Jamal Roberts spent most of Saturday afternoon looking like a back the No. 8 defense had solved. Then the St. Louis kid broke the game in half.
Roberts finished with 24 carries for 211 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 25 Missouri blew out eighth-ranked Florida 45-17 on Homecoming at Faurot Field. The line puts him next to one name and, by the standard circulating after the final horn, only one: Derrick Henry. Roberts and Henry are the only two running backs to rush for 200-plus yards and three touchdowns against a top-10 opponent.
Henry set the bar on Nov. 7, 2015, when he carried 38 times for 210 yards and three scores in No. 4 Alabama’s 30-16 win over No. 2 LSU, holding Leonard Fournette to 31 yards on the way to a Heisman season. Roberts matched the yardage, matched the touchdowns, and did it against a Gators team that had just blasted No. 4 Ole Miss.
The paths were not the same. Henry wore LSU down. Roberts was bottled up, then gone.
Missouri’s official account of the night had Roberts limited for much of the first three quarters. Through his first 18 carries he had 45 yards. The two teams had combined for 71 rushing yards before he spun out of a pile near the line, reversed field and raced 77 yards to the Florida 2. On the first play of the fourth quarter he scored from a yard out. Austin Simmons found Cayden Lee for the two-point conversion, and it was 38-10.
A couple of minutes later, on Missouri’s next snap, Roberts was gone again — 80 yards, untouched enough to make a sellout crowd sound like it had been waiting nine games for this. The Tigers led 45-10. Florida’s only late touchdown, with 47 seconds left, was furniture.
“Seeing Jamal bounce off all those tackles and break free, it’s something I haven’t seen,” Simmons said.
Simmons was the other half of the breakout. The Ole Miss transfer was 23 of 30 for 340 yards and two touchdowns, including a 47-yard score to Donovan Olugbode and a 31-yarder to Caleb Goodie Sr. Lee led the receivers with eight catches for 110 yards. Olugbode added six for 94 and a score, his fifth straight game with a touchdown. Blake Craig hit from 50 as the half expired and from 52 in the third. Missouri outgained Florida 560-325 and scored 35 straight points after the game was tied 10-10 late in the second quarter.
The defense did its own Henry impression. Jadan Baugh came in with 11 rushing touchdowns in four games and left with 12 carries for 13 yards. Florida managed 19 total yards in the third quarter.
The result ended a nine-game losing streak against ranked opponents and was Missouri’s first win over a top-10 team in 13 years. The 28-point margin is the program’s largest ever against a top-10 opponent, topping a 46-25 win at No. 8 Southern California in 1976. It came in front of the 23rd straight sellout at Memorial Stadium. Missouri is 4-1, 1-1 in the SEC. Florida, which opened the year unranked before winning at Auburn and routing Ole Miss, is 4-1, 2-1.
Roberts did not arrive here as a mystery. He is a St. Mary’s High School product, the 2022 Class 4 offensive player of the year after 1,899 yards and 28 touchdowns, and part of back-to-back state championship teams. At Missouri he redshirted in 2023, then posted 53 carries for 216 yards and three scores in 2024. In 2025, behind Ahmad Hardy, he still ran 124 times for 753 yards and six touchdowns at 6.1 a carry, with 18 catches for 141 yards and another score. Teammates voted him a captain before this season. He is 6-foot, about 212 pounds, and he plays like a back who spent a year learning how to wait.
Saturday was the wait ending. Texas A&M comes to Columbia on Oct. 10. The number next to Roberts’ name is already the one that used to belong only to Henry.
