Florida was a 21st-ranked team hosting the No. 4 team in the country. The Gators won by 24.
Final score: Florida 52, Ole Miss 28 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Jadan Baugh carried 29 times for 142 yards and three touchdowns, and in doing so became the fastest player in Florida history to reach ten rushing touchdowns in a season.
The name he passed on that list is Tim Tebow.
The Numbers Are Absurd
Through four games Baugh has 600 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on 83 carries. Saturday was his fourth straight game with at least two rushing scores. He leads the nation in rushing touchdowns and sits near the top in yards.
The advanced numbers are worse for defenses. Baugh forces a missed tackle on more than 55 percent of his attempts among FBS backs with at least 30 carries, the best rate in the country, and he has piled up more than 260 yards after contact.
He is on pace to threaten Tebow’s school record of 23 rushing touchdowns in a season. In late September. As a junior running back.
Jon Sumrall Passed His Test
This was billed all week as the first real evaluation of Sumrall’s tenure in Gainesville, a top-five opponent in a stadium that has not had much to shout about in years. He answered it by handing the ball to his best player 29 times and letting Ole Miss try to stop him.
Sumrall’s explanation has been consistent all season. More carries, better back. Saturday was the proof.
Ole Miss Has a Problem
Trinidad Chambliss came into the weekend as a legitimate candidate for the top quarterback spot in the 2027 draft class after a 363-yard game. He left Gainesville having watched his defense surrender 52 points.
A No. 4 team does not lose like this without something structural going wrong. Ole Miss could not tackle, could not get off the field, and could not match Florida’s physicality in a game that decided who stays in the College Football Playoff conversation.
Where Florida Goes Now
The Gators have scored 42 or more in every game this season. The last Florida team to do that was the 2007 group, the year Tebow won the Heisman.
Baugh entered the weekend as the top running back on Heisman boards at long odds. Those odds are about to get a lot shorter, and they should.
The Playoff Math Just Changed
Florida entered Saturday as a fringe contender and now owns a 24-point win over a team ranked in the top five. That is the single best résumé line anyone has picked up this season.
The Gators still have a brutal SEC schedule ahead, and one result does not make a playoff team. It does make Florida a problem for everyone still on the calendar.
Ole Miss, meanwhile, drops out of the top five and has to explain a game that was never competitive after the first quarter.
Feed Him
Twenty-nine carries is a lot. Sumrall is going to keep going there because the alternative is worse. Baugh has forced missed tackles at a rate no other back in the country has matched, and there is no coaching argument for taking the ball out of his hands.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.