GAINESVILLE, Fla. — These are called response games. They test your will, your competitive drive and your mental toughness.
They sell motivational slogans and inspire meaningful quotes. Think the "Believe" sign in AFC Richmond's locker room (Ted Lasso fans know), or NFL legend Vince Lombardi's gravelly voice.
"Winners never quit and quitters never win,'' Lombardi once said.
Florida coach Jon Sumrall used a similar tone this week coming off his first loss as Florida's head coach, a 45-17 thumping at Missouri. The No. 16 Gators host South Carolina on Saturday at The Swamp with a chance to distance themselves from a forgettable performance.
"When you lose a game, I think it forces everybody to take more direct accountability to what we're doing,'' Sumrall said. "Our players take great pride in what this program is all about and we want to build upon that. Being at the University of Florida, the pressure of that is a privilege, and it's something that I embrace."
Homecoming Week 🏡 🆚 South Carolina ⏰ 12:45 p.m. ET 📺 SEC Network 🏟️ The Swamp https://t.co/q4rTDcLYbp
Saturday's game represents multiple motivators for the Gators.
First, they have an opportunity to prove they are much better than a week ago and regain some of the momentum they built during their 4-0 start and climb to No. 8 in the national rankings. Second, they have No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Georgia up next on the schedule, and they don't want one loss to potentially turn into a four-game losing steak.
Florida is catching a South Carolina team that is reeling. The Gamecocks have lost three in a row after starting the season with back-to-back wins. Meanwhile, they have lost eight consecutive Southeastern Conference games dating to last season.
South Carolina has proven it can take a lead, but holding onto one has been difficult. The Gamecocks have blown fourth-quarter leads to ranked teams four times since last season.
On the Florida sideline, none of that should matter. The Gators have more than enough reasons to get back on track.
Here is our latest edition of The Opening Kickoff for a closer look at the Florida-South Carolina game: THREE STORYLINES
Florida is coming off a humiliating loss at Missouri. South Carolina lost a heartbreaker at home to Kentucky. Both teams are hungry for a win. In Florida's case, the Gators seek to prove that last week was a mirage. The tone is different for the Gamecocks. They have lost three straight SEC games and head coach Shane Beamer is facing increased pressure.
There were ample surprises for Florida at Missouri, but the biggest was the disappearance of star running back Jadan Baugh. Baugh was stuffed for losses four times on Florida's opening drive. He was never able to get going and finished with 13 yards on 12 carries, a hard fall from five consecutive 100-yard games. The Gators' quest to rebound rests largely on Baugh's legs.
South Carolina is one of just eight FBS teams with over 400 yards of offense in every game. Running back Matt Fuller (433 yards) and quarterback LaNorris Sellers (391 yards) spearhead a rushing attack that ranks seventh nationally and leads the SEC with 256.0 yards per game. Fuller and Sellers have combined for 14 of the Gamecocks' 21 touchdowns, so there's no mystery about the challenge facing Florida's defense.
THREE PLAYERS TO WATCH
Instead of one player, this is a position group. Florida's cornerbacks — Ben Hanks III, Cormani McClain, Dijon Johnson and J'Vari Flowers — have faced heat in the early going. On and off the field. The group has not played particularly well and has been criticized for getting beat, playing too far off receivers, and if you dig deep enough online, probably for what color socks they wear. Bottom line, they need to tighten up to prevent some of the chunk plays that have proved costly.
The 6-foot-3, 238-pound Sellers is a dual-threat quarterback who has Florida's full attention. Sellers has passed for 1,059 yards, rushed for 391, and is a physical presence to be wreckoned with each time he takes a snap. The Gators did not play their most physical game at Missouri and need to turn up their intensity to contain Sellers.
Based on what Sumrall said this week, receiver Eric Singleton Jr. is as healthy as he has been since suffering an ankle injury in the opener against FAU. Singleton missed two games and has only two catches in the past two games. If Singleton is going to be a factor like most expected when he transferred from Auburn, Saturday would be a good time for that to happen.
FIVE QUESTIONS WITH … GATORS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRAD WHITE
Florida ranks 15th in the SEC in total defense (393.0 yards per game) after its 45-17 loss at Missouri. White is pushing for improvement as the Gators hit midseason.
Q: What are your main takeaways from defensive struggles?
