GAINESVILLE — Jim McElwain is gone.

A three-game winning streak over Georgia is gone.

The chance to go back to Atlanta and play for the SEC Championship for a third consecutive year is gone.

Rampant speculation over who will be the next head football coach at Florida, and what will become of Florida’s highly-touted incoming recruiting class, dominated the news cycle and talk shows this week in Gainesville.

But with Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” piped into the practice field at ear-popping decibel levels and the first batch of clean, crisp autumn air making its way to Gainesville, the current Gators players were bouncing around at practice.

After a brutal, winless October, the Gators are ready to move forward. They don’t have any choice. Can’t change the past.

Instead of “I Won’t Back Down,” perhaps the better Tom Petty tune would be “Time to Move On.”

Starting with Saturday afternoon’s contest at Missouri, where Faurot Field awaits with a black-out, the only choice the Gators have is to move forward.

“Four more opportunities for these student athletes to compete, get better, qualify for a bowl game, send a senior class that’s been to Atlanta twice out the right way,” interim coach Randy Shannon said this week.

Awaiting the Gators will be an improving Missouri team that has reeled off two victories in succession after dropping five consecutive games in September and early October. Sure, Missouri’s back-to-back wins have come against middling Group of 5 opponents Idaho and Connecticut. But after a winless month of October, the Gators are in no position to be judgmental.

In many ways, Saturday looks to be a game between two programs whose seasons are headed in opposite directions.

Mizzou started to show improvement before boat-racing Idaho and Connecticut. The Tigers were unlucky not to win at Kentucky, falling 40-34 in a back-and-forth slugfest, and hung tough at Georgia, scoring 21 points in the opening half before being overrun by Georgia’s physical running attack late. The Tigers feature an offense that ranks 16th in S&P+ efficiency, and an astonishing 2nd in the country in explosive plays. Those two factors, largely due to the outstanding play of quarterback Drew Lock (28 TDs, 8 INTs, 9.5 ypa), have helped give Mizzou a chance to reclaim what once seemed like a lost season.

Lock will easily be the most effective quarterback Florida’s young secondary (43rd nationally in S&P+ pass defense) has played this season. In his last 4 games, Lock has thrown 18 touchdown passes and only two interceptions, and has broken 350 yards passing on three occasions. To have a chance, new defensive coordinator Chris Rumph and the Gators will need to limit explosives, of course, and ride a talented defensive line that’s 8th in the nation in “havoc” to pressure Lock into some errant throws. But given the fact this young defense has been second worst in the Power 5 at giving up explosive plays (127th, only Mizzou at 128th is worse), there’s a good chance Florida gives up some points.

To win, then, the Gators will need some offense of their own, something in short supply during their three-game losing streak, when the team has averaged only 13.3 points a game and never scored more than 17. Perhaps most critically, the Gators will need to move the chains and consume the clock. Limiting the amount of time and snaps Missouri has with the football will keep Florida fresh up front and give a Gators team short on depth the rest it needs to deal with Missouri’s stretch routes and tempo.

And that’s where Malik Zaire comes into play.

After a wretched month that saw redshirt freshman quarterback Feleipe Franks average only 4.4 yards per attempt (a full yard lower than the next lowest QB in the Power 5), interim head coach Randy Shannon has seen enough. The Gators are making a change at quarterback, giving the graduate transfer from Notre Dame the reins to the football team and a chance to salvage what’s left of Florida’s season.

“This is an opportunity for (Zaire) to run the offense and get this team where it needs to be, and not be satisfied to just be the starter,” Shannon told the media Thursday.

In two appearances this season, Zaire is 12-of-23 for 142 yards — not exactly incredible stuff. But those appearances came against two of the nation’s best defenses in Michigan and Georgia. Missouri — ranked 115th in S&P+ defense — isn’t a quality defense. And what they are good at — generating pressure from their front four — is what Zaire is best at avoiding, as anyone who saw him take off for 27 yards against Georgia on Florida’s lone touchdown drive can attest.

Zaire was the logical choice to start given Franks’ struggles, and it’s his mobility that enhances Florida’s largest matchup edge.

Mizzou enter the game 97th in America against the run, numbers that aren’t favorable against Florida’s already physical power running game, which piled up 236 yards against Texas A & M, 204 against LSU and 6.4 yards a rush on non-sack plays against a ferocious Georgia front seven. Couple that success with the added element of Zaire’s legs, and Florida has a clear blueprint to keep the ball, move the chains, and claim a narrow victory.

Saturday’s game is unlikely to be pretty. Little if anything about the first two months of this Florida season has been.

But sometimes a clean slate and new beginning is a shot in the arm to a struggling team.

Maybe, with the McElwain era behind, a beloved interim coach in charge and a veteran quarterback just asking for a chance under center, Florida can write a different story in November.