On Saturday, Missouri makes its triumphant return to Gainesville to attempt to ruin yet another University of Florida Homecoming. If you remember correctly, Missouri ruined Florida’s last Homecoming game on November 3, 2018 (my parents were there). So while they will be absent this game and were clearly good luck charms, I’m confident the Tigers will be chomping on some gator tail come tomorrow morning.

Speaking of where the Gators play… Did you ever wonder why Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was called The Swamp for short? The infamous moniker predictably came across my editor’s screen a lot this week with varying levels of capitalizations. Did our writers know that this is its alternate name? Did they just call it the swamp (lowercase) because that’s where it is? FWIW, Levi told me he didn’t capitalize it in a kansas-style protest in his pod post, which I found humorous.

According to my research (via The Coloradoan), the always entertaining coaching legend Steve Spurrier started calling it that way back in June 1992 and told a Gainesvillle Sun reporter that, “‘The Swamp’ is the only place Gators get out alive.” Despite the fact that the school’s administrators didn’t really like what they called the ‘backwoods’ nature of the name, it eventually stuck. Possibly because there is actual truth in the name?

From the article:

Longtime communications director Norm Carlson did some research at the time and found that in 1930, former Florida president John J. Tigert selected the location for the stadium and described the area as a “swampy depression.” The area was drained and the early version of the stadium was built.

FUN! Science rules!

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not predicting the Gators to get out of The Swamp that easily.

Especially after this.

The disrespect this week is on HIGH, folks. This little nugget came through courtesy during the Gators’ recent presser, which was covered by Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun & Gannett Florida Network.

As the title of this here Links post says, Missouri is leading the MU-UF (almost put FU there, ha) series, 6-5, so I’m not entirely sure where the whole “they’re supposed to beat a team like them” thing comes from... Let’s review their results (box scores linked):

• 11/20/21 in Columbia : MIZ 24 - FL 23
• 10/31/20 in Gainesville: FL 41 - MIZ 17
• 11/16/19 in Columbia: FL 23 - MIZ 6
• 11/3/18 in Gainesville: MIZ 38 - FL 17
• 11/4/17 in Columbia: MIZ 45 - FL 16

And so on… basically alternating 2 wins and 2 losses going back to 2012. Not exactly an ass-whooping, eh?

Just to jab in that knife a little deeper and wiggle it around, this little nugget came from a story called “Which transfer does Florida miss the most? It’s Missouri linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper” in The Athletic ($$) by G. Allan Taylor.

“He’s got good height and length to him, and he can run,” Florida head coach Billy Napier said after Wednesday evening’s practice. “He’s good in coverage and he’s a great blitzer. He’ll be a fantastic special teams player at the next level. He’s a really good football player.”

Those bolded words make me feel some type of way personally — it seems like a backhanded compliment — but overall, the Gators’ new HC realizes that Hopper is, in fact, a very good player. He added:

“Nothing but respect for Hopper. The time that I had with him [they overlapped for 7 weeks between the prep for the Gasaparilla Bowl and the start of winter conditioning] I thought he was a really good person as well. We certainly would have loved to have him on our team.”

Overall, it’s a nice article that I suggest you read... if you’re a subscriber.

Moving on.

Several stories I read on Thursday night pointed out the “weirdness” of the Missouri-Florida series, because it has been whackyyyyy.

As the Tampa Bay Times’ Matt Baker reminded us:

Since 2016, we’ve seen a game with multiple pick-sixes (2016) and a halftime brawl (2020). We’ve seen one coach challenge anyone to a thumb-wrestling contest (Dan Mullen, 2018) and two coaches whip out light sabers during celebratory postgame news conferences (Mullen in 2020 and the Tigers’ Eliah Drinkwitz last year).

Clearly, what the majority of the oddities above have in common is one former canned coach and real a-hole, Dan Mullen. Since he’s gone, maybe the truly idiotic stuff will be left behind, but who knows?

