Tag: Mississippi State Bulldogs

Former Oklahoma Sooners wide recevier transferring to Mississippi State

Former Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver reunites with Jeff Lebby at Mississippi State.

The Oklahoma Sooners have seen a number of players on the offensive side of the ball hit the [autotag]transfer portal[/autotag]. On Thursday, Brenen Thompson departed OU via the portal and found his landing spot less than 24 hours later. .

The former wide receiver from Texas and Oklahoma will reunite with Jeff Lebby, according to On3’s Pete Nakos, after Thompson committed to Mississippi State.

Despite leading the Sooners in snaps and starting 11 games, Thompson finished fourth in receptions and receiving yards. Over the course of his two seasons in Norman, he recorded 26 receptions for 471 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 18.1 yards per reception.

Thompson may not be the last offensive player to join Lebby in Starkville. Earlier in the week former quarterback Jackson Arnold was linked to Mississippi State but was also expected to have visits with Georgia and Auburn along the way.

Thompson will be going into his fourth season at the collegiate level and will have one more year of eligibility.

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Here are the best photos from Texas A&M’s road win over Mississippi State

View some of the best photos from the Texas A&M victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville, MS

Texas A&M’s 34-24 win over Mississippi State had fans battling various emotions. It feels like this should have been a win by a larger margin than ten, and the Aggies didn’t look like a team that would make any noise in the college football playoffs.

However, this was another one of those checklist wins. In past years, this was one of those games A&M would lose, ultimately leading to an 8-win season. Even though the team did not play up to head coach Mike Elko’s standard, the Aggies still found a way to win and get some big stops when needed.

They have some things to clean up with LSU coming to Bryan College Station on Saturday. The offense has to find a way to be more consistent in the passing game, but for now, we will take some time to view the best photos from the Aggies’ 34-24 road victory over the Bulldogs.

 

 

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Analyzing PFF defensive grades for Florida’s front 7 in Week 4

Mississippi State ran all over Florida last Saturday, but don’t blame the guys up front. Missed tackles at the second level hurt a ton, according to Pro Football Focus.

For the first three weeks of the season, Gators Wire has focused exclusively on the Florida offense while reviewing Pro Football Focus grades. Now it’s time to delve into the world of defense and analyze how Florida’s defense performed against Mississippi State.

The big picture isn’t good here. Florida’s defense has been an obvious weak point all season, and the Bulldogs delivered their best rushing performance of the year against the Gators on Saturday.

To determine what’s wrong, Gators Wire is breaking the defense into two groups: the front seven, composed of defensive linemen, edge rushers, and linebackers, and the secondary (cornerbacks and safeties).

Let’s get into it.

Understanding PFF grades

The grading scale ranges from minus-2 to plus-2 with increments of 0.5, and players are given a grade on every play they are on the field for. A zero grade means a player did his job, while the two ends of the scale represent extreme success or failure — think red zone interception at the end of a game or a game-winning touchdown pass when applying it to quarterbacks.

There’s a level of subjectivity to it, but each grade is reviewed at least once. Once all plus-minus grades are in, the numbers are converted to a 0-100 scale to easily compare players. There are some loosely defined tiers within the system — 90-100 is elite, 85-89 is Pro Bowl level for NFL players, 70 to 84 is a starter and 60-69 is a backup. Anything 59 and below is considered a replaceable talent.

Since we’re looking at college athletes with a system designed for the pros, we will consider anything above 65.0 as a solid performance.

Defensive Linemen

We begin with the guys up front, the defensive linemen.

With edge rushers in a separate group, the focus here will be on the run defense, which we know was not great for Florida as a team despite a decent 70.3 grade. But should the blame be on the big men in the trenches? Not entirely, according to Pro Football Focus.

Six different linemen played 17 or more snaps at tackle for Florida on Saturday. Caleb Banks got the start at the left tackle position, taking 33 snaps per PFF. Kelby Collins (29) and Brien Taylor Jr. (17) followed Banks on the depth chart.

