Following Florida's 55–20 blowout loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, coach Dan Mullen said the Gators could have skipped the game due to the number of players available to play.
"With the number of people that were out for the game, we were under numbers actually," Mullen said, via ESPN. "We had the numbers to not play the game."
Despite their depleted roster, the team still desired to compete in the top-10 matchup to gain experience.
"I give our guys credit. ...Our young guys wanted to go play in that game, and they wanted to get that experience and wanted to be on that stage.