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No. 21 Florida Beats No. 4 Ole Miss 52-28 Behind Baugh and Clark
Florida beat No. 4 Ole Miss 52-28 on September 26, 2026, as Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark powered a 302-yard rushing performance in Gainesville.
The University of Florida did more than protect its unbeaten start on September 26. In a 52-28 win over fourth-ranked Ole Miss at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the No. 21 Gators controlled the opening half, absorbed two third-quarter challenges and kept scoring until the outcome was secure. A crowd of 90,683 watched Florida turn a game that narrowed to three points after halftime into a 24-point victory.
For the University of Florida, the result carried significance beyond the final margin. The Gators improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2019 and moved to 2-0 in Southeastern Conference play under first-year head coach Jon Sumrall. Florida also ended a 12-game losing streak against top-five opponents. Its previous win over a team ranked as high as No. 4 came against No. 3 Ole Miss in 2015. The rankings in this account are the teams’ pregame rankings.
Florida built the win on the ground. Jadan Baugh ran 29 times for 142 yards and three touchdowns, while Duke Clark added 126 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. Together, they produced 268 of the Gators’ 302 rushing yards. Florida finished with 498 yards of offense and six rushing touchdowns, production that kept Ole Miss from converting its third-quarter momentum into a lead. The Florida football team scored touchdowns on five consecutive second-half possessions.
Florida showed its intentions on the opening possession, moving 65 yards in eight plays before Baugh scored from four yards out. The defense then supplied an early opportunity, stopping Ole Miss on fourth-and-one in Rebels territory. Patrick Durkin converted a 49-yard field goal, and the Gators led 10-0 before Ole Miss had scored. The Rebels were held scoreless throughout the first quarter.
Ole Miss got on the board in the second quarter with a 36-yard field goal from Lucas Carneiro. Florida’s response was its longest, most deliberate scoring drive of the half: 15 plays covering 87 yards, capped by Baugh’s two-yard touchdown run. Carneiro later added another field goal, leaving the Gators ahead 17-6 at halftime. Florida had dictated the pace, but an 11-point advantage still left room for the visitors to change the game with one strong series.
That series arrived immediately after the break. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss led an 80-yard touchdown drive on the Rebels’ first possession of the third quarter and finished it with an eight-yard run. A successful two-point conversion cut Florida’s lead to 17-14. After spending the first half chasing the game, Ole Miss had made it a one-possession contest.
Florida did not give the Rebels much time to build on that surge. London Montgomery returned the ensuing kickoff 41 yards, and Clark broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run that restored a ten-point Gators lead at 24-14. Chambliss responded with his second rushing touchdown, this one from ten yards, pulling Ole Miss back within three at 24-21.
The next kickoff return changed the field again. Montgomery carried it 74 yards to the Ole Miss 26-yard line, and quarterback Aaron Philo finished the possession with a one-yard touchdown run. Florida led 31-21. Each time Ole Miss got within striking distance in the third quarter, the Gators answered with a touchdown on their next possession. The returns mattered not only for their yardage but also for the short fields they created when Florida most needed a response.
Montgomery’s expanded role followed a first-half knee injury to receiver Vernell Brown III. After taking over kickoff-return duties, Montgomery produced the 41-yard and 74-yard returns that preceded pivotal Florida touchdowns. The game turned partly on how the Gators handled that change during play: their return unit helped preserve an advantage that the Rebels had twice threatened.
Florida’s defense supplied another turning point late in the third quarter. Jayden Woods sacked Chambliss and forced a fumble, which Myles Graham recovered at the Florida 43-yard line. The Gators turned the possession into a six-yard Dallas Wilson touchdown run early in the fourth, extending their lead to 38-21. It was their fourth rushing touchdown of the game and gave them a wider margin after a quarter in which Ole Miss had repeatedly closed the gap.
The Rebels still had an answer. Chambliss found Deuce Alexander for a two-yard touchdown pass, making the score 38-28. Florida responded through its ground game once more: Clark gained 44 yards on a run to the Ole Miss five-yard line, setting up Philo’s touchdown pass to Amir Jackson. Baugh then scored his third rushing touchdown with four minutes remaining to complete the scoring at 52-28.
The sequence showed why the final margin grew so large despite Ole Miss twice getting within three points in the second half. Florida did not depend on one decisive play. Its rushing attack generated sustained gains, its kickoff returns improved field position at critical moments, and its defense created a possession the offense converted into a touchdown. The official Ole Miss box score records the individual production behind the result.
