Florida Football: 3 takeaways from ugly Cotton Bowl loss to Oklahoma

Florida football was hoping to end the season on a high note but Oklahoma had other ideas. What’d we learn from the Gators’ ugly Cotton Bowl loss?

Just a few short weeks ago, Florida was staring at a potential playoff berth and special season under Dan Mullen. The Gators were a one-loss team that locked up a spot in the SEC title game and only faced a matchup with a disappointing LSU squad to end the regular season.

LSU pulled off the shocking upset by a shoe toss (too soon?) and Alabama held on in the SEC title game despite a late Florida surge. That led to an 8-3 record for Florida heading into the Cotton Bowl versus Oklahoma but it seemed like a matchup that may have played into the Gators’ favor. But without guys like Kadarius Toney and Kyle Pitts, the Gators were hapless.

Florida was curb-stomped by Oklahoma on Wednesday night, losing the Cotton Bowl by 35 points to drop to 8-4 on the year and finish about as poorly as a team could.

What’d we learn from the Gators’ ugly loss to Oklahoma?

3. Kyle Trask had a farewell he’d like to forget

Poor Kyle Trask. He had one heck of a season for the Gators and finished as a Heisman finalist, but he threw away (no pun intended) any hope of winning the trophy with the worst game of his career. He had 43 touchdowns on the season with over 4,000 yards and just five total picks coming into the Cotton Bowl, but he threw zero touchdown passes and three first-quarter interceptions which was the difference.

Florida was out of this game before it could even blink. The score was 17-0 before the spread-out fans could even find their seats.

This wasn’t the way Trask deserved to go out after a memorable career with Florida where he became a fan favorite and one of the all-time leading passers in school history. He deserved better, but that’s what happens when all of the top targets are missing.