Cam’Ron Jackson was the team’s other starting tackle (right). He took 35 snaps to backup Desmond Watson’s 27, and D’Antre Robinson is listed as a nose tackle with 17 snaps.

Taylor and Collins earned the highest overall defensive grades in this group, with 73.4 and 72.4, respectively. Taylor was the team’s best lineman against the run (71.2) and Collins was decent as well (68.8), good for fifth and sixth this week across the entire defense. Collins stood out against the pass (67.4), too. Both were solid tacklers — Collins at 75.7 and Taylor at 74.1.

The starters — Banks and Jackson — earned mediocre defensive grades of 63.1 and 66.4, respectively. A missed tackle from Banks knocked him below our 65.0 threshold for a solid performance, and Jackson played just above replacement level despite posting the unit’s best tackling grade (75.9).

Watson finished between the two starters with a 63.8 overall defensive grade. He didn’t have any tackling opportunities. Robinson posted the unit’s worst overall grade at 52.7, largely due to a poor performance against the run (53.3). A 72.4 tackling grade is the lone bright spot on his line.

Edge Rushers

The edge rushers serve many roles in Florida’s defense. Some are pass-rush specialists, others are better at dropping into coverage and most are good at getting into the backfield.

Pro Football Focus listed eight Gators as EDGE guys against Mississippi State, a combination of defensive ends and outside linebackers.

Defensive Ends

Florida’s two starting ends were Kamran James (39 snaps) and Tyreak Sapp (40), with Justus Boone (19) backing up James.

Boone was actually the highest-graded of the trio at 67.7, largely due to a unit-high 74.7 pass-rush grade. That number was good for No. 2 overall on the team this week, as were his two pressures.

Despite leading the team with three pressures, James finished the day with a 59.8 overall grade on defense. Missing a tackle has something to do with that, but he performed at a replacement level across all phases (62.7 run defense, 55.2 pass rush and 42.0 tackling).

Sapp also struggled in the tackling game, missing two and ending the day with a 26.2 tackling grade. Considering that low number, a 65.1 overall grade on defense is somewhat impressive. He was better against the run (68.1) than the pass (58.6), which is a shift from his performances in the first two weeks of the season.

Outside Linebackers

T.J. Searcy started at left outside linebacker for Florida and played 34 snaps, followed by Jack Pyburn’s 25 and true freshman LJ McCray’s 21 snaps.

This group is less about getting after the quarterback and more about containing, which is reflected in PFF’s grades.

Searcy was the highest-graded edge player on the team with a 68.0 overall on defense. A 79.2 tackling grade puts him in the top three this week, and his 71.7 against the run is the highest figure in the edge room this week. He even was solid (63.7) dropping back into coverage, albeit only on five plays.

Many believe that McCray should get more snaps than Pyburn, but the numbers explain why Florida doesn’t give the true freshman more snaps. McCray is a good tackler (71.1) but the rest of his grades are below 60, which is replacement level. Meanwhile, Pyburn graded out as the third-best player in the edge room (67.4) and the second-best pass rusher (64.5).

At right outside linebacker, George Gumbs played the majority of the snaps. Aaron Chiles on played nine snaps as his backup, while Gumbs was on the field 36 times.

Chiles finished with a higher overall grade (64.3 to 63.3), but Gumbs was the front seven’s best tackler (79.3). That one-point difference isn’t going to send Gumbs down the depth chart. It wasn’t a great day for Gumbs as a pass rusher (54.2), but

Inside Linebackers

The inside linebackers are a bit different from the rest of the front seven because they drop back into coverage more often.

Shemar James and Grayson Howard are the two starters. Both can be on the field at the same time, but it’s James who gets the most snaps by far with 66 to Howard’s 43.

Unfortunately, this was James’ worst week of the season, grading out at 60.4 overall. Three missed tackles is concerning considering he only missed three tackles over 368 snaps as a freshman and six over nine games last season. James is supposed to be the leader of the front seven, and this kind of performance helps explain why Mississippi State was able to run so effectively.

