SEC suspends three Mizzou players, fines Mullen for brawl
The SEC announced Monday that it has issued five half-game suspensions for players and a $25,000 fine for Florida head coach Dan Mullen as a result of the brawl that broke out at halftime of Missouri's 41-17 loss Saturday at No. 10 Florida. Three Missouri players were among those suspended: senior defensive lineman Markell Utsey, sophomore linebacker Chad Bailey and freshman offensive lineman Dylan Spencer. All three players will miss the first half of Missouri's next game, which will be Nov. 14 against Georgia.
Two Florida players, defensive lineman Zachary Carter and linebacker Antwuan Powell, will have to miss the first half of the Gators' next game, which also comes against Georgia, on Saturday. Mullen was issued a reprimand by the SEC office and fined. He is the second SEC coach to receive a $25,000 fine in as many weeks, joining Lane Kiffin, who drew the penalty after criticizing the league's replay officials following a loss to Auburn.
"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," SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a release. "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 fight started after Missouri defensive end Trajan Jeffcoat hit Florida quarterback Kyle Trask high after Trask had released a Hail Mary pass on the final play of the first half. The hit didn't draw a penalty flag, but Mullen took issue with it and charged onto the field, which escalated the tensions. Soon, both sidelines had cleared and a mosh pit formed on the field. After each team had finally been escorted to its respective locker room, Mullen and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz had an animated conversation on the field, which Drinkwitz admitted after the game "wasn't exactly pleasant." Finally, before returning to the locker room, Mullen waved his hands in the air, gesturing for the cheers from the crowd.
After the game, Mullen said he ran onto the field to try to get players to the locker room rather than to protest the hit. Drinkwitz said he didn't know exactly how the fight began, but noted that some members of the Florida sideline had made their way onto the Missouri side of the field.
“Honestly, I don’t really know (what happened)," Drinkwitz said. "My eyes were on the ball. We played the ball, the ball was knocked away, 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 and then our players joined in, and we gotta keep our guys from joining in, we gotta keep our guys from the sidelines. It’s an ugly scene, 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 yeah, we gotta figure it out, we gotta get it fixed.
"I don’t know why they were running over to our hash. I have no idea what even kind of they were yelling about, so we’ll take a look at the film, but I’m sure we’ll find out more tomorrow when we watch the tape. Film doesn’t lie.”
Both Powell and Carter were ejected from the game at halftime for their roles in the fight, as was Missouri defensive end Tre Williams, who escaped further punishment from the league. Unlike Powell and Carter, Williams was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct rather than fighting.
Utsey has started each of the past three games at nose tackle for Missouri in the absence of Kobie Whiteside. He has played the second-most snaps of any defensive tackle on the year and has recorded 11 tackles, including two for loss. Spencer took over for an injured Xavier Delgado during the first half of Missouri's win over Kentucky, then made his first start and played the entire game against Florida. Bailey, the backup to weakside linebacker Nick Bolton, has played sparingly this season, mostly appearing on special teams.
On Sunday, Missouri and Florida released a joint statement to address the brawl. It read: "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."