All excuses aside, the Oklahoma football win over Florida in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic was as impressive as they come.
The Sooners were sharp on both sides of the ball. Oklahoma produced a season-high 684 yards of offense and averaged 10.5 yards per play.
Florida was able to move the ball against the OU defense, totaling 521 yards of offense, but the Gators were forced to earn every yard they got and the Sooner defensive unit came up with the big plays we it needed them. And their 10.9 yards per rush on 435 rushing yards set a new Cotton Bowl record.
“I feel like this win specifically is going to get us going, going into next year,” said Sooner first-year starting quarterback Spencer Rattler after the game. “This is a game we wanted to come out here and, as coach Riley said, we wanted to make a statement.”
Anyone who watched the game would be hard pressed to think otherwise, with the possible exception of the Gators themselves and their fans.
I think it’s safe to say: Message received…loud and clear.
Downplaying the Cotton Bowl loss, Florida head coach Dan Mullen made headlines after the game, saying that the Sooners had beaten what amounted to the Florida “scout team,” and that if he’d wanted to, the Gators were down by enough numbers (because of opt-outs and COVID issues) that they could have declined to play the game.
Meeting with reporters on Friday, OU head coach Lincoln Riley backed off going there when asked about the Florida coach’s remarks.
"“That’s pretty easy to say after the fact and after what happened,” Riley said. “I do have feelings on it, but I don’t know what I have to gain, really, with sharing those, honestly.”"
“We’ve been in situations this year and in year’s past when we didn’t have all of our bullets, either. Everybody has to make a decision on how they are going to handle that within their program,” the Sooner head coach said.
As strong as Oklahoma finished the 2020 season — posting eight consecutive wins after beginning the season with back-to-back conference losses — and with the firepower returning on both offense and defense, there is every reason to believe that the Sooners are going to be formidable contenders for college football’s holy grail in the 2021 season.
Here are a a dozen more fun nuggets for Sooner fans to digest about Oklahoma’s decisive Cotton Bowl victory over Florida:
- Oklahoma’s all-time bowl record is now 30-23-1. Those 30 postseason wins rank fifth in college football history.
- The 35-point margin of victory tied Oklahoma’s most in 54 total postseason appearances. The Sooners defeated LSU 35-0 in the 1950 Sugar Bowl (1949 season).
- The Cotton Bowl matchup with Oklahoma was the only game this season that Florida scored fewer than 30 points.
- Oklahoma rolled on the ground against Florida, collecting a season-high 435 rushing yards (307 of that in the second half). The Sooners 10.9 yards per rushing play set a new Cotton Bowl record.
- The Sooners’ 55 points and 684 total yards of offense established bowl game records for Oklahoma.
- Oklahoma had 11 plays of 20-yards or more against the Florida defense.
- Oklahoma got off to another fast start, outscoring Florida 17-3 in the opening quarter. The Sooners outscored their opponents 151-20 in the first quarter this season.
- OU is 110-49-8 all-time in games against teams from the SEC.
- In its last five games of the 2020 season, the Oklahoma defense held its opponents to an average of 15.4 points.
- Oklahoma intercepted three passes against Florida. The Sooners also produced three interceptions in the Big 12 Championship game with Iowa State.
- Oklahoma’s two longest running plays from scrimmage occurred on back-to-back drives against Florida (a 73-yard run by Seth McGowan and a 50-yard gain by Rhamondre Stevenson.
- True freshman Marvin Mims scored his ninth receiving touchdown of the season on Oklahoma’s opening scoring drive against Florida. His nine touchdown receptions tied for the most in Big 12 history.