It wasn’t supposed to be this bad.
After losing quarterback Tim Tebow and eight other players to the NFL Draft, many expected a bit of a drop off.
But not many expected No. 22 Florida (4-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) to fall to Mississippi State 10-7 in The Swamp for its third straight loss Saturday. Bulldogs coach and former Gators offensive coordinator Dan Mullen picked up the win against his former team and gave the Bulldogs their first victory in Gainesville since 1965.
“This is one of the toughest times of my life,” senior Mike Pouncey said. “I can’t remember the last time I lost three games in my whole life.”
The same goes for Gators fans. The last time UF lost three consecutive regular season games was in 1988.
After trailing for most of the game and struggling to put points up on the board, the Gators found themselves with an opportunity to salvage a victory against the Bulldogs.
With two minutes left in the game, UF took over at its 4-yard line and completed nine of 13 passes to drive all the way to MSU’s 25.
But it wasn’t enough as punter Chas Henry, who is filling in for an injured Caleb Sturgis on field goal duty, missed his second field goal of the game with a chance to send it into overtime.
“He’s been a great player and a starter since he was a freshman,” Pouncey said. “It’s a tough loss. He missed it. We’re not going to point the fingers at him because obviously we had a chance to score and (not) put him in those kind of situations.”
Instead the Gators failed to convert on two out of three red zone opportunities. A 15-play drive in the second quarter stalled on the Bulldogs’ 16-yard line and another one ended at the 17 when Demps fumbled the ball in the fourth quarter.
“It sucks, because a lot of people thinks it’s coach Addazio’s play calling,” Pouncey said. “It’s definitely not that. He’s calling the best plays that are there for us. We just gotta get better.”
The unit struggled with injuries to running backs Jeff Demps (foot), Mike Gillislee (ankle) and Emmanuel Moody (thigh). However, Demps did play most of the second quarter after stepping onto the field sporadically in the first half.
UF's only touchdown of the game came in the third quarter on an option pitch to Omarius Hines from wildcat quarterback Trey Burton. Hines ran it for five yards into the end zone.
MSU’s running game was at full strength, however.
The Bulldogs piled up 212 rushing yards and at one point called 24 run plays in a row that spanned all the way from second to the fourth quarter. Even though the Gators knew it was coming, they still couldn’t stop it.
“We loaded the box and we did some things and the thing that happened is they got in there and we didn’t make a couple of hits,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. “Then all of a sudden it would get jumbled up in there and the back would squirt through.”
Now the Gators will have two weeks to think about the losses and correct things with a bye week coming up. But it can’t get much worse than this.
“We are not very good right now,” coach Urban Meyer said.
Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, who spent four years as UF’s offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer, celebrates on the field after his Bulldogs defeated the Gators 10-7 in 2011.
