Malik Zaire placed his palms on his helmet and stared at the video board.
He’d just thrown what looked like a touchdown pass — Florida’s first of the game — to Tyrie Cleveland on a deep heave. But before the ball landed, a flag was thrown.
Left tackle Martez Ivey was called for holding, and the Gators eventually settled for a field goal. Settling was a theme for UF on Saturday.
There was no redemption from there. Nothing to be proud of. Nothing to build on. Nothing to wonder about on the long plane ride home aside from, “Wow, how did we sink this low?” The Gators (3-5, 3-4 SEC) were dominated from beginning to end in all three phases of the game on Saturday at Missouri (4-5, 1-4 SEC), 45-16, in a game — the first of the Randy Shannon era — where it felt like the Gators gave up before it started.
“We like came out here and let them take over us,” defensive tackle Khairi Clark said.
That was evident on the game’s first drive, when the Tigers drove down the field before UF freshman C.J. Henderson intercepted a pass in the end zone. It looked like the Gators gained new energy with the pick, but the energy vanished. Quickly.
Florida’s own drive stalled, as did the following Missouri drive. But the punt from Mizzou’s Corey Fatony was muffed by Florida’s Brandon Powell inside the UF 15. Tigers quarterback Drew Locke tossed the game’s first touchdown three plays later. The rout had begun.
When it ended, Locke had 228 yards through the air, three touchdowns and just the one interception. His Tigers finished with 455 yards overall. It was the second week in a row where Florida’s defense allowed 42 points or more, which hadn’t happened since 1917.
Perhaps the pinnacle of Missouri’s dominance came in the second quarter, when Florida punter Johnny Townsend pinned the Tigers near the 2-yard line. Locke led a 98-yard touchdown drive in under six minutes.
“We couldn't get stops,” Shannon said.
Florida’s offense, meanwhile, didn’t perform much better with Zaire at quarterback. In his first start of the season, the Notre Dame graduate transfer finished with 158 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. He was relieved by Feleipe Franks with 7:10 left in the fourth quarter, and Franks initially picked up where Zaire left off.
The redshirt freshman dropped back on his first play of the game, threw to no one on a busted route and got pummelled to the turf by Missouri’s defensive line. However, he came back to throw a touchdown pass on that same drive. That was as good as it got for Florida’s offense, and that came when UF was down 42-9. It finished with 349 yards. However, much of that was negated with 84 penalty yards.
"A couple killer penalties,” Shannon said, “and those guys were taken out of the game because it's all mental.”
There were also more injuries for the Gators. Defensive end Jachai Polite and athlete Kadarius Toney didn’t play from the start, and center T.J. McCoy, running back Lamical Perine, defensive end Jabari Zuniga and guard Brett Heggie all went down. Heggie, the team’s starting left guard, was carted off and never returned with an apparent knee injury.
“We're a very young team,” Shannon said, “but I'm not gonna make any excuses for this football team. When you come to this university, even if you're young, you have to play to a high standard. We've got to instill that in those guys that you have to play at a high standard."
You can follow Ethan Bauer on Twitter @ebaueri, and contact him at ebauer@alligator.org.
In his first of the season, UF quarterback Malik Zaire had 158 yards, one interception and no touchdowns in Florida's 45-16 loss to Missouri on Saturday in Columbia, Missouri.
