Jadan Baugh reached 10 rushing touchdowns faster than any running back in Florida history, and the name he passed on the way is the one that still defines the program.
Tim Tebow ran for 23 touchdowns during his 2007 Heisman season. It took him seven games to get to 10. Baugh got there in his fourth.
The game where it happened
The record fell Saturday in Gainesville, in a game almost nobody outside Florida expected to look like this. The 21st-ranked Gators ran over fourth-ranked Ole Miss 52-28.
Baugh carried 29 times for 142 yards and three touchdowns. Backup Duke Clark added 126 yards and a score, making them the first Florida pair to each clear 100 rushing yards in a game since 2022. As a team the Gators piled up 302 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.
Florida scored touchdowns on its first five possessions of the second half. Quarterback Aaron Philo went 16 of 23 for 142 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing one, which tells you how little Florida needed to throw.
The numbers behind the record
Through four games Baugh has 600 rushing yards on 83 carries with 11 touchdowns. That is 7.2 yards a carry against a schedule that now includes a team that was ranked in the top five.
He also has five straight 100-yard games, which puts him in a group with Emmitt Smith and Fred Taylor as the only Gators to do it. Over the past two decades the only other SEC back with five consecutive games of 100 yards and two touchdowns is Leonard Fournette.
Entering the weekend Baugh led the country in rushing touchdowns, sat second nationally in rushing yards, and led every back with at least 30 carries in tackle avoidance rate. He is 6-1 and 225 pounds and he plays like it.
Why this matters beyond the stat sheet
Florida is 4-0 for the first time since 2019 and opened SEC play with two wins for the first time since that same season. The Gators jumped to No. 8 in the AP poll, their highest ranking since 2020. Ole Miss dropped from fourth to ninth.
First-year coach Jon Sumrall became the first SEC coach to put up 200 or more points in his first four games with a program. He is doing it by handing the ball to a back who would rather run through a tackler than around one.
The bigger record is in play
Baugh was not interested in the history afterward. He noted that only about a quarter of the season has passed and pointed to the next game. That is the right answer, and it also undersells what is happening.
At this pace he finishes the regular season around 1,800 yards and 33 touchdowns. Tebow’s single-season program record of 23 rushing scores has stood for 19 years. It is not going to stand much longer.
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.