Asked by The Maneater what he remembers most about Missouri’s offense that made it so tough to defend last year, Florida defensive lineman Cece Jefferson took a different route than others who had been asked the same.

The standard answers had come and gone throughout day two of the 2018 SEC Media Days in Atlanta. It was quarterback Drew Lock’s omnipotent cannon of an arm, or that up-tempo rhythm between snaps.

Jefferson remembered something else. Florida had lost 45-16 in the game he was asked to recall. This was his response:

“It was like … like, how? Like man, that was crazy. But the thing I remember was that cold, aggravating weather. It’s always cold in Missouri, and it’s like their fans have a way of just zoning out of the game. And it’s so quiet in there. I could hear myself thinking in there. I’m not used to that, and it’s just like that the whole game, so you kind of get like, damn, this is boring.”

Another reporter quipped that it was almost as though the fans were intentionally lulling opponents to sleep. Jefferson went on:

“Literally! And they do a good job of it. I’m not making any excuses, that game happened, but definitely Missouri is a … I don’t like playing there. I don’t like playing there.”

Regardless of how you interpret those comments, apparently word spreads pretty quickly, because by the time Missouri’s players came around for their piece of the pie on Wednesday afternoon, they seemed to have heard about it.

Each player proceeded to address the alleged crowd silence Jefferson referred to.

####Drew Lock (senior quarterback):

“Here’s my thought on it. I’m gonna set this up. OK. I play offense, don’t I?”

(Yes.)

“Who’s the guy who said it — he plays defense, doesn’t he?”

(Yes.)

“And we’re playing at Mizzou?”

(Yes.)

“Then I really hope our fans aren’t yelling at us while we’re playing offense. So that could have something to do with why it was quiet while he was on the field. I don’t know. That’s all I’m gonna say about that, is that while we’re on offense, I’m gonna be pretty mad at our fanbase if they’re screaming and yelling.”

####Terry Beckner Jr. (senior defensive lineman):

“Nah, they have great energy. That’s probably just what he thinks. I ain’t saying anything about nobody else, but as far as with me and with our team, we love our fans. It’s a great field to be at, Faurot Field. It’s lovely. I don’t know about nobody else.”

####Terez Hall (senior linebacker):

“Man, keep going with what you’re doing. Like honestly, if that works, if he’s thinking out on the field, hey, we need to keep doing that or something, you know? He needs every advantage, you know? Faurot, they keep bringing the energy there, man. We keep winning; the energy keeps rising. I don’t know. I’m just thankful for the fans there. It’s supposed to be like that, he’s on defense, you know what I mean? I’ve seen [the comments], this morning. It’s quiet because he’s at our house, and the offense is on the field, so it’s got to be that way. We don’t want to be super loud when Drew and them are out there running the snap counts and stuff like that so our center and O-lineman can’t hear. I don’t know what he was talking about, man, but OK.

“Next time next Cece Jefferson plays at Missouri, we’re gonna make sure it’s quiet for him so he can hear everything going on in his head.”

_Edited by Adam Cole | acole@themaneater.com_