GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Jon Sumrall, like most coaches, welcomes as much external motivation as possible.
He’s not getting any help from oddsmakers this week.
The 21st-ranked Gators (3-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) are 3½-point favorites against No. 4 Mississippi (3-0, 1-0) ahead of Saturday's game at Florida Field. The line opened at 1½ and has since moved more toward the home team.
“Who’s got us favored against these guys?” Sumrall asked Monday.
Everyone in Vegas.
“There’s a lot of good drugs out there, huh?” Sumrall quipped.
The Rebels, behind dynamic quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and speedy receiver Deuce Alexander, have quality wins against then-No. 16 Louisville in their opener in Nashville, Tennessee, and against then-No. 7 LSU at home last Saturday.
Florida, meanwhile, handled overmatched Florida Atlantic and lower-division Campbell before winning a shootout at Auburn. The 44-39 victory on the Plains landed Florida in the AP Top 25 for just the second time in three years.
“I did talk to our team about rankings in Week 4 mean nothing,” Sumrall said. “Nobody posts anything up in the building about this year’s team and where you’re ranked in Week 4. Nobody cares.
“And the pats on the back you’re getting? If you go out and lay an egg, they’re going to be the same hands hitting you in the back — and they’re going to have a knife.”
Florida is 3-0 for the first time since 2019, and the team’s 162 points rank fourth in program history through three games. The only years better: 1913, 1994 and 2007.
“It’ll definitely be a good test because it’s easy to block out negative noise, ‘I don’t want to hear that,’” defensive end Jayden Woods said. “But once you hear the praise and the positive noise, it’s easy to want to listen to it and let that come in. But it’s just as important to block that out.”
The Gators haven’t beaten a top-five team since then-No. 3 Ole Miss visited the Swamp in 2015. Florida rolled in that one, overwhelming Chad Kelly and the Rebels 38-10 early in coach Jim McElwain’s tenure.
The Rebels were favored by 6½ in that one.
It’s more surprising that they are underdogs this week, especially after Florida gave up way too many explosive plays against the Tigers and were flagged 16 times for 138 yards.
The line has more to do with the game being in Gainesville, where the Gators have played well recently despite finishing with four losing seasons in the last five years. They have victories against five ranked teams at home over the last four years: knocking off Utah and South Carolina in 2022, Tennessee in 2023, Ole Miss in 2024 and Texas last season.
“We may get added points in Vegas for home-field advantage, like more than normal,” Sumrall said. “It’s a special place. … I fully expect our fanbase to be ready to go and create as much havoc as they possibly can and make it a tough place to play when we play big games like this one.”
Sumrall made it clear to his players that “if we play like we did last week or the previous week — really any of the weeks we played so far this year — we will not win Saturday. No chance.”
Oddsmakers see it differently, at least for now.
“Nobody ever wins a game on paper,” Florida receiver Vernell Brown III said.
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FILE - Florida Gators swamp signage is shown during an NCAA college football game between the against the Florida Atlantic Owls and the Florida Gators in Gainesville, Fla., Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Joneliet, File)
FILE - Florida Gators running back Jadan Baugh (13) celebrates after rushing for a first down during an NCAA college football game against the Florida Atlantic Owls in Gainesville, Fla., Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Joneliet, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are climbing with markets worldwide on Monday after oil prices and yields in the bond market gave back some of their jumps from last week.
The S&P 500 rose 1.5% and pulled within 0.4% of its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 348 points, or 0.7%, as of 2:20 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.2% higher.
They got help from the price for a barrel of Brent oil falling 3.4% to $100.29. While that’s still much higher than its roughly $72 price from earlier this summer, it’s down from the nearly $110 it touched last week.
Oil prices are swinging up and down as some crude from the Middle East is able to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, though nowhere nearly as much as the industry and customers would like because of the war with Iran. Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson said another leg higher in prices for oil, gasoline and other refined products is the main risk he sees in the near term that could keep the U.S. stock market from rising to his forecasted target for the year’s end.
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline across the United States has already climbed to nearly $4.48, according to AAA. That's up from less than $4.32 just a week earlier and from $3.18 a year ago.
Monday’s pullback in oil prices helped lower the pressure coming from the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.97% from 5.01% late Friday after it crossed above the 5% threshold last week for the first time in three years.
Yields have been on the rise because of worries about inflation, big debt loads for governments worldwide and other factors. That hurts the economy because high yields make it more expensive not only for the U.S. government to borrow money to pay its bills but also for households and businesses.
Worries remain about how much oil is available for customers worldwide, ING commodities strategists Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson wrote in a commentary on Monday. However, they said profit-taking by investors after the recent jump in oil prices, together with hopes for constructive discussions at this week’s U.N. General Assembly and at a meeting between China’s and the United States’ leaders, helped improve optimism.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters following talks Sunday with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York that the U.S. had “a very successful engagement” with the Chinese side. Bessent said talks with China touched on trade and AI. China and the United States have been discussing reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion worth of goods from each side.
In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed that Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the United States between Sept. 23 and 25. Experts and policymakers believe trade, tariffs, and AI safety are likely among the topics to be on the agenda. The war in Iran and developments in the Middle East and ties between China and Iran could also be discussed.
On Wall Street, stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry continued to stabilize following their worldwide slide at the start of last week. Leaders of the AI industry have recently warned a slowdown is needed in the industry’s development for the safety of humanity.
Advanced Micro Devices rallied 8.8% and could finish the day with a total market value above $1 trillion, while Nvidia added 2.2%.
Stocks enmeshed in the cryptocurrency industry, meanwhile, rallied after bitcoin's price rose back above $85,000 and returned to where it was in January. Coinbase Global jumped 4.8%, and Robinhood Markets rose 4.2%.
Skydance-owned Paramount fell 1.6% as it reached a settlement in a lawsuit challenging its buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery, which jumped 10.8%.
Stock indexes around the world also climbed thanks to the easing of oil prices and bond yields. Indexes gained 0.9% in France, 1.2% in Hong Kong and 1.6% in South Korea.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) in the foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work in the foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) in the foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
