Tennessee football falls during Week 9 bye in SEC Power Rankings
![University of Florida quarterback Kyle Trask (11) throws a pass during a game against the Missouri Tigers at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. Oct. 31, 2020. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]Florida Missouri 13](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F8f70130f07ee39ef2bd17cc4906ba317de62c5dc091d8718cd718529c3973ecb.jpg "University of Florida quarterback Kyle Trask (11) throws a pass during a game against the Missouri Tigers at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. Oct. 31, 2020. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]Florida Missouri 13")
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Defeated Missouri Tigers 41-17
The last time the Florida Gators took the field before this past Saturday, they had suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Texas A&M Aggies. However, then they got back to back bye weeks, and Dan Mullen clearly did his part to fix the issues that plagued his defense and keep his offense putting up insane stats that remind people of the Steve Spurrier days.
Against the Missouri Tigers, Florida didn’t surprise anybody by scoring 41 points. What changed was the fact that they held a Mizzou offense, which had undergone a bit of a resurgence with Connor Bazelak at quarterback, to under 300 yards of total offense. Given how much the defense struggled before the bye, those improvements are a big deal.
Remember, these guys allowed the Ole Miss Rebels and South Carolina Gamecocks to score a lot on them. Mizzou, for all its issues, clearly has a solid offense, and Eliah Drinkwitz has a history of his offenses taking off his first year on the job. Simply put, this defensive resurgence was enough for us to move this team up in our SEC Power Rankings.
Will it last? Well, we’ll know soon enough, as they have the SEC East game of the year this week against the Georgia Bulldogs. Then they have a slate of winnable games against the Arkansas Razorbacks, Vanderbilt Commodores, Kentucky Wildcats, Tennessee football and LSU Tigers. Simply put, this game is to win the East, and 9-1 is on the table if they win it.