Florida Notes | Ole Miss Notes | Rebels Game Day | Broadcast Information

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin described what he saw from the Gators in their 38-7 loss at Kentucky as a “blackout game.”

That’s what Kiffin calls games when a team just doesn’t show up, typically on one side of the ball. He says about every team has at least one of those games a season. For Florida, the offense stayed in neutral other than for a 10-yard touchdown pass from DJ Lagway to Jadan Baugh after the Gators took over on Kentucky’s 13-yard line following a muffed punt.

Kiffin considers the Kentucky loss “an outlier” for the Gators, whom he heaped praise on this week when discussed Saturday night’s game between the Gators and sixth-ranked Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss.

“The Kentucky quarterback was on fire and made about every play,” Kiffin said. “We’ve got to be ready to play against a team that’s really dangerous.”

With the Gators a 15-point underdog, they could use a “blackout game” from the Rebels. Florida upset Ole Miss a season ago at The Swamp behind Lagway’s 180 yards passing and two scores. The loss eliminated the Rebels from the College Football Playoff chase.

 

Can the Gators 2peat against Ole Miss?👀 pic.twitter.com/6vGa9S8kZS

— Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) November 13, 2025

Florida has an opportunity to do the same this year, but these Gators are struggling to find their balance after interim head coach Billy Gonzales replaced Billy Napier last month. Florida lost to Georgia in its first game under Gonzales, and then played uninspired in their worst loss to Kentucky since 1950.

Gonzales told the Gators this week to not look in the rearview mirror or too far ahead. Stay in the moment and find a way to win a game.

“From my standpoint, don’t look back,” Gonzales said. “Don’t even look into the future. We’re day by day right now, and that’s the biggest thing for us, we’re day by day. Put our feet in the ground, put our cleats in the dirt, and let’s go play football. So, let’s get better and continue to work and continue to work for each other.”

While the Gators hear the buzz about Kiffin possibly becoming their coach next season and how no one is giving them a chance to knock off the Rebels, Kiffin offered his take on Lagway and Florida.

“I think DJ is really what the whole team is,” Kiffin said. “Extremely talented, at times plays at an elite level and is a problem — like basically most of their position groups,” Kiffin said. “Extremely talented. At times, you watch film and say, ‘Man, these guys are as good as anybody in the country.’ And DJ’s like that. So, you know, he played great against us one year ago, and any time you got somebody that’s got an elite arm and really hard to tackle like him and can run over you — that’s an issue.”

The Gators want that to be the case on Saturday.

In our latest edition of The Opening Kickoff, here is a closer look at the Florida-Ole Miss game:

 

---

THREE STORYLINES

• Let’s see if we can come up with one. Oh, yeah, there is some stuff on the internet about Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin as a potential candidate to take over the Gators next season. That would be a jolt to the system, huh? If you believe what you hear and read, it sure seems a possibility. Of course, Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin is the man making the hire and he is keeping the search close to the vest. Regardless of what happens, Saturday’s matchup is one that has fans close and far intrigued. 
• How will Gators quarterback DJ Lagway respond after getting benched at Kentucky. Lagway threw three first-half interceptions, and with the Gators trailing 24-7 at halftime, Billy Gonzales replaced Lagway with freshman Tramell Jones Jr. in the second half. According to Gonzales, Lagway has performed well in practice this week and the two have had discussions about why the decision was made. Lagway enters the Ole Miss game completing 64.5% of his passes (171 of 265) for 1,762 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
• The Gators have to win their final three games to become bowl eligible. That stretch starts against the No. 6-ranked Rebels, who are playing for a College Football Playoff berth. These are two programs headed in opposite directions at the moment. Can Florida rise to the occasion and upset Ole Miss for a second consecutive season?

 