Howard, on the other hand, earned the highest grade of the week (75.4) and posted the highest run-defense grade (77.7) as well. He was also a top-four pass rusher (69.2) on the team this week and was solid in coverage (63.0) over 20 dropbacks.

Jaden Robinson was the team’s primary backup to both starters at linebacker, and he finished just behind Howard with a 73.5 defensive grade. Strong numbers against the run (75.1) and as a tackler (77.6) are very encouraging, and he was the team’s best coverage linebacker (65.1).

It’s good to see Howard and Robinson step up during a week where James struggled, but Florida will need James to pick things up moving forward. The schedule only gets tougher from here, and UCF features an elite running back.

Derek Wingo (14 snaps) and Myles Graham (11) were the other two linebackers to see the field. PFF lists Graham as a weak-side linebacker, but it’s hard to make a fair judgment on him over just 11 plays. The same goes for Wingo. Both finished the day with decent defensive grades between 64.0 and 66.0.

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Texas Tech TE says Mississippi State has ‘worst run scheme’ he’s ever seen

Just how bad is Mississippi State’s defense against the run?

As Texas Tech geared up to take on Arizona State in Week 4, coaches and players watched film of the Sun Devils’ previous games to best prepare. Well, one film session resulted in laughter, as Red Raiders tight end Jalin Conyers explains what he saw in the Arizona State vs. Mississippi State game from earlier this season.

Conyers, while appearing as a guest on the PHNX Sports podcast, explained that the Bulldogs’ defense displayed the ‘worst run scheme’ he has ever seen.

Without watching the game, fans could make that assumption, as Mississippi State gave up a total of 346 rushing yards to the Sun Devils a few weeks ago. Most notably, Arizona State running back Cameron Skattebo had 33 carries for an impressive 262 rushing yards.

Conyers took on his former team last week and earned a Texas Tech win. While he only had one catch for three yards, it was for a touchdown.

Mississippi State is 1-3 on the season and will likely have a difficult time in their upcoming matchup against the Texas Longhorns on the road – almost certainly keeping them at the bottom of our SEC power rankings.

Florida’s Austin Barber named SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week

Gators left tackle Austin Barber earns the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week award after not allowing a sack and recording a touchdown vs. Mississippi State.

Florida football left tackle Austin Barber was awarded the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week after the Gators 45-28 victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Week 4.

Barber, a redshirt junior who is in his fourth season with the Gators, was excellent in pass protection, not allowing a sack all game. Barber even recorded a touchdown, jumping on the football after quarterback DJ Lagway fumbled in the end zone.

Barber talked about the touchdown after the game.

“My coach always tells us to chase the ball,” Barber said. “When you see the ball, you get on the ball… So I just saw it on the ground and did my best to get on it as fast as I can.

“I had it (the ball) the whole time. I had it the whole time,” Barber said about having possession of the ball at the bottom of the pile.”

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Pro Football Focus (PFF) uses a grading scale from 0 to 100 and according to PFF, Barber was graded an 85.3 in pass blocking and 63.3 in run blocking.

The whole offensive line played great for Florida and they look to keep up their great play after the bye week.

Up next for the Gators

The Gators will be out of action for Week 5 due to their bye week. Florida’s next opponent will be the UCF Knights on Oct. 5 at 7:15 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

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Billy Napier: ‘More work to do’ after Florida football’s win at Mississippi State

What stood out from Billy Napier’s postgame press conference after the Gators victory at Mississippi State.

Florida football got a much-needed victory on the road at Mississippi State in Week 4.

The offense was clicking on all cylinders as head coach Billy Napier made use of both Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway at the quarterback spot. The Gators were able to put up over 500 yards of total offense and scored 45 points as they beat the Bulldogs 45-28.

While the offense found its groove, the same can’t be said for the defense. Defensively, the Gators were missing tackles and not staying disciplined in the gaps.

Mississippi State had 240 rushing yards as a team on Saturday. That is not ideal and with the bye week coming up for Florida, they need to really figure out how to get that fixed. Because that is a real concern for this defense.

Overall, it was a great win for Florida and give credit to Napier for blocking out the outside noise and taking care of business on the road.

