Missouri's all-black uniforms might have served as pallbearer uniforms for the Dan Mullen tenure at the University of Florida.

The 24-23 loss to Missouri should be the last straw on a shockingly quick fall from grace for Dan Mullen at Florida.

Just 14 months ago the Gators were a top-five team. They had a Heisman hopeful in Kyle Trask. They had the future John Mackey Award winner in Kyle Pitts. They had a human highlight reel in Kadarius Toney. They had just clobbered Georgia.

It seems like so long ago now.

This Florida team has lost seven consecutive one-possession games but more importantly, they've lost their way under Dan Mullen's leadership.

The Gators will now need a win over 5-6 Florida State to even make a bowl game, although their high APR ranking could potentially get them a bid at even 5-7.

Florida's issues on Saturday night were the same that we've seen all season. It's easy to say that when the issues are so numerous and. Florida was penalized nine times for 80 yards. A false start, coming out of a timeout, gave Missouri a first down when it was 4th and 1. A defensive holding call erased an interception. A false start on fourth down made the Gators have to punt rather than going for it.

Missouri came into this game with the nation's 129th ranked rushing defense. There are only 130 FBS teams. Florida ran for just 93 yards.

I don't know how to make a case for Dan Mullen to return in 2022. You could say he has a generational talent at quarterback in Anthony Richardson. He could be Cam Newton or Dak Prescott but, Mullen said Richardson was hurt again this week in practice and he didn't play a single snap against Missouri. You could say that a new stand-alone football facility — that will finally bring the Gators up to snuff with their rivals in terms of facilities — will help in recruiting. Mullen could point to Scott Stricklin even being the athletic director at Florida because of the job Mullen did winning at Mississippi State, a place that is historically impossible to win at the level that Mullen did.

I don't know that it will or should be enough.

Florida finished with a 2-6 record in SEC play. It's the worst conference record for the Gators since the SEC expanded in 1992. It matches the fewest number of conference wins since 1986, but Florida only played six league games that season.

The Gators won just one game on the road this season, a week two trip to Tampa to take on USF. Florida won that game 42-20 and lost every single other game they played away from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium this season.

The Gators are also 2-9 in their last 11 games against Power 5 opponents.

The only team that Florida will finish ranked higher in the SEC this season is Vanderbilt.

Florida's defense played well enough on Saturday night in order for the Gators to win comfortably. They gave up one 50 passing play but, for the most part, held Missouri even after the offense or special teams had put them in a bad situation.

The Florida defense held Missouri to 19 total yards including just one rushing yard on three carries in the first quarter of play. The Gators held the Tigers to 11 rushing yards in the first half. The defense recorded a season-high 10 tackles for loss in today’s game. After converting on their first third down of the game, Florida stopped Missouri on 10-consecutive third downs thereafter (1-for-11) before the Tigers converted on their 12th third down. Missouri was just 3-15 on third down.

"I'm taking this as our defense came together and we played together as one, just like what coach C-Rob always says, play as one, hunt as one. I think we did that tonight. You know, obviously, we were backed into a corner, we've been backed into a corner the majority of the season," defensive lineman Antonio Valentino said after the game. "You got two options when you're in the corner: You either die in the corner or you fight out. And, the best part about that is, to me, is that we're still in the corner and we still got another opportunity to fight

Dan Mullen walked to the podium following Florida's 41-17 2020 win over Missouri decked out in a Darth Vader costume complete with a red lightsaber. It was Halloween, after all.

One year later, Missouri Eli Drinkwitz and their social media team returned the favor.

Construction at the Columbia Regional Airport forced the Florida Gators to fly into St. Louis and take five busses from that airport to Columbia on Friday afternoon. The typical travel plan for the longest road trip on the schedule is to fly directly from Gainesville to Columbia. The bus ride from St. Louis to Columbia, even with a police escort, took more than two hours.

That's going to be a very uncomfortable ride back to St. Louis this evening.