Last year, on the first Saturday of November, Florida spotted rival Georgia a pair of early touchdowns before closing with a 44-14 avalanche to drub the Bulldogs 44-28.
The Gators would go on to win the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division, sending the message in Jacksonville that Dan Mullen's program had finished closing the gap with Kirby Smart's crew and that it was time to buckle up for future clashes for supremacy.
Fast forward to the first Saturday of this November, and Mullen's Gators couldn't hang with Shane Beamer's South Carolina Gamecocks during a 40-17 surprise thumping inside Williams-Brice Stadium. Florida entered as an 18-point favorite against a rebuilding opponent that was down to its third-string quarterback, St. Francis (Pennsylvania) graduate transfer Jason Brown.
"We've got to create some positive momentum for our guys on the team," Mullen said on a Zoom call. "I certainly don't think our guys gave up. I thought they battled, but I didn't see this coming, and I'm obviously disappointed."
Florida closed September with a 3-1 record that included a 31-29 loss to top-ranked Alabama and a 38-14 whipping of Tennessee. The Gators then were undone by penalties and special teams in a 20-13 loss at Kentucky, and after cruising past Vanderbilt, they lost 49-42 to a depleted LSU and were routed by Georgia.
South Carolina handed Florida a third consecutive regular-season loss, something that last transpired in 2017, when Jim McElwain was fired.
Mullen said between 20 and 30 of his players were suffering from flu-like symptoms, with quarterback Emory Jones testing positive Saturday morning. Florida's other quarterback, Anthony Richardson, was out due to a concussion incurred against Georgia, but Mullen said he wasn't going to make excuses.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Mullen has five years remaining on a six-year deal with a buyout of $12 million. Multiple media outlets were reporting Sunday night that Mullen has parted ways with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and offensive line coach John Hevesy.
"That's a good football team we just beat," Beamer said on his Zoom call, "so I hope we don't start with the narrative about Florida. Tonight was about South Carolina."
Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, no it wasn't.
When a program with all the resources of a Florida, which has three national championships and 12 trips to the SEC title game within the past 30 years, has a second disastrous season in five years, that's the story.
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South Carolina's surprising result has the Gamecocks at 5-4 with the potential of attaining bowl eligibility this week at Missouri.
Beamer spent time Saturday night addressing those who were and were not among the announced 70,131 in attendance at the 77,559-seat facility. The only announced sellout at Williams-Brice this season transpired in late September against Kentucky.
"I want to thank our fans for the atmosphere and the environment," Beamer said. "I appreciate the ones who were in there. For those of you who didn't come and missed it, you missed one hell of a game and you missed an unbelievable performance by our football team.
"It may have been ugly up until this point, but you can't question how hard our kids play."
AP photo by Michael Woods / Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach was frustrated by the Bulldogs' struggles in the kicking game during Saturday's three-point loss to Arkansas.In Mississippi State's 31-28 loss at Arkansas, Brandon Ruiz missed field-goal attempts of 23 and 46 yards for the Bulldogs before Nolan McCord badly missed a 40-yard try on the final play.
"There's an open tryout on our campus for kickers," coach Mike Leach said. "Anybody who wants to kick or walk on and kick at Mississippi State, we'll hold a tryout any time you can get over to our building provided you're cleared by the NCAA."
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Alabama rushed for just 6 yards during Saturday night's 20-14 escape of visiting LSU, which entered as a 28.5-point underdog.
"There are a lot of things that we can fix, but I think we've got to fix them so we can be a little more consistent," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "Sometimes we have an expectation that we're going to win easy, but sometimes it's not so easy. I think it's difficult to win in this conference, and I think it's difficult to win week in and week out.
"I'm really proud of our players, actually, for how they competed in the game. There was no way we were going to let them score at the end."
LSU is well aware of the difficulty of winning in the SEC, dropping to 4-5 overall with games remaining against Arkansas, Louisiana-Monroe and Texas A&M. Succumb to the Razorbacks and Aggies, and the Tigers would endure their first losing season since 1999.
"We came into this stadium wanting to win the game," LSU lame-duck coach Ed Orgeron said. "These guys were not intimidated. We just fell a little short."
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Georgia redshirt freshman receiver and former North Murray High School standout Ladd McConkey continued his stellar season with the Bulldogs, amassing three catches for 36 yards in Saturday's 43-6 plastering of Missouri, including a 7-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter that made it 40-3.
This week, the Bulldogs travel to Tennessee, where McConkey once dreamed of playing.
"It definitely will be a little special going up there," he said. "Growing up, that's where I wanted to go. Obviously now I wouldn't want it any other way, but I think it will be pretty cool to step out there and play in Neyland.
"I went to UT games when I was little. I never camped there, but I did grow up going to some games here and there."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.