Here is what stood out from his press conference after the win against Mississippi State.

Napier talks about how the win feels

“Yeah, it’s good to win on the road in this league, it’s always tough,” Napier said. “And this can be a challenging place to play. Look, we have more work to do.

“Okay, we won today, but we are very much a work in progress. And this group can get so much better. I mean, we got so many individual players, position groups and units on our team, that we’re not even close to being who we can be – and they know that. That’s what I told them in the locker room.”

Napier on having Ron Roberts up in the box

“Yeah, I do think we got it in better, think it helped,” Napier said. “I think he did that at Auburn the last two years, and I think ultimately he and I both agreed that that would be best for the team. He has a good game day eye up there.”

Napier went on to say, “There’s, there’s pros and cons. He’s not around the players between possessions, but I do think just his ability to see it, call it quicker, get the call in, and for those guys to go play. So I think a lot of the things that we did early in the game, I think there was some benefit to that.”

Napier on the quarterback rotation

“I think you’re just evaluating how the week went, just in terms of Graham (Mertz) being back healthy. Really was impressive this week in practice, I thought he had a great week — just really sharp,” Napier said. “The ball was jumping out of his hand. And then DJ (Lagway) obviously got some great experience last week, and then we just kind of went with our gut there, kind of what we felt like was best for the team.

“We’re still committed to playing DJ (Lagway). I think today, he showed that he’ll get a little better the more experience that he gets, I think he’ll improve.”

Napier went on, saying, “So I think we’re getting the best of both worlds there. Both guys make our team better. We used DJ (Lagway)’s legs a little bit today, knowing that Graham (Mertz) was really healthy. So again, I think this is the best thing for our team. And both guys play really well.”

Napier talks about the struggles against the runs up the middle

“We got to get it fixed,” Napier said. “If you want to play really good defense, you got to be strong up the middle. It’s discouraging because it’s at the core of what you do. And I think we’ve got the personnel in there to be really good.

“And again, you got to give Mississippi State some credit, they ran it into the light box and then they threw it when we were loaded up in there so the RPO conflict was on full display today. (Jeff) Lebby’s good at that. That’s what he’s made his living doing.

“So we got to get to this stuff where maybe we can show something and change the picture a little bit. And we did that a little bit in the second half. We got to get better. There’s no question.”

Napier talks about the upcoming bye week

“Well, I think ultimately, we’re gonna take a day and get them out of the building tomorrow,” Napier said. “We have to develop practice plans that reflect the areas where we need to improve, and that’ll be the challenge on all three parts of our team.

“We’re going to get some guys back that are injured and unavailable now, which will be beneficial. But ultimately, it’s back to the basics here. We got to really take a good look at where our issues are at, at the self-scout, and then getting ready for a Power Five opponent coming to the Swamp, which will be a handful and be a challenge there.”

Up next for the Gators

The Gators will be out of action for Week 5 due to their bye week. Florida’s next opponent will be the UCF Knights on Oct. 5. The time is yet to be determined.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

Three takeaways from Florida’s Week 4 win over Mississippi State

Florida needed a win against Mississippi State this weekend, and the offense delivered a performance to guarantee a 2-2 record. The Gators defense is another story…

The Florida Gators improved to 2-2 on the year with a 45-28 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs Saturday afternoon in Starkville.

The victory is mostly thanks to the offense, which scored on seven of 11 drives against a porous Mississippi State defense. The Gators split things between the air and the ground, passing for 277 yards and three touchdowns while adding 226 yards and two more scores in the run game.

Despite a three-score win, many of the concerns surrounding the program remain. Winning is good, but 17-point victories are supposed to be convincing. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that it felt like Florida had the lid on the jar when Mississippi State turned to its backup quarterback.

Mississippi State’s defense is not good

Mississippi State’s deficiencies on defense were well-documented coming into this game. The Bulldogs feature one of the worst secondaries in the conference, one that allowed Toledo to put up nearly 300 yards through the air against them last week, and Florida had already proven itself against a bad defense once before.