Baugh’s workload was central to Florida’s control of the game. His 29 carries produced 142 yards, and his three touchdowns came at different stages: on the opening drive, during the long second-quarter possession and in the closing minutes. He also reached 100 rushing yards for the fifth consecutive game, becoming the third Florida player to do so after Emmitt Smith and Fred Taylor. That streak gives additional context to Saturday’s performance: Baugh’s production against Ole Miss extended a run of games rather than standing alone as a single breakout afternoon.
Clark’s contribution was distinct but just as consequential. He needed only 12 carries to reach 126 yards, and his 45-yard touchdown came immediately after Ole Miss had reduced Florida’s lead to 17-14. Later, his 44-yard run placed the Gators near the goal line before Philo connected with Jackson. Clark’s two longest gains came in moments when Ole Miss had reason to believe it could keep the pressure on Florida.
It was the first time Florida had two 100-yard rushers in the same game since Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne did it against South Carolina in 2022. Combined with Philo’s rushing touchdown and Wilson’s six-yard score, Baugh and Clark helped Florida reach six rushing touchdowns. Those numbers explain both the Gators’ 302 rushing yards and how they sustained drives against a highly ranked conference opponent.
For athletes and coaches following the University of Florida football program, the distribution of those carries is as notable as the total. One back handled 29 attempts and repeatedly finished drives; another supplied explosive gains on a smaller workload. A single game does not establish a permanent rotation or predict future recruiting needs, but this one clearly showed how different rushing roles contributed to the same offensive result.
Florida did not need a high-volume passing game to score 52 points, but Philo’s efficiency complemented the rushing attack. He completed 16 of 23 passes for 196 yards and a touchdown without an interception, and he added a one-yard rushing score. His touchdown pass to Jackson came after Ole Miss had cut the lead to ten in the fourth quarter, giving Florida another immediate answer rather than allowing the Rebels to narrow the margin further.
Chambliss produced substantial offense of his own. He threw for 298 yards and a touchdown and ran for two scores. Alexander led Ole Miss receivers with seven catches for 134 yards, including the two-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter. The Rebels totaled 426 yards of offense, a figure that underscores how much they generated even while trailing throughout the game. Their difficulty was not an inability to move the ball at all; it was matching Florida’s repeated scoring drives and overcoming the Gators’ control of possession.
Florida held the ball for nearly 37 minutes. That advantage helped the Gators keep returning to a rushing approach that was working, while limiting the time Ole Miss had to erase each new deficit. The five consecutive second-half touchdown possessions were especially damaging. Even when Chambliss and the Rebels created openings, Florida’s offense quickly pushed the required comeback further out of reach.
The result matched Florida’s four-win total from the entire 2025 season and gave Sumrall a 2-0 SEC start in his first year as head coach. It also delivered the program’s first win over a top-five opponent since 2015, ending a 12-game losing streak in those matchups. Those are meaningful markers, though they do not settle what Florida’s eventual conference finish or postseason standing will be. The season still has more results to produce.
Ole Miss, coached by Pete Golding, fell to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in SEC play after arriving in Gainesville ranked No. 4. The Rebels’ third-quarter rallies and Chambliss’s production showed why the game was competitive well into the second half. Florida’s ability to answer those rallies is what separated this outcome from a close ranked matchup. The Florida athletics account of the game and the official box score document a result built from rushing production, timely returns and a decisive second-half scoring run.
For prospective college football players, this game is a useful reminder that a headline result rarely rests on one position group alone. Baugh and Clark supplied the rushing yards, but Montgomery’s kickoff returns, Woods’s forced fumble, Graham’s recovery and Philo’s turnover-free passing all shaped the margin. Recruiting evaluations likewise have to consider how a player’s skills fit a team’s on-field responsibilities, rather than treating a final score as a complete description of the program. A directory of college sports programs can provide broader program context, while the game itself provides a specific example of the roles Florida used against Ole Miss.
The University of Florida now has an unbeaten start and a decisive win over a top-five SEC opponent. The next test is whether the Gators can sustain the rushing efficiency, possession control and immediate scoring responses that defined this Saturday in Gainesville. For now, the evidence is concrete: Florida led from start to finish, won the moments when Ole Miss threatened to come back and turned a three-point second-half game into one of the program’s most significant ranked victories in more than a decade.
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