GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida suddenly went from first to nearly worst nationally in kickoff return yardage on Saturday against Missouri.

The Gators hadn't allowed a kick return all season long, the only team in the country to do so, until what appeared to be a coordinated effort on Saturday to hit kickoffs high to force returns and allow the coverage team to get down the field and make some stops.

It backfired, though, as Missouri returned three kicks for an average 32.7 yards, dropping Florida's average from the best in the country to No. 128, ahead of only Auburn.

Interim coach Randy Shannon seemed at a loss for what happened.

"Eddy mishit about five kicks, no rhyme or reason," Shannon said. "He was not trying to pooch it. He just mishit it. He’s done it all year, so there were a lot of inconsistencies with the football team. We have to make sure we fix those inconsistencies this week coming back."

Pineiro met with the media on Monday and explained he tried to mix it up.

Apparently without telling anyone.

"I thought it was good to do, but it didn’t work so, back to my old ways," Pineiro said.

"I tried to change it up this week because usually I get ‘em all out of the endzone, so I tried to get some high kicks to try to pin them inside the 5, inside the 10, but it didn’t work out for me so, I guess we’ll go back to getting them out the end zone."

Even Shannon was unaware that his kicker was apparently trying to hang them high to steal some field position with the coverage unit getting downfield and making a quick stop.

Of course, in a 45-16 loss the field position on three kickoffs likely had little to do with the outcome.

But a player seemingly going rogue definitely raises some eyebrows. In any case, Pineiro plans to return to the usual tactics Saturday against South Carolina.

"No," Pineiror said, asked if he got in trouble for the kickoffs. "I mean coach (Jim McElwain) always wanted me to (kick it deep), that was like his kind of mindset, but I guess it’s a little different now, so."

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