Florida Gators coach Dan Mullen celebrates win over Missouri with ‘War Eagle’ before Georgia clinches East
The Georgia Bulldogs clinched the SEC East after a win over rival Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. Unfortunately for Florida, this meant the end of season-long division title aspirations.
Before the Dawgs took care of business on the Plains of Auburn, Coach Dan Mullen had a few words for the Tigers in his postgame interview at Missouri.
"WAR EAGLE!" – Florida head coach Dan Mullen…yeah, that's a new one.
The Gators will be looking for some help from Auburn to stay alive in the SEC East. pic.twitter.com/tUZ6KzEQtJ
We break down the 12 teams remaining in the College Football Playoff race, as our Eliminator took out three more teams in Week 12.
Welcome back to the Eliminator. I explain the process behind eliminating teams in my Week 1 post. In short, I ask myself a simple question: “If this team wins out, will they have a chance at the Playoff?” I don’t assume that teams will lose–there’s no need to. The losses will come when they come; and when they do, I’ll eliminate those teams. Until then, they’re not eliminated. It’s that simple. I also track every eliminated team on this Twitter thread.
This week didn’t involve any real eliminations. The three teams we knocked out were all long shots. Florida and Michigan needed miraculous conference titles to boost the resumes, and they were eliminated from their division races this week. Auburn, meanwhile, picked up its third loss.
Instead, we have 12 teams. All 12 can win Power 5 conferences, and 11 of them have one or zero losses. If we get chaos, most of these teams can still get in with even two losses. It’s too early this year to present specific scenarios, because there are so many possibilities.
One thing is very clear, though. We probably won’t see very many eliminations next week, either. These are our 12 teams, and unless we see a surprising upset next week, all 12 will still be alive heading into Thanksgiving weekend. What happens after that, though, is anyone’s guess.
When Florida Gators HC Dan Mullen was asked about Georgia football’s game vs Auburn, he made it clear who he was cheering for.
Following Florida’s win over Missouri on Saturday, the Gators will have their eyes glued to CBS to watch Georgia take on Auburn.
If Georgia wins, it secures a spot in the SEC Championship. A loss and Georgia will have to beat Texas A&M to make it in.
Florida’s game today was its final SEC matchup of the season. So if Georgia happens to lose to the Tigers and Aggies, the Gators are headed to Atlanta.
When Mullen was asked by CBS for his thoughts on the Georgia vs Auburn game, he made it clear who he was cheering for.
“War Eagle,” Mullen said.
Watch it here.
"WAR EAGLE!" – Florida head coach Dan Mullen…yeah, that's a new one.
The Gators will be looking for some help from Auburn to stay alive in the SEC East. pic.twitter.com/tUZ6KzEQtJ
The Los Angeles Chargers were one of several teams in attendance for the matchup between the Florida Gators and Missouri Tigers.
The Los Angeles Chargers were one of several teams in attendance for the matchup between the Florida Gators and Missouri Tigers.
There are a few players worthy of scouting attention in this game.
Florida
WR Van Jefferson
Jefferson, the 6-foot-1 and 215 pound wideout, isn’t the fastest player but he is a technician at route running, he has strong hands and takes a physical approach to win 50/50 situations.
Other notables:
RB Lamical Perine
DE Jabari Zuniga
DE Jonathan Greenard
LB David Reese
CB CJ Henderson
Missouri
CB DeMarkus Acy
The 6-foot-2 and 195 pounder is a long and well-built cornerback who flashes ball skills, reactive athleticism and zone cover ability to be a solid option in defensive coordinator Gus Bradley’s system.
No. 11 Florida plays its final conference game on Saturday at Missouri, who have lost three straight games. Florida (8-2, 5-2) is currently second in the SEC East, while Missouri (5-4, 2-3) is fifth.
Florida trounced Vanderbilt 56-0 last weekend, showing that the team had moved on from its loss to Georgia on Nov. 2. In the win vs. Commodores, Kyle Trask threw for 363 yards and three touchdowns. 11 different wide receivers caught a pass. The Gators need to make sure they focus on Missouri before their rivalry game against Florida State to finish out the season.
Missouri came away dissatisfied after a 27-0 loss to Georgia last weekend, but the Tigers will do their best to keep their heads held high and play spoiler vs. Florida. Quarterbacks Taylor Powell and Connor Bazelak split time last Saturday and combined to go just 18-for-34 with 144 yards passing. However, eight different receivers caught at least one pass. Missouri beat then-No. 7 Florida, 38-17, on the road last season in one of the biggest upsets of the year. The team will try to do the same thing this year.
