The Missouri Tigers entered the game ranked #25 in the college football rankings, facing Heisman hopeful Jadan Baugh. After four games, Baugh came into the Mizzou game with 600 yards, facing a team that had gone to Starkville and allowed 122 rushing yards to Fluff Bothwell.

I give Drinkwitz credit as a coach this 2026 season. Over the last four games, he has addressed the issues he observed in each game. For example, in the KU game there was a serious issue on special teams, with field goals getting blocked. Against Troy, the secondary got exposed, and then in the Mississippi State game he kept Kamario’s wide receivers in check, with a few exceptions.

The trend kept going in this game, and it was clear from watching that defensive coordinator Corey Batoon did a lot of great work on tackling. He held Baugh to only 13 rushing yards after Baugh ran for 142 yards the week before.

After Batoon took away the run from sophomore quarterback Aaron Philo, the Tigers were able to expose him by consistently pressuring him. That made the Gators’ offense one-dimensional, which allowed Batoon to focus on defending Philo’s passing and hold him to 197 passing yards.

On the offense, Austin Simmons exposed Florida’s weakness in the secondary by throwing for 340 yards and two touchdowns. The standouts were, of course, Cayden Lee and Donovan Olugbode. As has been the trend all season, Lee was Simmons’ preferred wide receiver, and his speed has proven he is worthy of being the go-to guy. On plays where it seemed the entire defense knew where the ball was going, the Gators were still not able to stop him.

One of the talking points I had on the podcast was that we needed the run game to work to keep the ball away from Florida, but more importantly, to keep Chip Lindsey’s offense from becoming one-dimensional. The game started with a slow running game in the first half, but toward the end of the third quarter, Jamal Roberts had a 78-yard run, and at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he had an 80-yard run for a touchdown.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the offense was able to fix its penalty issues, finishing with only one penalty for 15 yards. Overall, with improved tackling, a great game from Simmons and minimal penalties, the Tigers beat the #8 Gators 45-17 at Faurot Field.