Florida didn’t achieve the same success it had in the air against Samford, but only two incompletions on the day paints the picture here. The Bulldogs didn’t play the Gators tight, and Billy Napier exploited that with his playcalling after a three-and-out on the first offensive drive of the day.

With the pass game established and a sizeable lead on the scoreboard, Florida ran the ball more in the second half. All four Gators rushers looked comfortable handling the ball and broke rushes of 10 or more yards. Both quarterbacks also had positive rushing days.

It won’t be this easy for Florida’s offense for the rest of the season, though. Mississippi State is at the bottom of the SEC for a reason, and Florida’s schedule only gets more and more difficult moving forward.

Graham Mertz is still QB1

Recycling a takeaway from last week, it’s now clear that [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] made the right decision to keep [autotag]Graham Mertz[/autotag] as Florida’s starting quarterback. For the second week in a row, Mertz has looked more poised and in control than he did in an ugly performance against Miami.

It’s impossible to deny the raw talent of [autotag]DJ Lagway[/autotag]. His intermediate and deep passes have more zip on them than the ones we see from Mertz, but he’s still a bit overwhelmed at times. Going through reads and making decisions is what makes Mertz the better option in most scenarios, but it won’t be long until Lagway becomes comfortable.

For now, Napier should ride the guy who went 19-of-21 for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Mertz had one bad throw all day, a pass behind tight end Tony Livingston that could have been picked off, but that’s far from disqualifying.

Florida’s run defense is a major concern

Coming into Saturday’s matchup, Mississippi State ranked last in the SEC averaging under 100 yards per game. The Bulldogs ran for 240 yards and three touchdowns against the Gators, and the front seven looked tired at times as missed tackles piled up.

Mississippi State nearly doubled their rushing yards for the season in one game against Florida’s defense. Imagine what Georgia, LSU and Texas will do to this defense.

The broadcast mentioned that Ron Roberts, Florida’s defensive play caller, admitted that he doesn’t feel like the defense trusts one another with the way the season has played out. There’s no room for the blame game after a performance like this. Figure it out, or stick your head in the sand so you don’t have to watch yourself get buried.

Up Next

The Gators have a bye week coming up. Hopefully, Florida gets a little healthier before UCF comes to town on Oct. 5. Ten players earned inactive tags on the initial SEC Availability Report this week, and Florida can’t afford to be shorthanded moving forward.

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Gators Wire’s Good, Bad and Ugly from Florida’s Week 4 win at MSU

Here’s what the Gators Wire crew had to offer after the Week 4 win for Florida over Mississippi State.

Florida football scored a huge road win on Saturday in Starkville against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 45-28. Sure, it was a battle between two of the lowest-rated SEC teams, but every conference win counts.

The Gators outperformed expectations overall but still showed a few warts in their game plan. The good news is that the quarterback duo looked great in Week 4, with [autotag]Graham Mertz[/autotag] getting the lion’s share of the passing duties; the bad news is that the defense just cannot seem to get on the same page for an entire 40 minutes.

Immediately following the conclusion of the UF-MSU game, the Gators Wire staff convened to offer their respective good, bad and ugly takes. Take a look below at what we had to offer collectively.

Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun

Adam Dubbin

GOOD: Quarterback play was exceptional in this game. Mertz got a bulk of the plays under center and made the most of it; meanwhile, [autotag]DJ Lagway[/autotag] also maximized his limited reps while demonstrating maturity beyond his years in his ability to be ready to play whenever his name is called. 

Together, they tossed a combined 26-for-28 through the air for 277 yards and three touchdowns. Not too shabby. 

BAD: Florida’s run defense left a great deal to be desired against a team that has struggled significantly through the first three games (373 yards on 89 total attempts) and allowed an embarrassing 240 yards but it took 56 attempts. 

Overall, MSU scored far too many points for Napier to feel comfortable with — and almost added a touchdown as the clock expired. It was the most in four games this season for the ‘Dogs, in fact.

