The No. 21 ranked Bulldogs arrived at The Swamp Saturday ready to defend last year’s win against the Florida Gators, but the Gators had something else in mind. Ready to seek revenge from last year’s 47-35 loss, the No. 2 ranked Gators defeated the Bulldogs 52-0, pushing Mississippi State University back to a 0-2 record in the SEC and a 1-2 record overall.
“Neither side of the ball played well,” MSU head coach Jackie Sherrill said. “I don’t know that we had anybody who played well-certainly not well enough to win.”
In front of a crowd of 85,579, the Bulldogs’ offense never got closer than the Florida 24-yard line.
“We had some plays early in the game, where if we make the catch or make a block, we have a chance to move the ball,” Sherrill said. “We were on the verge of making some things happen, but then we just went backward.”
While MSU’s offense put a total of 214 yards on the board, UF answered back with 640 total yards.
“As a team, we just did not perform well,” senior quarterback Wayne Madkin said. “Florida just played A-plus football.”
Madkin, who completed 10 of his attempted 17 passes, threw for 86 total yards and was sent to the sidelines shortly before the end of the third quarter. Kevin Fant took the field in Madkin’s place, completing eight of his attempted 20 passes for a total of 84 yards.
“It got to the point to where we had to start trying to get some points on the board,” Madkin said. “They kind of got us out of our type of style of football pretty early, and we ended up throwing the ball earlier than we like.”
Madkin and Sherrill both said the game would have been easier with the help of tailback Dicenzo Miller, who watched the game from the sideline because of a high-ankle sprain he received in the South Carolina game.
“I was hoping he would be able to do something today (Saturday) like hold and other things, but he couldn’t even do that,” Sherrill said.
Sherrill said he is hopeful Miller will be able to play Saturday against Auburn.
“Dicenzo is a player that goes 100 percent every play,” Madkin said.
At the end of the first quarter, UF had more points than MSU had yards. Putting 21 points on the board in the first quarter, the Gators ended the quarter with 164 total yards and the half with University of Florida quarterback Rex Grossman making school history.
The sophomore was the first Gator to surpass the 300-yard mark in four consecutive games.
Grossman took the bench toward the end of the third quarter with 393 of the Gators’ 507 passing yards, while completing 22 passes of the 31 he attempted.
“The (Florida) defense just stuffed them and executed great,” Grossman told The Clarion Ledger. “The Mississippi State defense came in and tried to cover our receivers man-to-man, and that’s just stupid.”
Sherrill attributed Florida’s offense outmatching MSU’s defense to Florida’s receivers.
“Grossman does a great job of throwing the ball up, and the best thing Florida has are receivers going and getting it,” Sherrill said.
That was the story every time Florida had control of the ball. While completing 35 first downs, Florida scored seven touchdowns and one field goal on the Bulldogs before it was all over.
“I don’t think we have the players,” free safety Josh Morgan said. “I don’t think our newcomers know the role they have to play.
“We haven’t come together as a team yet. We are just a bunch of individuals out there.”
Defensive end Mario Haggan said the team has a lot of holes to fill and a lot of work to do before Saturday.
Sherrill said his Bulldogs are going to have to go back and do some basic things to get ready for next week’s matchup against Auburn.
“We have to still try to make something of this season,” Haggan said. “It’s a tough, tough loss.