But there’s more.. From FloridaGators.com senior writer Chris Harry:

The first time Florida and Missouri played in a football game, Steve Spurrier’s team trailed by three touchdowns in the fourth quarter before frantically staging a comeback that fell short because of a trio of failed two-point conversations.

Yikes.

Could be a weird one, friends. At least Drink & Napier seem to respect each other.

On to the Links!

Go Tigers! Time to channel your inner Steve Irwin and go gator huntin’

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Yesterday at Rock M

• BK reacted to YOUR reaction survey answers about Why Missouri’s best win of the season will come this weekend in The Swamp.
• A new BTBS podcast: Georgia gave us glimpses of hope, so can this team go into the swamp and beat Florida?
• Mizzou released the shirts n pants combos early... SCHEDULES ARE IMPORTANT, PEOPLE.
• In case you missed it: Nate’s Florida preview reminds us it is Missouri’s “turn” to win against Florida: Can they? | BK asked if Mizzou’s defensive turnaround is legit | Matt Harris tells us about Jordan Butler’s commitment
• Coming up: Sam previews the next non-con game where he tells us to “brag the rights.” Gee, I wonder which game he’s speaking of...

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More Links:

Football

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read the transcript from Matter’s Thursday (subscriber) chat | Mizzou football’s mission at Florida: Keep Anthony Richardson in the pocket (Matter) | Mizzou-Memphis football game part of 10 MU events in St. Louis in 2023-24 (Matter) | Mizzou History: ‘It’s a robbery.’ 32 years ago, Colorado beat Mizzou on a 5th down (Jim Thomas)

From his chat:

Here’s something I noticed the last two weeks - and this happened around 2005 and 2006 under Pinkel: Players are starting to sound like the head coach - in a good way.

Multiple players this week talked about not being consumed with the outcome on the games during the week and instead focusing on the process of getting to Saturday. That’s directly from Drinkwitz. D-tackle Darius Robinson on Tuesday said, “Practice execution equals game day reality.” That’s a Drinkwitz line. Is it corny? Yeah, of course. But most of what coaches say to their players is corny and cliched, but there’s a purpose behind it - and I’ve noticed more than ever that players are talking that way, which tells me that the message is sinking in. That’s a good thing.

• PowerMizzou/Rivals: Missouri Football Notebook: Stopping UF’s Richardson, stars out with injury (Jarod Hamilton) | Missouri prioritizing 2025 OL target Jon Adair (Sean Williams)

Details on 2023 Memphis game, Zou to the Lou (Gabe DeArmond):

For the football game, the $250,000 worth of tickets for Memphis will be sold by Memphis. According to the letter, Missouri will control “75% of the ‘best seats’ tickets in the lower bowl.” All suite tickets will be controlled by The Dome.

• Columbia Tribune: 3 things to know about Mizzou’s next opponent (Stahl) | Can Mizzou cover the spread against UF? (Stahl) | How Missouri football plans to stop Florida QB Anthony Richardson (Stahl) | How Ty’Ron Hopper’s career led to facing Florida as top-tier defender (Stahl **added 9:30am**)
• SI.com Missouri Sports Talk: Mizzou Tigers Week 6 Opponent Preview: Florida Gators (Matt Galatzan)
• Saturday Down South: How close are the Tigers to turning the corner? (Crissy Froyd) | 3 matchups that will define Missouri-Florida, and a prediction (Neil Blackmon)
• So happy to see Chance Luper out and about:

• That is a lengthy injury report

• Thanks to Sammy for the notes on this: The VP of the St. Louis Sports Commission visited the Big Sports Show to discuss the Mizzou vs Memphis game next season. Give it a listen.

• From Napier’s press conference, which featured some nice words about Eli (per 1st and 10, Florida Rivals site):

“I think Eliah does a fantastic job on offense. They’ve got an identity. They’ve got a set of concepts that they really believe in from a run perspective. They’re committed to that. They do a good job with the play-action shots. They have a good perimeter game and dropback game to go with that.”