UGLY: Other than the defensive futility, Florida’s two fumbles — one of which resulted in a touchdown, fortunately — are probably the ugliest part of Florida’s performance on Saturday. Additionally, MSU had three fumbles to its credit — but UF only recovered one — so it all adds up to a bad day when it comes to loose balls. 

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David Rosenberg

GOOD: Mertz was excellent today even with Lagway going 7-for-7. Mississippi State’s defense was poor, but it’s still very difficult to complete 90% of passes against an SEC program. What’s even more encouraging is that Mertz was fairly efficient on mid-range and deep balls.

His bread and butter is still behind the line of scrimmage and within five yards, but Mertz showed some touch placing ball over the underneath defender and hitting his receivers in stride. Mertz also spread the ball well. He went to Chimere Dike just twice, both for gains, targeted true freshman Aidan Mizell a team-high five times and found all three of his tight ends throughout the game — two for touchdowns.

They say that Mertz has the benefit of experience on his side when comparing him to Lagway, and his decision-making was on display all afternoon.

BAD: Florida’s run defense looked bad for most of the afternoon. A goal-line stand to open the fourth quarter, six tackles for loss and two sacks will save the front seven some face, but they still allowed the SEC’s worst run game to put up 240 yards and score three times.

For context, Mississippi State put up 373 yards on the ground over its first three games. Allowing a rushing attack like that to go for 10-plus yards eight times is concerning. The defensive line is dealing with injuries — Jamari Lyons is out for the year and Joey Slackman is recovering from knee surgery —but that doesn’t excuse some of the missed tackles by the healthy players.

Some help from the second level of the defense would be nice, too. Grayson “Pup” Howard has been solid so far, but third-year linebacker Shemar James came into Week 4 with a 62.1 run defense grade, according to Pro Football Focus. That number needs to come up if Florida wants to compete in the second half of the season.

UGLY: Five penalties for 52 yards isn’t the worst we’ve seen from this Gators team, but the timing of the flags made them feel worse than their. Montrell Johnson was called for a blindside block to erase an Aidan Mizell touchdown, and Sharif Denson was flagged for pass interference twice on the same drive, once on fourth and short.

The Johnson call was questionable, but those mistakes by Denson will cost Florida a tight game against Kentucky or UCF. It’s the little things that can make a three-score win feel a lot closer than it actually is, and the broadcast reported that Florida’s defensive play-caller Ron Roberts believes the defense doesn’t believe in one another. It was a good win, but there’s still so much to clean up.

Matt Bush-Imagn Images

Aidan Gallardo

GOOD: The quarterback play was great to see from the Gators. Both Mertz and Lagway performed well and there were just two incompletions between the two combined. Mertz was 19-for-21 passing with 201 yards and three touchdowns while Lagway was 7-for-7 for 76 yards passing.

Mertz had a rushing touchdown as well. The rotating quarterbacks didn’t seem to affect Mertz or Lagway in terms of rhythm and with the help of the offensive line play today, the quarterbacks were given time to throw. For the most part, the quarterbacks were a huge reason why Florida won this game.

BAD: There is not enough consistency on defense. The Gators’ defense seems to let their foot off the gas whenever the offense scores. It’s as if they think that they can ease off the pressure since they have a lead.

Look, you’ll get away with it against sub-par teams but we’ve seen what happens when you play against a quality opponent. Florida needs to find a way to stay consistent with their defense throughout the entirety of the game.

UGLY: The run defense has been unacceptable. The Gators have had such a tough time stopping the run this season. Last week, they gave up 310 rushing yards against Texas A&M and against Mississippi State, they allowed 240 yards on the ground.

Poor tackling plays a vital role in this because it seems as if the first tackler often misses which allows the rusher to get those extra yards. Gap discipline is also a factor because that’s what prevents these wide-open holes from opening up for the rushers.

Up next for the Gators

The Gators will be out of action for Week 5 due to their bye week. Florida’s next opponent will be the UCF Knights on Oct. 5. The time is yet to be determined.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

Graham Mertz leads Florida football to big win at Mississippi State

Gators connect on the offensive side of the ball as they get a much-needed road win at Mississippi State.

