one opportunity this week. Last week, we had an opportunity; it’s gone forever. I told our team this morning: I don’t want to hear anybody talk about that game the rest of the year.”
Drinkwitz, whose team started strong before stumbling in its SEC opener, takes a different tack.
“Losses are lessons to learn from,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s not one-and-done on any of these, it’s opportunities to go back and see where you made a mistake.
“We want to be quick to write people off these days, but seasons are long.”
A trend Drinkwitz wants to reverse: Mizzou’s 1-9 record against ranked opponents since the start of the 2024 season. Eight of the nine losses are against SEC opponents such as Texas A&M, Alabama and Oklahoma.
“We can’t tolerate slow starts anymore,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ve got to speed up the response and have a bounce-back factor.”