A: I don't think it's a huge surprise. It's explosives. We can't give up explosives, both in the pass game and then the run game. The two late runs [at Missouri], they can't happen. One is a backside pursuit. The ball's bottled up. If we just pursue the way we should pursue on the backside, things should be a negative play. Credit the running back, spun out of it and made a really good play there. And then the misfit on the next one. Again, had the exact same call to the exact same run earlier in the game for a 1-yard gain when you fit it up right. But, again, those are those are details that we've got to stay on top of as coaches. We've got to eliminate those plays. We won't be a good defense until we do that.
Q: How do you get a team to respond after a loss like Missouri?
A: You want it to sting. A lot of people just say, 'Hey, flush the tape, burn the tape, whatever.' You can't. You have to learn from it so you don't experience it again. But at the same time, what you can't do is you can't say, 'Hey, listen, get your dauber down.' I mean, it's going to happen in life. You're going to have good days. You're going to have bad days. We got to play with that same urgency earlier when the offense is backed up. We got to play with our ears pinned back and confident and make plays. It's all talk until we do it.
Q: Did you see some of this coming?
A: We've got to play better as a whole unit. That's the reality of it. What we've got is we've got seven guaranteed games left. Before we talk about any specific unit, we all understand what we got to get better at. We all understand we've got to be able to limit the big plays, especially through the air. There's a lot of components to that that we got to get addressed and fixed.
Q: What impact did the loss of safety Bryce Thornton have at Missouri?
A: Anytime you lose an experienced starter, I think there's an element of, 'hey, you're you're missing that guy.' I thought we've got guys that can communicate back there, but they need to be louder. That's been a big emphasis point this week. We've got to be louder. We've got to be demonstrative in how we communicate in the back end. We can't just assume that somebody knows it or assume that somebody knows the check. The plays that need to be made were one-on-one challenge plays, and fitting two runs that didn't have anything to do with him.
Q: What challenge does South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers pose?
A: I've had, whatever you want to call it, the misfortune of playing him twice already. He is as talented a physical quarterback as I've played against in my career, in terms of when he runs the football. He's kind of like Saquon Barkley. He's a guy that's like a 600-pound squatter, huge legs, guys fall off. If you watch the tape, very rarely does he actually go on the ground where he comes to the sideline and guys hit him, where guys fly or they fall and usually the defender's on the ground and he's standing over it. He had one where there's a safety blitz scott free, hits him in the back, they rip his helmet off and they blow the whistle dead. THREE DIGITS
500 — Gators games at Steve Spurrier-Florida Field since the stadium opened in 1930. For more, a look at how we got here and some notables on the road to the modern era of Florida football. 30 — Touchdowns scored by the Gators through five games, surpassing their total (29) in 12 games a season ago. 23 — Single-season school record for rushing touchdowns, established by quarterback Tim Tebow in 2007. UF tailback Jadan Baugh as 11 rushing scores in five games, a pace that would put him at 26 through 12 games. AVAILABILITY REPORT*
FLORIDA — OUT: RB Kelvin Jimenez (knee).QUESTIONABLE: WR Vernell Brown III (knee). PROBABLE: RB London Montgomery (undisclosed), CB Dijon Johnson (ankle). SOUTH CAROLINA — OUT: DB Jalewis Solomon (undisclosed), DL Kobby Sakyi-Prah (undisclosed), OL Josiah Thompson, WR Jayden Sellers (undisclosed). DOUBTFUL: OL Carter Miller (undisclosed), DB Quay'sheed Scott (undisclosed), DL Julian Walker (undisclosed), DL Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy (undisclosed). QUESTIONABLE: WR Mazeo Bennett Jr. (undisclosed).
*Updated Friday morning NEWS, NOTES, NUGGETS
This is the 45th all-time meeting between Florida and South Carolina, and the first since 2023. The Gators lead the series 31-10-3, including 17-2 in Gainesville.
The Gators rallied for a 41-39 win at South Carolina in 2023, overcoming a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter. The victory remains Florida's largest fourth-quarter comeback since 2019.
Florida sophomore running back Duke Clark has firmly established himself as the backup to Baugh. Clark is averaging 7.9 yards per carry and has totaled 260 yards and three scores.
Sophomore receiver Dallas Wilson leads the Gators with 18 receptions for 302 yards and three touchdowns, surpassing Vernell Brown III (17-271-2) after Brown missed last week's loss at Missouri. Brown is considered a game-time decision on Saturday.
