It was a familiar set up. The No. 11 Florida football team started off slowly with the offense struggling to put points on the board.
However, that's where the similarities end.
"It felt good to come back here after what happened two years ago, came here and got blown out with a coach getting fired," senior wide receiver Josh Hammond said. "It came to end here on the right note."
Two seasons ago, Jim McElwain had just been fired, and Randy Shannon was the interim head coach. Gators showed no life and were ultimately embarrassed by the Tigers on the road. One year later, the Gators would lose to Missouri again, after letting their loss to Georgia a week prior affect them.
But this is a different team from the 2017 side.
This is even a different team than the group that suited up in 2018.
"I think the maturity of the team and the leadership of the team is showing," head coach Dan Mullen told reporters after the 23-6 win over Missouri on Saturday. "Not that it was terrible last year, I just think (guys) didn’t know, and now this team knows.
"There are standards and expectations when you’re a Gator: You’re going to show up. You’re going to get everyone’s A-game, week-in and week-out. When the Gators come to town, that’s a big deal. When you get to play the Gators it’s a big deal for everybody. And we’ve got to bring our A-game to be able to do that. And that’s part of (what) the Gator Standard is and I think the guys understand it a lot more and there’s a different expectation within this team."
This new maturity allowed the Gators to patiently find a rhythm without hitting the panic button.
“We have had a couple of games like this where it’s a little slow start this season. I think it’s taught out guys just to stick with it," said quarterback Kyle Trask. "That’s why we’re never panicking, especially in a situation like this when it’s so low-scoring at halftime. Seems like there’s not a lot of positive going on because the scoreboard is so low."
"We were moving the ball up and down the field, and then we have penalties and things of that nature that held us back," added Hammond. "Just little details that we were lacking."
"I mean it was a slow start, we never want to do that but things happen in football," BUCK Jonathan Greenard said. "But that just means that the defense has got to come out there more and keep stopping them. If they don't score, we win. That's what happened. Defense did our job.
"Offense, as long as we keep giving them the ball they're going to make something happen. We've got too many athletes on that side for it not to happen."
To be fair, Greenard and the defense played a solid game and allowed Florida to have some time to find that rhythm offensively.
“Our defense play lights out," said Trask. "We have amazing athletes on there, they’re very well coached. I always feel really confident when they’re on the field.”
Trask went 10-of-12 passing for 127 yards and two touchdowns in the third quarter to extend the lead to double-digits. Trask took advantage of good field position by hitting deep to Hammond. The wide receiver made quite the adjustment to catch a 34-yard touchdown pass.
Still in the third quarter, Trask launched a ball to the sideline to running back Lamical Perine, who made an athletic grab, touching his foot inbounds to secure the touchdown.
"He’s not afraid to go up and make a big-time play when he has to," said Hammond about Perine's catch. "He’s been big for us this year.”
"It was great," receiver Van Jefferson said. "That was big for the team. He made a great play, Kyle threw a great ball."
"Missouri’s defense, they like to go five-man pressure, one-on-one on the outside," explained Trask. "We thought we had great athletes to win those matchups. Now it’s just those guys, doing their one-on-one and winning their matchup.”
Florida snatched points when they needed to, while the Gators defense kept an offense that had dominated at home to just six points.
Was it sloppy at times? Sure. But they won.
"You win the game, you’re happy, you go fix your problems. You don’t win the game, you’re not happy and you go fix your problems," said Mullen. "I don’t know what all the problems are right now that I gotta fix but I’m really happy."
Mullen should be happy.
It was an early kick off, with a slow start, and on the road against a tough opponent. These are the games Florida has lost several times in the last ten years. They didn't lose on Saturday, however.
"Winning. That’s all that matters. Run, throw, pass, I don’t care," said Mullen. "Coming into today we did everything we can do. Our getting to Atlanta is out of our hands but it’s still there. We had to win today to keep that hope alive, and we did that."
Georgia would have to lose to both Auburn and Texas A&M in order for Florida to go to the SEC Championship game.
"Hopefully we can get the results we want with a couple teams doing what we need them to do," Greenard said. "All we can control right now is everything on this side. We're going to try to win out. We've got a bye week this week to get healthy. We've got some guys still banged up. Come back for Florida State and hopefully finish this thing out."