Hoops

• PowerMizzou’s player previews by Drew King: Captain Kobe Brown | Ronnie DeGray III | NEW! Kaleb Brown | NEW! Mohamed Diarra
• PM’s Drew King chatted with 2024 forward Jordan McCullum about official visit to Mizzou last weekend.
• The Trib’s Chris Kwiecinski updated his story on new commit Jordan Butler: What four-star center commit Jordan Butler will bring to Mizzou basketball
• Based on this commitment, 247 Sports ranks Mizzou’s 2023 class as no. 13 nationally (matching Rivals).
• Love this from D’Moi:

• Data from DataMizzou (i.e. Matt Watkins):

• This is several weeks old (9/22), but do give Friend of the Site Blake Lovell’s video a watch for 14 Southeastern. He does such good work and we love him around here. He’s currently put out a couple 30 min videos for the top tier of the SEC, but don’t you worry… Missouri’s time and a video devoted to Blake’s love of HCDG is coming.

• I love CY

• Name to monitor on the crootin’/ visitor front:

Other Mizzou Sports

• MU Soccer travelled to Knoxville on Thursday evening to take on no. 19 Tennessee at Regal Soccer Stadium and unfortunately lost 2-0. Per MUTigers.com, the Tigers were outshot in the first half (7-4), and shockingly out-cornered (7-2). At 56’, the Vols took the lead on a header, and despite the Tigers registering 11 shots in the second half, they couldn’t get one in the net. At 87’ the Vols added an insurance goal, and that was it. Mizzou is now 2-8-1 all-time vs Tennessee, and remain winless on the road this season. The Tigers will return home to face Florida on Sunday at 1pm at Walton Soccer Stadium. (More from Missourian’s Chad Silvey)

• Softball Fall Ball update: Per twitter, Saturday’s 2:30pm game will be vs. Lindenwood and the 5pm game will be vs. Kansas City.

• Tennis continues its fall campaign with the June Stewart Invitational at Vanderbilt, running from today thru the weekend. Per MUTigers.com, Mizzou has opened its fall campaign on a hot streak, going 6-0 in dual meets and sweeping 18-straight doubles and 36-straight singles events.

The Tigers will play singles and doubles each day, facing Purdue (doubles) and Illinois (singles) on Friday, the host Commodores (doubles) and Purdue (singles) on Saturday and Illinois (doubles) and Vanderbilt (singles) on Sunday.

• My “gymnastics school” poll results are in. I know, I know... you don’t really care. This is for the whole 3 of you (Levi & my parents) who do.

Fixed it.

Karen Steger Designs

Mizzou in the Pros, Etc.

• Dru Smith (AKA: Thursday’s #Heat twitter darling)

10/6 vs Nets (W 109-80): 21 min | 12pts on 5-10 shooting (1-3 from 3) | 3 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 2 TO | 0 PF | +14

10/7 at 7pm vs Grizzlies (NBAtv), 10/10 at 6:30pm vs Rockets

I spy Dru on defense

• Jordan Clarkson & Michael Porter, Jr were off on Wednesday & Thursday.

UP NEXT for JC: 10/11 at 8pm vs Spurs | UP NEXT for MPJ: 10/7 at 7pm vs Bulls, 10/10 at 8pm vs Suns

• Mark Kim… always using social media for good (during the Broncos’ godawful TNF game):

• As for the Etc. portion, Dr Scotta Morton, former Asst AD of Mental Performance, has launched her new business, as I have referenced several times (Big Scotta fan, HUGE), and I thought this was interesting, even as a person without children. Perhaps those of you WITH children may find this interesting as well:

• Another honor for GP, who will be given THIS honor at halftime of the national championship game in Atlanta, Ga. (read more about it from Matter at STL Today)

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