No. 16 Florida Gators look to bounce back from Missouri rout as South Carolina visits for homecoming

No. 16 Florida returns to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday looking to steady itself after its first loss under coach Jon Sumrall. The Gators (4-1, 2-1 SEC) host South Carolina (2-3, 0-3 SEC) in their homecoming game at 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network, one week after a 45-17 beating at Missouri knocked them out of the top 10.

Florida entered October ranked No. 8 after a 52-28 home win over then-No. 4 Ole Miss. It now sits No. 16 in the AP poll and No. 15 in the coaches poll, and a road trip to Texas waits the following week. For a first-year staff trying to build on a fast start, a clean homecoming performance against a struggling conference opponent would go a long way.

What went wrong at Missouri

No. 25 Missouri trounced Florida on Oct. 3 in Columbia. Austin Simmons threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns, Jamal Roberts ran for 211 yards and three scores, including an 80-yard touchdown, and the Tigers outgained the Gators 560 to 325. Cayden Lee added eight catches for 110 yards, and Missouri did it without injured edge rushers Darris Smith and Langden Kitchen. Missouri scored 35 unanswered points and led 45-10 entering the fourth quarter, according to The Associated Press. It was Missouri's first regular-season win over a top-10 opponent since 2013 and snapped a nine-game losing streak against ranked teams.

Florida quarterback Aaron Philo threw for 197 yards and a touchdown while playing from behind most of the day. He averaged a season-low 5.8 yards per attempt on a season-high 34 throws without his top receiver, Vernell Brown III, who sat out with a knee strain suffered against Ole Miss.

"They played with physicality. Hat's off to them. They deserved the win," Sumrall said after the game, according to the AP. He was blunter in another assessment. "The score is the score," he said, adding that how the team played "is not acceptable, and it will not be acceptable. I'm livid," according to Yahoo Sports.

Florida's season so far

Sumrall arrived in Gainesville after successful head coaching runs at Troy and Tulane, and his first Florida team had looked like one of the surprises of the SEC before Missouri, scoring at least 44 points in each of its first four games.

Running back Jadan Baugh has been a steady presence in the backfield, and Philo, a redshirt sophomore, has run an offense under coordinator Buster Faulkner that averaged more than 50 points a game before the trip to Columbia. Brad White runs the defense, which will need a far better showing after giving up 560 yards to Missouri.

Injury watch: Vernell Brown III

The biggest question for Florida this week is whether Brown returns. Sumrall said Monday that the sophomore, Florida's leading receiver, has been cleared to participate after a low-grade knee strain but that the staff would monitor his confidence and pain tolerance through the week. "He has the ability to run, but we've got to see how confident he is to cut it loose," Sumrall said.

Brown's absence showed against Missouri, when Florida's passing game struggled to stretch the field. His return would give Philo a reliable target against a South Carolina secondary that lost cornerback Brandon Cisse to the NFL Draft.

South Carolina arrives reeling

Shane Beamer's Gamecocks, in his sixth season, opened with blowout wins over Kent State (57-0) and Towson (45-9) before dropping three straight SEC games: 41-34 at Mississippi State, 49-18 to Alabama and 35-34 in overtime to Kentucky last Saturday, when the Wildcats won it on a two-point conversion.

Quarterback LaNorris Sellers, a redshirt junior, has thrown for 1,059 yards and eight touchdowns through five games. His supporting cast includes 6-foot-5 receiver Nyck Harbor, Texas transfer running back Christian Clark and defensive end Dylan Stewart, a junior the Florida offensive line will have to account for on every snap. South Carolina opened as a two-score underdog in Gainesville, according to betting coverage of the game, and has a bye week after Saturday.

Pressure on Beamer has grown. A column on the Gamecocks fan site Garnet and Cocky argued that he has squandered seven double-digit leads at South Carolina, and an 0-4 start in conference play would only intensify that conversation.

Series history and homecoming

Florida leads the all-time series 31-10-3, a rivalry dating to 1911, and was 17-2 at home against South Carolina entering this season, according to WRUF. The Gators won 14 straight meetings from 1964 through 2004 and had won the last two before the teams skipped a year in 2025 under the SEC's revised scheduling.

Saturday is Florida's 102nd homecoming game and Sumrall's first in The Swamp. The Gators are 32-5 in homecoming games since 1989, according to Yahoo Sports.

Weather check: Tropical Storm Isaias

Tropical Storm Isaias formed in the southwestern Gulf on Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center expects it to strengthen into a hurricane and approach the northern Gulf Coast by Friday, with its forecast track pointing toward the area between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle rather than the Florida peninsula. No change to Saturday's kickoff had been announced as of Wednesday. Fans traveling from the Panhandle should watch NHC advisories and any updates from the University of Florida athletic department later in the week.

What's next

Florida and South Carolina kick off at 12:45 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network. After that, the Gators travel to Texas on Oct. 17, then face Georgia in Atlanta on Oct. 31 in the annual rivalry game. The November slate brings Oklahoma to Gainesville on Nov. 7, a trip to Kentucky on Nov. 14, Vanderbilt at home on Nov. 21 and the regular-season finale at Florida State on Nov. 27. A win Saturday would put Florida at 5-1 heading into the toughest stretch of its schedule; a loss would mean back-to-back defeats for the first time under Sumrall.