What Mizzou and Florida’s joint statement said about brawl at Saturday’s football game
The Missouri Tigers fell to No. 10 Florida 41-17 to snap their win streak Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, but the final result was overshadowed by a halftime brawl in which punches were thrown and three players were ejected.
It started with what appeared to be a late hit by Mizzou’s Trajan Jeffcoat on Florida quarterback Kyle Trask on the final play of the first half. Then, as the teams were leaving the field to return to their respective locker rooms, tensions boiled over.
Three players were kicked out of the game: Mizzou’s Tre Williams and Florida’s Zach Carter and Antwuan Powell. And punches seemed to be thrown by players from both sides who weren’t ejected.
Coaches also got into it. Florida’s Dan Mullen and Mizzou’s Eliah Drinkwitz went at it verbally before leaving the field, each man red-faced and yelling. Drinkwitz admitted after that game that “it wasn’t exactly pleasant at halftime” between himself and Mullen.
It was unclear as of late-morning Sunday how the SEC league office might proceed in assessing possible fines or other further penalties.
There were no more fights or sideline skirmishes once the teams returned from the locker rooms for the third quarter, and the second half was played without incident. But the Tigers came out of intermission flat after trailing 20-7 to start the third period, allowing the Gators to pull away entirely.
Drinkwitz said they’d lost their composure.
In the aftermath of the game Sunday, Mizzou and Florida released a joint statement addressing the fight.
“The action at the end of the first half of last night’s game do not reflect the values of our football program or university,” the statement read. “We are committed to healthy competition and good sportsmanship. The clean play without incident in the second half is how we expect to represent both institutions and the SEC. We believe both programs will use this moment to learn from so that future incidents like this do not happen.”
Drinkwitz and Mullen appeared to have worked out their grievances by game’s end, exchanging somewhat calmer words during the post-game handshake.
Drinkwitz said after the game he wasn’t sure what had happened — all he saw, he said, was that some Florida coaches had migrated to the Tigers’ side of the field.
“I don’t know who started it, but we gotta figure it out, we gotta get it fixed,” Drinkwitz said. “Like I said, it’s disappointing. I’m not for that at all. I don’t know why (Florida coaches) were running over to the hash. I don’t even know kind of what they were yelling about.
“We’ll take a look at the film. I’m not sure we’ll find out more when we watch the tape. Hey, film doesn’t lie.”
Mullen, wearing a Darth Vader costume for his postgame interview, said he didn’t see what had happened to spark the initial skirmish.
It appeared on replat that Mullen had been trying to speak to some of the officials at midfield as the initial fight broke out nearby.
“We went out there to try to get our guys off the field because it was getting testy,” Mullen said. “We have a big game next week. I think it kept growing and growing. We’re trying to push guys back. ... Everyone’s running to the locker room and it’s kind of spilling that way. So it’s a really unfortunate situation. It’s not something we condone, obviously.”