Mizzou football vs. Florida: Five things to know before surging Tigers’ Saturday game

The Missouri Tigers were narrow underdogs for last weekend’s SEC football matchup against the Tennessee Volunteers.

All the Tigers proceeded to do at Faurot Field was allow the fewest points they’d surrendered all season in routing the Vols 36-7.

Led by running back Cody Schrader’s 321 yards of total offense and quarterback Brady Cook’s gutsy all-around play, the Tigers toppled Tennessee for the first time since 2018. And that result propelled the Tigers to another first-in-a-decade milestone.

The latest edition of the College Football Playoff rankings elevated the Tigers to No. 9, up five spots from the previous week’s position.

It’s Mizzou’s first top-10 CFP ranking in program history.

Now the Tigers play host to the Florida Gators, who are on the outside looking in when it comes to bowl eligibility. UF has five wins but has dropped three straight after a 52-35 loss to LSU.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of Saturday’s evening game on Senior Night in Columbia:

Mizzou football vs. Florida game details

Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18

Where: Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field (Columbia)

TV: ESPN

Radio: Tiger Radio Network

Early betting line: Mizzou is a 11.5-point favorite. The over/under is set at 58.5.

Four things to know: Mizzou vs. Tennessee

1. Florida has two major roadblocks to attaining bowl eligibility: The Gators are facing two top-10 teams to close out their season. Aside from this matchup against the No. 9-ranked Tigers, Florida will close out its season with a Sunshine Showdown in Gainesville against the No. 4 Florida State Seminoles. This is not an ideal scenario for a UF team that’s one win from qualifying for a bowl, but here’s a silver lining, even if the Gators lose Saturday at MU: Four of their five wins this season have come at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

2. About the Gators’ 1-4 record on the road: Florida has struggled heavily outside of Gainesville this season, allowing an average of 38.2 points per game away from Ben Hill Griffin. Even in their lone road win, the Gators allowed 39 points and 152 rushing yards to South Carolina, who’d previously been averaging 28.8 points per game and an SEC-low 91.4 rushing yards per game.

3. The Gators just haven’t been able to stop the run: Florida is giving up an average of 160 rushing yards per game, and last week’s matchup against LSU certaintly didn’t help those numbers. LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels ran for 234 yards, adding into those Tigers’ 329 total rushing yards. The Gators have allowed 878 rushing yards across their past four games, a glaring development that comes at just the right time for Mizzou. Over the same span, Mizzou rushers have piled up 737 yards.

4. The all-time Florida/Mizzou series is tied: These two programs met for the first time in 1965. That game ended in a Missouri victory, and then they didn’t meet again until Mizzou joined the SEC in 2012. Since then, the series record between MU and UF has balanced out to 6-6 all-time.

5. Gators freshman WR Eugene Wilson III is a player to watch: Florida wideout Ricky Pearsall might be a more obvious pick here, but keep an eye on the freshman Wilson. He has 479 rushing yards this season and leads the Gators with five rushing TDs. He was named the Shaun Alexander Week 10 Freshman of the Week following a 90-yard day against Arkansas. He had eight receptions against the Razorbacks, racking up two TDs in a 39-36 overtime loss.