---

THREE PLAYERS TO WATCH

• Florida senior cornerback Devin Moore is quietly putting together the best season of his career on a defense that wasn’t at its best in the loss to Kentucky. Moore has a pair of interceptions, forced a fumble at Kentucky, and has 28 tackles and four pass breakups. The most encouraging development for Moore is that other than leaving the Mississippi State game early in the first quarter due to injury, he has remained healthy and a steady presence in the UF secondary. He will be tested in coverage Saturday by Ole Miss receivers Cayden Lee (22 catches, 412 yards), De’Zhaun Stribling (30-391), Harrison Wallace III (36-579) and Deuce Alexander (30-467).
• Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a transfer from Division II Ferris State, has thrown for 2,356 yards and 13 touchdowns in his first season at Ole Miss. Chambliss threw for 333 yards and three scores in last week’s win over The Citadel and is a threat to take off each time he drops back to pass. Chambliss is second on the team with 434 yards rushing, trailing on tailback Kewan Lacy (912 yards).
• Gators All-American center Jake Slaughter spoke to a couple of reporters after the Kentucky loss and turned his focus to the offensive line when asked what went wrong. “I’ll start with my position group,” Slaughter said. “I feel like myself personally and guys in my position, we didn’t handle the defensive front movement. We didn’t handle the backer plug as well as we needed to early on, and then ultimately, we didn’t take care of the football. That’s a holistic problem. That’s protection. That’s chasing the ball. That’s everything. That’s everybody. Everybody’s involved in ball security, so something we need to improve on.” Slaughter is as tough as they come and loves being a Gator, so you know he’s going to show up Saturday determined to recharge the O-line.

 

---

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH … GATORS INTERIM HEAD COACH BILLY GONZALES

Gonzales enters his third game leading the program since the firing of Billy Napier. He is looking for his first victory on Saturday against the Rebels …

Q: What have you learned about yourself through this experience?
A: We can talk all day on that one. There’s a difference between a coach, and then you got coaches that are leaders. There’s separation between different things, great leaders, great coaches. And there’s a bunch of different ways to do it. A bunch of coaches have been successful doing it different ways. And really, more importantly, it’s always been about the players for me as a position coach. I said this before, it’s a bigger stage. Instead of 18 receivers in my room, it’s just a bigger number. You still want every one of those players to be successful. We coach our players to be successful, on the field, off the field, and in life. And so for me, it’ll always be that.

Q: Does the messaging get more difficult each week?

A: No, it doesn’t. Everybody wants to win. I think as a coaching staff, we want to win, we’re going to continue to keep pushing. We’re not quitting. We’re still fighting, pushing our players, we’re coaching our players extremely hard.
But at the same time, yeah, obviously … it’s not been good enough right now for us to get the W. But the message is still going to be the same:
We’re going to continue to keep fighting, we’re going to continue to keep preparing. 

Q: What do you think of the unlikely rise of Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss?

A: You never know. I don’t know the whole detail as far as where he was recruited.
I know that, obviously, transferring from Ferris State. All I do know is that he’s a fantastic quarterback, and he’s doing an incredible job right now. He’s obviously a great leader.
I believe that he won a national championship last year at Ferris State as well, too. So he’s a great leader, obviously, to put them in the position where they’re at.

Q: What’s the message to DJ Lagway on protecting the ball better to avoid turnovers?

A: We talked about it a little bit. But we’ve got to just, again, take better control of the ball. We gotta take care of it. Make sure we get our check downs, throw the ball out of bounds, or scramble with it, tuck the ball and run. And then offensively, we got to do a better job period. When you’re a skilled guy, you have the ball in your hands, you’re protecting the ball for the team, you’re running the ball, you’re carrying the ball for the team, you’re not carrying the ball for yourself.

Q: How has the defense responded this week after a tough outing at Kentucky?

A: They’ve done a really good job. You heard me come here and say [on Monday] I didn’t think anybody quit, and I still don’t. And I’ll still say it over and over:
I’m appreciative of the defensive players to come in and say, ‘Listen, we didn’t play the way we needed to play. We didn’t run to the ball the way that we can run to the ball. We didn’t tackle the way that we need to tackle. We didn’t practice the way that we need to practice.’ I’m very appreciative of that fact. That means they’re taking ownership.

 

---

THREE DIGITS
 
18 — Consecutive losses away from home for Florida against ranked opponents. The Gators last defeated a ranked team outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2020, a 44-28 win over Georgia in Jacksonville.
3 — Consecutive wins for the Gators over Ole Miss. Florida’s last loss to the Rebels came in 2008, a 31-30 home defeat that birthed Tim Tebow‘s famous “The Promise.”
11 — Explosive receptions (15+ yards) for Gators freshman receiver Vernell Brown III, which accounts for 25% of Florida’s total this season.