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Previewing Saturday’s Florida at Missouri college football matchup, with NCAA football betting odds, picks and best bets
The Florida Gators (8-2, 5-2 SEC) travel to play the Missouri Tigers (5-4, 2-3) at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo., at noon ET Saturday.
We analyze the Florida-Missouri odds and betting lines, while providing college football betting tips and advice on this matchup.
Florida at Missouri: Three things you need to know
1. Missouri quarterback Kelly Bryant missed last week’s 27-0 loss to Georgia with a hamstring injury, but is expected to return this week. Even with Bryant behind center, the Tigers had scored a total of just 21 points in the previous two games, losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
2. Missouri is 5-0 straight up at home on the year, and 4-1 against the spread, but this will be by far their toughest test of the season in Columbia. Meanwhile, Florida is 2-1 on the road (SU and ATS), with their only misstep a 42-28 loss at LSU.
3. Both teams may have trouble moving the ball through the air. The Gators rank 25th out of 130 FBS teams with 288.5 passing yards per game, but Missouri ranks fourth in the category defensively (147.7). On the other side of the ball, the Tigers are 68th in passing yards per game (233.4), while the Florida defense ranks 23rd (191.9).
Get some action on this game or others by placing a bet at BetMGM!
Florida at Missouri: Odds, betting lines and picks
Florida (-271) is likely to win this game, but the price is fairly steep — especially considering the Gators will be playing in colder weather than they are accustomed to.
New to sports betting? A $10 wager on Florida to win outright returns a profit of $3.69. A $10 wager on Missouri (+215) would net a profit of $21.50 if the Tigers win the game.
FLORIDA (-6.5, -129) looks like a pretty strong play, as the Gators are facing an offense that has really struggled in recent weeks, and Florida only needs to win by a touchdown to cover the spread.
While Missouri has been on the road every game during their current three-game skid, their success at home this season has come against lesser teams. The only team they have beaten this year that currently boasts a winning record is Southeast Missouri State.
The UNDER 50.5 (-110) is the side to take in this one. Missouri’s first game of the season went over the total, but the under has hit once since. The Tigers’ implied total of 22 points is more than they have scored in the last three games combined.
All three of Florida’s road games this season have gone over the total, but the over has hit in just four of their 10 games overall. The Gators can put some points on the board, having scored 28 or more points in all but three games, but their defense should do enough to keep this game under 50.5 points.
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Junior golfers signed their National Letters of Intent earlier this week and there were some clear winners across the country.
The pens have been put to paper and college golf’s Class of 2020 is officially starting to take shape.
Junior golfers around the country were finally able to sign and send their National Letters of Intent to the school of their choice on Wednesday, taking the next step in their careers as student-athletes.
After taking some time to break down and analyze both the men’s and women’s signings, there was a clear winner to the day and plenty of other storylines to follow before the players get to campus next fall.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better class in 2020 than the group Cardinal coach Conrad Ray recruited to The Farm. Stanford signed three of the top 10 players in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings for 2020: No. 2 Karl Vilips, No. 6 Jake Beber-Frankel and No. 9 Michael Thorbjornsen.
“Depth is the name of the game,” Ray said of his team. “The lineup is wide open with those three guys, I think all three can come in and play right away based off what they’ve done, but you never know until they get on campus.”
Jake Beber-Frankel shakes hands with a spectator after the second round of the 2019 Boys Junior PGA Championship. (Photo: Hailey Garrett/PGA of America)
Ray called Vilips an “alpha dog” and said Thorbjornsen has “those days where you’re just like ‘holy mackerel this guy’s a freak.’” Beber-Frankel is “every bit as talented” as the others, but plays with panache and flair that pairs well with his impressive hair.
Ray didn’t want to make comparisons to other 2020 recruiting classes, but he did say 2020 is the best class the Cardinal have had in quite some time.
Florida men get better with youth
Head coach JC Deacon has something special cooking down in Gainesville. While starting an underclassmen-heavy lineup, his young Gators have instantly made an impact as the freshman trio of Ricky Castillo, Quentin Debove and John DuBois currently rank Nos. 2-4 on the team in scoring average.
Deacon tapped into the Florida’s rich junior golf market (and England’s), signing Ryan Hart, Jonah Leach, Tyler Wilkes and Joe Pagdin to further bolster his already-young and impressive squad. Expect the Gators to be national title contenders in the coming years.
