Dan Mullen sends message to Florida fans following disappointing Mizzou loss

Florida’s humiliating 2021 football season can’t come to an end soon enough. It’s been one thing after another for the Gators this year, and they’ve been under a bad spotlight week-by-week. Head coach Dan Mullen and his club certainly won’t be in any better of a spotlight heading into this week after losing 24-23 in overtime to Missouri on Saturday for their sixth loss on the season.

During his postgame press conference following the Mizzou loss, Mullen said he and his team must find a way to win the games that come down to the wire.

“For the Gator nation, that’s seven times we’ve lost one-score games in a row,” Mullen said. “So, I mean over the last couple of years we’ve got to find a way to make that one more play for the Gator nation right there. That’d be a seven-game swing, which would be … pretty big swing right there, you know, over the last couple of years.”

Following last week’s sloppy 70-52 win over FCS program Samford, a game in which it trailed at halftime, Florida again underachieved expectations on Saturday in its overtime loss to Missouri. The Gators didn’t score more than seven points in a single quarter and allowed a mediocre Tigers’ team to hang with them from start to finish – and that led to Mizzou ultimately winning in OT.

Now 5-6 overall with a 2-6 mark in SEC play, Florida will have to beat Florida State on Saturday in its regular-season finale in order to become bowl eligible.

Eli Drinkwitz takes victory lap on Twitter after Missouri beats Florida

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz is taking one long victory lap after the Tigers upset the Florida Gators at home, 24-23, to clinch the program’s first bowl game since 2018.

First, Drinkwitz in his postgame press conference trolled Florida head coach Dan Mullen, who after the loss figures to have as hot a seat as ever before. In reference to Mullen’s postgame press conference answers from Florida’s win over Missouri last year — a Halloween game in which Mullen wore a full-blown Darth Vader suit to the news conference — Drinkwitz pulled up his hood, pulled out his lightsaber and said, “May the force be with you,” creating one of college football’s best viral moment of the year.

The win, however, did not always look like it would finish in favor of Missouri, as the two teams traded blows and went all the way to overtime before it was decided. In overtime, Florida struck first, scoring a touchdown and the point-after attempt to take a seven-point lead; then, in a due-or-die scenario, Missouri’s star running back Tyler Badie turned in a 12-yard and 13-yard run to score the equalizer. Rather than settling for the tie game, head coach Eli Drinkwitz opted to go for two, and the rest was history — Missouri converted, took a one-point lead and won the contest.

After the game, Drinkwitz took to Twitter to call out those who were skeptical of his decision to go for two.

Go for 2!! You play to WIN THE GAME!!

— Eliah Drinkwitz (@CoachDrinkwitz) November 21, 2021

I would

— Eliah Drinkwitz (@CoachDrinkwitz) November 21, 2021

On3’s Simon Gibbs contributed to this report.