 

---

AVAILABILITY REPORT

FLORIDA — OUT: ILB Ty Jackson (undisclosed), WR Eugene Wilson III (ankle, out for season), WR Dallas Wilson (foot, out for season), DB Javion Toombs (undisclosed), DB Micheal Caraway Jr. (undisclosed), RB Ja’Kobi Jackson (lower body), DB Aaron Gates (shoulder, out for season), CB Dijon Johnson (knee, out for season), DL LJ McCray (foot), WR Tank Hawkins (opted out). PROBABLE: RB Treyaun Webb (moved to active list). QUESTIONABLE: WR Taylor Spierto (undisclosed), OL Roderick Kearney (undisclosed), LB Grayson Howard (moved to active list). DOUBTFUL: DL Caleb Banks (foot), WR Kahleil Jackson (knee, has not played), OL Fletcher Westphal (wrist, has not played). OLE MISS — OUT: LB Raymond Collins (undisclosed). QUESTIONABLE: CB Antonio Kite (undisclosed), DT Jeffery Rush (undisclosed), DT Jamarious Brown (undisclosed).

 

---

NEWS, NOTES, NUGGETS

• The Gators and Rebels are meeting for the 27th time. Florida leads the all-time series 13-12-1, including a 24-17 upset last season at The Swamp.
• Florida seeks a victory against its highest-ranked team on in a true road game since a 13-3 victory at No. 4 LSU in 2009.
• Gators junior receiver Eugene Wilson III had ankle surgery this week and is out for the rest of the season. Wilson ranked tied for second on the team in receptions (27), third in receiving yards (239) and tied for first in touchdown catches (3).
• Defensive back Sharif Denson had a season-high 11 tackles in the loss at Kentucky, moving up to fourth on the team (37).
• Florida is 0-5 away from home and needs a victory Saturday to avoid its first winless season away from Florida Field since 1979.
• Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. started college at UF and served as an offensive quality control student assistant in 2011 when his father was Florida’s offensive coordinator.
• The Gators have four Mississippi natives on the roster: running back KD Daniels, defensive back Micheal Caraway Jr., kicker Evan Noel and tight end Micah Jones.
• Ole Miss has been ranked 45 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25, the second-longest streak in program history behind a 73-week stretch from 1957-63.
• Lane Kiffin would become the first Ole Miss coach in program history with three consecutive 10-win seasons with a victory over the Gators.
• The Rebels have turned up the pressure on defense, registering 27 tackles-for-loss over their last three games. Edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen leads the way with a team-high eight TFLs.

 

---

FLASHBACK FILE
 
The Gators have not played at Ole Miss since 2020, their first game of the COVID-shortened season and the debut of Lane Kiffin as the Rebels’ coach. Florida won 51-35 in a game that featured 1,255 yards of total offense (Florida 642, Ole Miss 613). A couple of items of recall: a morning fog, a nearly empty Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and a bunch of offensive fireworks.

Florida had not played in Oxford in 13 years and spoiled Kiffin’s debut behind a monster game from quarterback Kyle Trask (416 yards, 6 TDs) and tight end Kyle Pitts (8 catches, 170 yards, 4 TDs). The game set the tone for what turned into an explosive offense for the Gators that season. Can the Gators play role of spoiler again on Saturday? That would be quite the story.

 

---

THEY SAID IT

• “He’s been fantastic. The first two days, really, really good. You know, he understands. I’ve had a chance to talk to him a couple times and we just talked about what does he like and some of the things that we can do to help him. And again, you know, it’s a learning process.” — Gators interim head coach Billy Gonzales on quarterback DJ Lagway‘s response this week at practice
• “I personally feel like I’m performing well, but I can do a lot better because we’re losing. If there’s anything I need to do better on the team, I’m ready to do it.” — Gators running back Jadan Baugh
• “I don’t think so. I think that people run pretty true to their schools when it comes to cheering for the game. Yeah, I don’t read all that stuff. Somebody was saying that today. One of our student assistant members explaining to me the fans going back and forth and they said, ‘I think there’s a new rivalry.’ I mean, Ole Miss fans and Florida fans, they should put a steel cage somewhere and let them fight it out. Maybe halftime of the game.” — Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin on whether a portion of Gators fans will be cheering for the Rebels

 

---

THEY WROTE IT

 

---

WHY GATORS WILL WIN
They were embarrassed a week ago at Kentucky and reminded that Bear Bryant coached the Wildcats the last time they lost so badly to Kentucky. And to be honest, can they play much worse? Meanwhile, this could be an audition if Florida’s future coach happens to be on the Ole Miss sideline. The first step in pulling off the upset is to not turn over the ball.
 
WHY OLE MISS WILL WIN
The Rebels are at home and in the College Football Playoff hunt. They have the fourth-ranked offense in the FBS against a UF defense that came unglued at Kentucky. Oh, and there’s that storyline about their coach that hovers over this game. They have ample motivation to give the home fans something to cheer about.