No. 21 Florida Stuns No. 4 Ole Miss, Rolls to 4-0

Florida hasn’t beaten a top-five team since 2018. That changed Saturday, and it wasn’t close.

In front of more than 90,000 fans at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, No. 21 Florida (4-0, 2-0 SEC) knocked off No. 4 Ole Miss 52-28, earning the Gators’ first win over a top-five opponent since beating No. 5 LSU in 2018 and improving to 4-0 for the first time since 2019.

The win was built on the ground. Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark combined for 268 rushing yards on 41 carries, and Florida’s defense held potential Heisman candidate Trinidad Chambliss to his offense’s lowest point total of the season, even as the Gators’ recurring penalty problem reared its head again.

“It’s not asleep, but it ain’t fully awake yet,” Gators coach Jon Sumrall said of Florida’s program following the game. “It’s being stirred up a little bit. So we’re going to get there. … I promise you, I didn’t come here for us to be average.”

Florida wasted no time setting the tone, capping its opening drive with an eight-play march that ended in a 4-yard touchdown run from Baugh for a 7-0 lead. The defense carried that energy into Ole Miss’s first possession, stuffing the Rebels on fourth-and-1 to give the offense a short field. Florida cashed it in with a 49-yard field goal from Patrick Durkin to make it 10-0.

That’s when the penalties started piling up as the Gators finished with eight for 92 yards. Three penalties in four plays — a delay-of-game call on Aaron Philo, a holding penalty on Bailey Stockton that wiped out a 68-yard touchdown run by Vernell Brown III and a kick-catch interference flag — stalled a Florida drive that had all the makings of another score.

“The offense is rolling right now,” Philo said. “We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas, moving forward, keep practicing hard and keep grinding, moving on week by week.”

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The defense picked up the slack again, forcing a fourth-and-10 and limiting Ole Miss to a field goal, its first points of the day to make it 10-3. Stockton was helped off the field after absorbing a hard hit on the ensuing drive, drawing a targeting penalty that handed Florida an automatic first down. Baugh converted the extra chance into a 2-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 17-3.

Baugh’s performance throughout the game ended with 29 carries, 142 yards, three touchdowns and. With his fifth straight game recording over 100 rushing yards, entered a club occupied only by Emmitt Smith and Fred Taylor.

“It means so much to me, but it means so much to them as well,” Baugh said. “Having somebody on the team that could potentially win this award, that means the world to them.”

Ole Miss got one more chance before the break, answering with a field goal after the Gators’ defense forced back-to-back incomplete passes from Chambliss, trimming it to 17-6 at the half. Florida had already piled up 192 rushing yards.

Ole Miss came out of the locker room with life. Chambliss connected on a 49-yard pass to set up his own 4-yard touchdown run, and the Rebels converted the two-point try to make it 17-14. Florida answered just as fast, needing only four plays before Clark broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run to make it 24-14. 

Ole Miss wouldn’t go away, though, grinding out a 14-play, 74-yard drive capped by Chambliss’s second rushing touchdown of the day, a 10-yard scamper that cut the lead back to 24-21.

Florida’s offense stayed just as explosive. Amir Jackson hauled in a 23-yard catch from Philo to set up a short-field drive, and after a 2-yard Baugh run and a 1-yard Philo sneak, the Gators had another score in just three plays and 1:25 for a 31-21 lead. The defense delivered again on the next series, with Jayden Woods sacking Chambliss and Myles Graham recovering the fumble to hand the offense the ball back at Florida’s 43 with 2:41 left in the third quarter.

“Really proud of our guys,” Sumrall said. “Still have a lot to clean up. But the responses tonight, I thought we started fast. I thought we got off the field on third down early in the game defensively when maybe some momentum wasn’t going our way in the third quarter.”

As the game moved into the fourth, The Swamp broke into its traditional “Won’t Back Down” chant, and Florida kept the pressure on. Dallas Wilson opened the scoring in the final period with a 6-yard touchdown run for a 38-21 lead. Ole Miss answered one more time, with a blown coverage on a pass to Deuce Alexander going for a touchdown to cut it to 38-28 in the Rebels’ last real push of the game.

Florida shut the door from there. Clark ripped off a 44-yard run to set up a short field, and Philo found Jackson for the score to make it 45-28 with 9:19 remaining. With 4:47 left, Philo hit Eric Singleton for a 38-yard gain, and Baugh punched in a 2-yard touchdown to cap the scoring at 52-28.

Florida’s string of four consecutive games with 40 or more points is the first time a Gators team has reached the mark since 2008’s National Championship-winning squad did so in seven contests in a row. Looking back further, the last time a UF team opened the season with four straight performances of 40 or more points was back in 2001.

“I like the direction we’re headed,” Sumrall said. “I’m not like Eeyore, and mad at life. I just want us to be the best we can be all the time. I’m just driven to be good.”

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