SEC announces punishment for Dan Mullen, Florida-Missouri following weekend brawl
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Following this weekend’s ugly incident in The Swamp, the Southeastern Conference has made its decision on the punishment that needed to be dealt out.
If you somehow missed it, Florida and Missouri were involved in a midfield brawl just as halftime began in Gainesville on Saturday night.
Here is how the SEC decided to hand out discipline following the incident:
For Florida, Mullen has been issued a reprimand by the Southeastern Conference and fined $25,000 while Florida defensive lineman Zach Carter and linebacker Antwuan Powell will be suspended for the first half of the Georgia game. They were both tossed out of the second half of the Missouri game.
For Missouri, the SEC Office has issued a half-game suspensions for Missouri linebacker Chad Bailey, offensive lineman Dylan Spencer and defensive lineman Markell Utsey for fighting action during the altercation.
Here is the statement issued by Sankey:
“There is no place in college football for the kind of incident that took place at halftime of the Missouri at Florida game Saturday night. Everyone involved is responsible for meeting sportsmanship standards throughout each game. Running on the field to confront a game official, the gathering of teams in an on-field confrontation and student-athletes throwing punches are all disappointing at any time, but even more so as we work to support healthy competition during a pandemic.”
The incident started after Kyle Trask was hit late during a Hail Mary attempt as time expired at the end of the first half. Things were escalated when Dan Mullen ran out onto midfield and starting screaming but it’s unclear exactly who the Florida coach was directing his anger towards.
It was at that point that the brawl started.
Florida’s Missouri’s Tre Williams, were ejected from the game following the fight.
Here is what Dan Mullen had to say about the incident during his postgame press conference.
“I didn’t see (the hit on Trask), I was watching the play down the field to see if there was pass interference on the play or if we made the catch. Then guys were like, ‘Hey,’ – I was told (the hit on Trask) was late and our guys are going to defend their quarterback. And I think our guys started to do that… I didn’t see what was going on, I didn’t see the hit, I was told afterward that our guys thought that was the case but obviously it wasn’t — from the officials’ point of view.
“We went out there trying to get our guys off the field because it was getting testy, you know what I mean? We have a big game next week and it kept growing and growing and we’re trying to push guys back and unfortunately, getting in the middle, trying to get the officials in the middle, trying to get them in the middle, get us in the middle, their team off our team… really unfortunate situation. Not something we condone, obviously. It’s not something you want to see in the game at all.”
Here is what Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz had to say about the incident during his postgame press conference.
“I was watching, my eyes were on the ball,” Drinkwitz said. “We played the ball, the ball was knocked away, and I started running in, and saw one of their coaches on our hash yelling at our guys and then I saw more of their players join in. We got to keep our guys from joining in, we got to keep our guys from the sideline.
“It’s an ugly scene for football, it’s an ugly scene for college football, and I’m not proud of it, and I don’t know who started it, but we’ve got to figure it out, we’ve got to get it fixed.”
Both programs issued a joint statement on Sunday following the incident:
“The actions at the end of the first half of last night’s game do not reflect the values of our football program or University. 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.”
Florida is set to play Georgia in Jacksonville this weekend while Missouri is on a bye this week.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
