Things aren't going to well for the Florida Gators, and that's probably an understatement.
Fresh off firing their now former head coach Jim McElwain, Florida head up to Missouri to take on the previously 3-5 Tigers — certainly not the best team in the SEC.
Florida, even with interim head coach Randy Shannon leading the way and despite the fact that the Gators were on the road, were expected to be the favorites in the contest simply by talent alone.
Instead, the Gators went out and barely even competed against Mizzou. Florida lost, 45-16, allowing the Tigers to put up 455 yards of total offense in the process.
It wasn't a good look for the Gators, to say the least, and it had to be demoralizing for the team, especially considering the drama surrounding the program over the past few weeks.
Still, one player, sophomore linebacker David Reese, tried to bring the team together after the tough loss:
"I just want to say one thing: We loved every single one of our coaches that's been through here. It's unfortunate what happened to them. I hate the way we represented our coaches like that today with this game. Those guys really care for us and gave us a real good game plan to do what we had to do. It's sometimes disappointing when everybody doesn't want to come together and just play for each other. That's sad to see. We've still got a lot fo play for. Me personally and our defense, we just want to play for those guys. We can't have appearances like we just had today. That's unacceptable.
The key takeaway here for Florida is that Reese is certainly a guy the Gators can count on, no matter who ends up being the head coach in the future. He clearly has a good head on his shoulders and he certainly appears to be a player the Gators can lead on during these tough times. Leadership is hard to come by in a locker room sometime, but the fact that Reese, only a sophomore, made comments like that after a tough game just shows the type of player and person he is.
More troubling for Florida is the fact that Reese was also clear that not everybody in the Gators' locker room is on the same page, but that's bound to happen during a coaching switch up.
