Florida’s 2020 season came to an uninspiring close on Wednesday night. Missing their top-four receivers and multiple starters on defense, the Gators had no answer for Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on offense or defense. The Sooners rolled to a 55-20 victory.
Afterward, coach Dan Mullen called the performance a “spring game” and said that the 2020 team played its last game in the SEC Championship against Alabama. Spring game or not, though, this game counts all the same in the loss column. And a season that began with such promise (and even playoff aspirations) for UF ends at a disappointing 8-4.
Mullen is at a bit of a crossroad. In many ways, the Gators took a lot of leaps forward this season. Their offense, which had been solid the last two seasons, became one of the nation’s best. Quarterback Kyle Trask exploded onto the scene, becoming the nation’s most prolific passer. He threw for more than 4,000 yards this season and tossed 43 touchdowns.
In November, Florida beat Georgia for the first time since 2016, and with that victory, it captured an SEC East title. After back-to-back seasons of coming up short to the Bulldogs in the divisional race, it seemed Mullen had finally gotten over the hurdle.
But this team had problems, too. And it didn’t take a film guru to figure out what they were. Even in the season opener against Ole Miss, the dichotomy between Florida’s fantastic offense and lagging defense became clear.
Trask threw for over 400 yards and six touchdowns against the Rebels. But the game was closer than those numbers would indicate, as UF struggled mightily to stop them. The final score ended at 51-35, but the Gators gave up 600 yards of offense in the process.
At the time, it was easy to knock the struggles off to first-game jitters, no spring game, and a lack of film on the Rebels offense under first-year coach Lane Kiffin (which ended up being one of the nation’s best).
NEXT: Defensive woes continue