The creation of this 2020 recruiting class started almost 5 years ago. To see it come together with these 4 absolute studs is a dream come true. @GatorsGolf is in the most capable hands. Lets get to work boys!! 🐊🐊 https://t.co/wDacOD2QAD
It’s no surprise that the Stanford women also had a strong signing day, inking commitments from two players in Golfweek’s top 10 among the class of 2020: No. 6 Rachel Heck and No. 8 Sadie Englemann.
If only they could play this spring.
Senior Albane Valenzuela, ranked No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, opted to leave the program last week in order to live out her LPGA and Olympic dreams after earning status for the 2020 season at the recent Q-Series. Valenzuela tied for sixth, while teammate Andrea Lee, No. 3 in the WAGR, also earned status by finishing T-30. Lee has yet to announce her decision.
Ohio State men lock down a local
There’s something to be said for keeping your best in-state talent in state. A cold climate doesn’t make that an easy sell for Ohio State head coach Jay Moseley, and who could blame a kid for wanting to head south?
But Moseley, in his fourth season leading the Buckeye men, has not only been able to keep Ohio’s best talent, but cultivate it. That continues with recent signee Maxwell Moldovan.
When he arrives next year, Moldovan, of Uniontown, Ohio, will help fill a void left by recent graduates – and Ohio natives – Will Grimmer, a two-time U.S. Open qualifier, and Daniel Wetterich, runner-up at the Western Amateur and now a Korn Ferry Tour card holder. Grimmer arrived in Columbus the same year as Moseley and Wetterich transferred in from Xavier a year later. (This season’s roster, by the way, includes freshman Jackson Chandler, who shared the 2018 Ohio State High School title with Moldovan.)
Not since 1993 has Ohio State signed one of those, but it’s not the kind of talent you can let slip away.
Alabama gets a double reload
No program experienced a professional exodus quite like Alabama did at the end of last fall. The women lost Kristen Gillman and Lauren Stephenson after the LPGA Q-Series in October and Davis Riley decided to turn professional after Thanksgiving.
Neither Alabama team advanced to the NCAA Championship in May, and the men failed to crack the top 50 in the rankings this fall. An infusion is coming with the class of 2020, though.
If it seems like Canon Claycomb was everywhere on Wednesday, it’s probably because he was. Claycomb, who checked in not just at the top of his class but at the top of Golfweek’s Junior Rankings, garnered nearly 700 Twitter “likes” for signing his NLI and later made a cameo on Golf Channel.
Signing day is upon us and I’m so blessed to finally be able to say I’m signed to go to The University of Alabama. Thank you to everyone who has helped me get to this point and thanks to those who have cheered me on. ROLL TIDE. 💯 #270 pic.twitter.com/VWgfw8ty7n
Claycomb, who lives in Orlando, Florida, brings every experience from practicing with PGA Tour players on the Lake Nona range to playing the Junior Ryder Cup to sharing an instructor with Justin Thomas (and sometimes texting JT with questions).
For the women, head coach Mic Potter kept things familiar, securing signatures from four-time Alabama Girls’ Junior winner Michaela Morard as well as Italian Benedetta Moresco, whose older sister Angelica is currently a junior for the Tide.
Both women were chosen to represent their respective sides in the Junior Solheim Cup, and interestingly, walked into the opening ceremonies side-by-side.
The Georgia Bulldogs have been ranked third in this week’s version of SEC power rankings. Not surprisingly, LSU checks in at number one. Alabama is ranked ahead of UGA as well: Week 12 SEC Power Rankings: pic.twitter.com/anlXNhsCcf – SEC Network …
The Georgia Bulldogs have been ranked third in this week’s version of SEC power rankings. Not surprisingly, LSU checks in at number one. Alabama is ranked ahead of UGA as well:
It remains to be seen where the Bulldogs will be ranked in this week’s version of the CFP Rankings. The rankings release tonight at nine. Georgia versus Alabama will certainly be a topic for debate tonight, but if the Dawgs go on to win the SEC, then they’re a lock for the playoff. If Georgia wins the SEC Championship, and the LSU Tigers’ only loss is to UGA, then both LSU and Georgia get in over the Crimson Tide.
Georgia travels to Jordan-Hare Stadium to face the fifth-ranked team in these power rankings: the Auburn Tigers. This will be a grind-it-out defensive battle that’s expected to be low scoring. It should be the Dawgs’ largest remaining test of the regular season, but Georgia’s College Football Playoff lives are on the line every week.
