Take Five Breakdown: First Ranked Road Match-up

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• September Superlatives
• Getting to Know: Davin Davidson

The No. 8 Florida Gators (4-0) have their first ranked road game of the season, against No. 25 Missouri. Following their 52-28 victory against Ole Miss (previously ranked #4), Florida is now in the AP Top 10 for the first time since 2021. A win on Saturday would be Florida’s first road victory against a ranked opponent since 2018 (No. 24 Mississippi St). To learn more about who the Gators face this weekend, Inside the Gators spoke with Cody Goodwin, beat reporter for PowerMizzou/247Sports.

Five Missouri Tigers To Know

Cayden Lee, Wide Receiver, Senior

• This season, Lee has 412 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns; the four touchdowns are more than he had in any of his three previous seasons at Ole Miss (career high of 3 last season). Last weekend, against Mississippi State, Lee became the first player at Mizzou to have 150 receiving yards for two touchdowns in a road match-up, since Danario Alexander did it in 2009 at Kansas State. Also, Lee has six contested catches this season, tying for 10th in FBS and first in the SEC.

Austin Simmons, Quarterback, Senior

• Just like Florida, Missouri also has a new guy at the helm this season. Simmons transferred from Ole Miss this offseason, and he is one of 12 FBS quarterbacks who have three games with more than five completions of 20+ yards. This season, Simmons has passed 947 yards for 11 touchdowns. Overall, he is not the most accurate passer, ranking 8th in the SEC with a 65% completion percentage. However, he has the second-lowest off-target rate in the conference at 6%. Simmons is certainly no Chambliss, but that does not mean he isn’t still a threat.

Daeden Hopkins, Edge Defender, Senior

• Hopkins finished with three and a half sacks and tackles against Mississippi State. He is third in the SEC with six total sacks already this season, and he has 6.5 tackles in the past four games. In three straight games, he has had 1.5 or more sacks, making him the first Missouri player to accomplish that feat since Charles Harris in 2016. Hopkins is only a sophomore, but he is extremely talented for his age, so Florida probably has him marked on defense.

Donovan Olugbode, Wide Receiver, Sophomore

• Olugbode has 313 receiving yards and five touchdowns so far this season. He and Cayden Lee put Missouri on the list as the only FBS school with multiple players reaching 300 receiving yards and four touchdowns in their first four games of the season. He is the first receiver from the Tigers to score a touchdown in each of his first four games in a season since 2023, when Theo Wease Jr. accomplished this feat.

Jamal Roberts, Running Back, Senior

• Last season, the Tigers had the best rushing duo in FBS: Jamal Roberts and Ahmad Hardy. In the offseason, Hardy sustained a gunshot wound in May that he is still recovering from. Turning back to Roberts, though, he ranks 18th in the FBS and 3rd in the SEC with 395 rushing yards this season. Roberts has 89 carries in their first four weeks, which is 4th-most in the FBS and first in the SEC. The senior also has two 100-yard rushing games, compared to only three all last season. It will be a great run-versus-run battle between Roberts and Baugh on Saturday.

Five Ways the Gators Can Find Success

Maintain Protection Around Philo

• This season, Missouri has had 12 total sacks, including three or more in each of its last three match-ups, and has generated pressure on 34.5% of dropbacks. But Florida has been strong on the offensive line, protecting Aaron Philo and allowing only two sacks on 17 quarterback pressures this season. Also, in contrast to the Tigers’ pressure, the Gators can run play action on 49% of their dropbacks, and Philo has completed six of his seven passing touchdowns on play action in the past four games. In much simpler terms, Florida’s o-line needs to consistently protect Philo, giving him enough time to make these big plays, even when Missouri brings pressure,

Keep the Ground Attack Coming

• The Tigers’ run defense is the best that the Gators will have faced so far this season. However, Mizzou has not faced a running back as good as Jadan Baugh in the past four weeks. This season, Florida is averaging 6.5 rushes of 10 or more yards per game. But Missouri is only allowing an average of 4.3 per game. Florida’s Jadan Baugh has finished each game this season with over 100 rushing yards and more than one touchdown. He also leads the country with 11 rushing scores and is 2nd in FBS with 600 total rushing yds. As long as the Gators can establish the run game, create routes, and give Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark opportunities to create explosive plays on the ground, Florida will be just fine in Columbia.

Exploit the Tigers’ Secondary

• Missouri’s secondary is not completely bad, but they have some work to do. Last week against Mississippi State, Missouri’s secondary allowed State’s Quarterback, Kamario Taylor, to throw three touchdowns for 360 yards, including two passes of 43+ yards. Now, Aaron Philo is not the passing quarterback Taylor is, because with Jadan Baugh rushing for over 100 yards a game, you do not really need him to be. However, Florida uses its run game to set up its passing, so as long as the Gators are successful on the ground, Vernell Brown III and Dallas Wilson can do the rest in the air, getting some play action and catching some deep shots from Philo. Like I said, with a shaky secondary, if Florida can find a way to pass more and exploit the Tigers’ weakness, on top of how many points the Gators put up each game, they could definitely create problems for Missouri.

Force Penalties

• The Tigers have a bit of a penalty problem; no judgment here, though, because Florida does too. Mizzou has committed 32 penalties in its first four games, and the Gators are one of the only teams in the SEC that have more penalties, with 35. The majority of Missouri’s flags have been called on offense: lots of false starts and holding penalties, making it difficult for them to find an offensive rhythm through the first four weeks of the season. Now, Missouri has forced opponents to commit 33 penalties, the 3rd-most in the SEC, and Florida’s opponents have committed 30 combined penalties, the 5th-most in the SEC. This will be a bit of a push-and-pull battle of who can make the other walk off with the most flags; if Florida wants to find some long-overdue success in Columbia, they need to play clean.

Eliminate Long Passes

• The Gators have allowed three completions of 20 or more yards in each game this season, and in both of their SEC games, they have given up four 20-yard or more passes. The Tigers average 9.3 explosive plays per game, and Quarterback Austin Simmons has proven capable of generating explosive plays for his receivers. However, a key to success will be keeping Missouri from making those big plays downfield.

Five Fast Facts

• Florida has won three of the last five meetings against Missouri. They most recently beat the Tigers in Gainesville on Oct. 8, 2022 (24-17). Missouri currently leads the series 7-6.
• The Florida Gators are one touchdown away (28) from matching last season’s total (29).
• The last time the Gators came out of Columbia with a win was on Nov. 16, 2019 (23-6).
• Missouri and Florida played each other for 11 straight seasons from 2012 to 2023, but Saturday marks their first meeting since.
• This is only the second time ever that both the Gators and Tigers have been ranked when facing one another. The first time was in 2013, when No. 22 Florida made its first trip to Columbia to face No. 14 Missouri. The Gators lost 36-17.

Prediction

• Ross: 41-24 Florida
• Goodwin: Does not have an exact score prediction but is leaning toward a high-scoring game and a Florida win.

Score Predictions

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