Florida football (2-2, 1-1 SEC) defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1 SEC) on the road by a score of 45-28 in what seemed like a must-win game for [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and his Gators.

The cowbells in Starkville, Mississippi, were quieted almost immediately as Florida lit up the scoreboard with ease.

The Gators had 503 total yards of offense and it was a nice balance between the passing and rushing attack. Florida had 277 yards passing and 226 yards rushing.

Napier continued to utilize both Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway at the quarterback position and they each played well.

Mertz was 19-for-21 passing for 201 yards and three touchdowns while Lagway threw for 76 yards while completing all seven of his passes.

Both Florida quarterbacks were virtually perfect in the first half, combining for just one incompletion. Mertz was 15-for-16 throw the air with 147 yards and three touchdowns while Lagway was 4-for-4 for 49 yards passing.

The Gators got the scoring started thanks to a 3-yard touchdown throw from Mertz to tight end Arlis Boardingham. It was Boardingham’s first touchdown reception of the season.

Mississippi State would answer right back as the Bulldogs’ senior running back Davon Booth rushed up the middle at the goal line for a touchdown.

But Florida did a good job in not letting that score rattle them, as the offense picked apart Mississippi State’s defense all game long.

The Gators scored touchdowns on three straight drives to end the first half.

Mertz threw a 20-yard touchdown to receiver Marcus Burke and a 35-yard touchdown to tight end Hayden Hansen that gave Mertz three passing touchdowns in the first half.

Ja’Kobi Jackson ran in for a 10-yard touchdown to give Florida a season-high 28 points in the first half.

Mertz was able to keep the scoring going in the second half as he sneaked in the end zone for his fourth touchdown of the afternoon.

It was, for the most part, smooth sailing on the Gators’ offensive side of the ball but the defense was a bit shaky.

The Gators’ defense has to be better, especially with stopping the run.

Florida allowed Mississippi State to have 240 yards on the ground. A lot of that has to do with poor tackling which is inexcusable with this type of team at this point in the season.

The Gators still have some things to clean up on the defensive side of the ball and the coaching staff will have plenty to review with a bye week coming up.

Up next for the Gators

The Gators will be out of action for Week 5 due to their bye week. Florida’s next opponent will be the UCF Knights on Oct. 5. The time is yet to be determined.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

Florida football dealing with several injuries heading into Week 4

Florida’s defensive line, secondary and wide receiver corps will all be down three or more players against Mississippi State.

The Florida Gator will once again be short-handed on Saturday when they travel to Mississippi State to face the Bulldogs during Week 4.

Florida reported 10 players as unavailable for Saturday’s contest on the initial SEC Availability Report, released Wednesday night as required by the conference.

The biggest name on the list is sophomore wide receiver Eugene “Tre” Wilson III, who missed last week after suffering a knee injury against Samford. However, Wilson was a game-time decision last week and warmed up on the field before the Texas A&M game. Being downgraded to out immediately this week isn’t a good sign.

Also missing from the receiving corps are seniors Ja’Quavion Fraziars and Kahleil Jackson. Fraziars was hurt in fall camp and has yet to take the field for Florida, while Jackson underwent knee surgery that ended his season after Week 1. Freshman Tank Hawkins is also on the availability report as the only questionable injury on the team.

https://twitter.com/aidangallard0/status/1836560187399815216/

Florida’s secondary is also banged up. Ja’Keem Jackson remains out after getting the start in Week 2, but Week 1 starter Devin Moore is back after dealing with an AC joint injury.

Redshirt freshman Aaron Gates, who split snaps at the STAR position is also out, as is Washington transfer and sixth-year senior Asa Turner at safety. Turner suffered a non-contact injury against Miami and hasn’t played since.

Florida’s defensive line is also dealing with a few injuries. Jamari Lyons broke his ankle during fall camp and will miss the entire season. Penn transfer Joey Slackman is recovering from meniscus surgery, and true freshman Michai Boireau is listed as out this week.

Last but not least, center/guard Roderick Kearney is the lone unavailable player on the offensive line.

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