Dallas Wilson stock 📈 • Leads team in receiving yards & TDs • In five games: 18 REC, 302 YDS, 4 TD • Scored a TD in four straight games @18Dallaswilson 🐊 https://t.co/QmuvXctMTn
Former Gators offensive lineman Max Starks is calling his first game from The Swamp as the analyst on ESPN's national radio broadcast. Starks played for the Gators from 2000-03 and later won a pair of Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Starks is not the only UF graduate covering the game. Tori Petry returns to her alma mater as the sideline reporter for the SEC Network.
Defensive tackle Jeremiah McCloud leads the Gators' interior linemen with 19 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss.
South Carolina's receivers have had trouble catching the ball according to Pro Football Focus analytics. According to Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer, PFF is right. Beamer said his coaching staff counted six drops against Kentucky last week. PFF counted only three. Regardless, PFF has Stanford's Davis Warren (19) as the only quarterback with more passes dropped than LaNorris Sellers (17).
South Carolina running back Matthew Fuller ranks fourth in the SEC in rushing (433 yards, 5 TDs). But like UF's Jadan Baugh, Fuller is coming off his worst game of the season. Fuller managed only 49 yards in the overtime loss to Kentucky.
Gators defensive back Cam Dooley and South Carolina's Quay'sheed Scott were teammates at Kentucky the past two seasons with UF defensive coordinator Brad White calling the defense.
Former Gators running backs coach Stan Drayton, who had two stints on Urban Meyer's UF staff, is in his first season as South Carolina's associate head coach/running backs coach.
CHARTING THE GATORS
The Gators' loss at Missouri was their 10th over the past 25 regular seasons by 28 or more points. A look at how they responded after the previous losses:
DATE
OPPONENT
FINAL
MARGIN
RESPONSE
Oct. 3, 2026
at Missouri
L, 45-17
28
TBD
Nov. 8, 2025
at Kentucky
L, 38-7
31
L, 34-24 at Ole Miss
Nov. 9, 2024
at Texas
L, 49-17
32
W, 27-16 vs. LSU
Nov. 4, 2017
at Missouri
L, 45-16
29
L, 28-20 at South Carolina
Oct. 28, 2017
vs. Georgia (Jacksonville)
L, 42-7
35
L, 45-16 at Missouri
Oct. 18, 2014
vs. Missouri
L, 42-13
29
W, 38-20 vs. Georgia (Jax)
Oct. 8, 2011
at LSU
L, 41-11
30
L, 17-6 at Auburn
Oct. 1, 2011
vs. Alabama
L, 38-10
28
L, 41-11 at LSU
Oct. 1, 2005
at Alabama
L, 31-3
28
W, 35-9 vs. Mississippi State
Oct. 12, 2002
vs. LSU
L, 36-7
29
W, 30-23 vs. Auburn (OT)
Editor's note: Excludes the 2013 FSU loss to end the regular season and SEC Championship games and bowl losses. These are losses the same team had a chance to respond to. THEY SAID IT
"He looks a lot better. He seems really optimistic. Like I've told you guys, a lot of it is just his confidence and if he's able to go play. He seemed a lot more confident [Wednesday] than I've seen him in the last week and a half. So, that's encouraging." — Gators head coach Jon Sumrall on potential of having receiver Vernell Brown III (knee) back on the field
"We want to be able to throw the football. But we want be able to do it on our terms: on schedule, play-action pass, naked boot." — Gators offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner
"My daughters never signed up for the scrutiny that comes with their father's profession. I feel for my family. That's who I hurt for." — South Carolina coach Shane Beamer on how online criticism has impacted his family
THEY WROTE IT
Gators must restore identity as showdowns against No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Georgia loom, writes Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel.
They get Baugh back on track and ease the pressure on quarterback Aaron Philo and Co. Equally important, the Gators get pressure on Sellers and prevent him from getting too comfortable the way they did against Ole Miss's Trinidad Chambliss two weeks ago. And, yes, the secondary plays better.
WHY SOUTH CAROLINA WILL WIN
The Gamecocks stuff Baugh, hit explosive plays on offense to take the lead, and force Florida to throw the ball on second- and third-and-long. Sound familiar? That is what Missouri did and you can be sure South Carolina has dissected every frame of that game film.
