5 Takeaways From Florida’s Win Over Ole Miss: Rebels’ CFP Miss, Gators Bowl Bound

5. Jaxson Dart’s very very bad finish

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Jaxson Dart is a terrific quarterback. He’s been great all year, he threw for 323 yards and two scores, and he ran for a team-high 71 yards, but he was way off in the final few moments.

There were several chances for Ole Miss to pull the game out of the fire after Florida took the lead late, but Dart wasn’t on the same page with his receivers, he threw two picks, and there was another that was was almost an interception but ruled incomplete.

But give Florida’s defense credit. It threw the Rebel offense off its rhythm, held the high-powered attack to just three second half points, and it got help because …

4. DJ Lagway is the Florida Gator football program

The young bomber threw one pick, Ole Miss turned it over three times, and that was part of the difference. It was Lagway’s poise under intense pressure from the Rebel defense, and it was his cool and calm on third downs that helped pull this off.

He threw for 180 yards and two touchdowns, kept the chains moving, and was very, very cool when he had to be. Graham Mertz was great, and it wasn’t his fault for the team’s rough start, but the Gators have their guy to build around.

And …

3. The Billy Napier running game worked

Get your guys in space and let them do damage.

Veteran Montrell Johnson ran 18 times for 107 yards and a score, Jahan Baugh rumbled for 46 yards, and the Gators were able to work the offense against a terrific Rebel defense.

Now start to get more parts for the skill spots, work around Lagway, and get speed backs to work within the system, and now everything changes.

Florida is going to a bowl game, and …

2. That’s it for the Ole Miss College Football Playoff season

It’s out.

Ole Miss should have no problem in the Egg Bowl against a bad Mississippi State team, so all it had to do was win this, be 10-2, and settle into the College Football Playoff at a 9 to 11 seed.

Now it’ll get a top SEC bowl game, but this opens the door for the ACC Championship loser, Tennessee, and a slew of teams hoping to be in the mix after it was all but assumed that the Rebels would close the deal.

This will hurt.

Ole Miss didn’t have to deal with Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, or Texas A&M, had Georgia at home, and Oklahoma was way down. This was the schedule to get it done. Speaking of having the right slate …

1. If Florida had Indiana’s schedule …

FIU, Western Illinois, at UCLA, Charlotte, Maryland, at Northwestern, Washington, at Michigan State, Michigan, at Ohio State, Purdue.

What would Florida be if it had Indiana’s schedule?

The SEC might be a tad bit overrated and overblown, but …

Miami, Samford, Texas A&M, at Miss State, UCF, at Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, at Texas, LSU, Ole Miss, at Florida State (with that last one looking a LOT nastier in the offseason).

Yes, Florida had to fight to get bowl eligible. Yes, it hasn’t been pretty and the defense needs more parts, but the team rose up and got it done against LSU, took out enough early games to get by, and the team will have a winning season after beating FSU.

It’s Florida. It wants to - and should be - in the College Football Playoff hunt, but considering the season looked like it was in a free-fall into disaster, now there’s hope.

Things can change just that quickly.