Injuries and offensive struggles plagued Missouri's Gator Bowl performance, hindering their ability to capitalize on opportunities and succumbing to Virginia's dominance.
Seeing uniforms or logos would not be necessary to know that this was a Missouri football game. The characteristics that defined most of its games in 2025 — poor passing attacks, grind-it-out defenses, and an absurd ending to an otherwise anticlimactic 60 minutes — shone through in the Gator Bowl.
Missouri trailed 13-7 on the second-to-last play of the game, and freshman quarterback Matt Zollers' head bounced off the ground, forcing him to exit the field on Missouri's final play of the game.
Enter Brett Brown, a walk-on quarterback set to throw his first pass of the season.
Brown launched the ball 21 yards toward the end zone into the hands of Daniel Blood. For a split second, Brown and the Tigers had pulled off the unthinkable, ending their season with a miraculous, storybook touchdown to win the game.
Virginia safety Devin Neal stopped that, snaking his way into a pass breakup to end Missouri's possession and season in defeat.
The absurdities occurred, but the miracle did not. Missouri lost, and Brown's storybook victory failed to come to fruition.
Missouri was missing two of its top four wideouts in Josh Manning and Marquis Johnson, and top wideout Kevin Coleman Jr. was battling an illness during the game. Starting tight end Brett Norfleet was also out due to a shoulder injury. The amount of top-end offensive talent missing showed in the Tigers production.
Olugbode and Coleman were the only Tigers to catch three or more passes, or log 15 or more yards.
Freshman quarterback Matt Zollers finished the game with just 101 passing yards, completing 12 of his 21 passes and throwing an interception in the process. It was his second-lowest single-game passing yard total during among his four games as a starter.
The pass game struggles allowed Virginia to hone in on stopping Missouri's run, which it did successfully. Ahmad Hardy was held to just 89 total yards, 43 of which were on a single first-quarter run, when he broke through a herd of Cavalier defenders in a superhuman manner. Aside from that run, he averaged 3.3 yards per carry.
Hardy was just three yards away from breaking the Missouri's single-season rushing yards record on the last play of the second quarter, and he seemingly broke it, but a holding penalty called on Missouri right guard Curtis Peagler took the play back. It took Hardy until the 4:27 mark of the fourth quarter to break the record.
Missouri's offense struggled, converting just three of its 12 third-down attempts. One of those failed attempts resulted in a punt the next play at the 1:50 mark of the second quarter, of which freshman linebacker Dante McClellan recovered to give Missouri the ball back at Virginia's 25-yard line.
Missouri's drive ended four plays later, but not with a touchdown score, rather three plays gaining one total yard, and an Oliver Robbins 42-yard field goal attempt missed wide right. Connor Weselman was equally as poor in the punt game, averaging just 40.3 yards per punt, one of which was a 26-yard dud in the fourth quarter.
Even when fed prime scoring opportunities with a silver spoon, Missouri failed to convert.
Virginia took full advantage of it. The Cavaliers lapped the Tigers all around the box score, leading time of possession by 17:08, running 24 more offensive plays than the Tigers and totaling 48 more yards of offense.
Missouri will now turn its focus toward the offseason, officially ending its 2025 campaign with a loss.