Florida Gators College Football Pregame Quote, 12/28/2020

Welcome to Dallas, first of all. What are your thoughts now getting on the ground here? And how’s the week been so far at home?

I’ll tell you what, I know we’re thrilled to be here at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. It’s a great honor for the University of Florida. Really exciting to me. I’m a big — I love the history of college football. I’m a huge bowl guy, and I love what it means to play in the bowl games. And I know we’re so excited to be here to be part of this tradition.

I guess the shame is we didn’t get to enjoy the entire week here with how this year is. But I know we’re really excited to be here and excited for the game.

2020 has been one challenge after another, all the way up to the end here. Truncated preparation schedule for you. How has it been this week? And how do you feel coming into town now?

It’s been very different. We gave our guys the opportunity to go have Christmas with their families. They’ve kind of been away from everybody and locked away since July trying to make this season happen. So we gave our guys a little bit of an opportunity to see their families.

So it’s been a shortened week of practice. But you know what? Our guys, they’ve overcome all the different adversities that this year’s thrown at us. And I think they’ve done that in the preparation and getting ready for the game.

You’re facing an Oklahoma team that is accustomed to these kinds of games, as you are. What are the big challenges in preparing for them?

They’re an excellent football team. They’re conference champions. They’ve got very talented football players all over the field, well-coached, sound, disciplined team. And that’s what you need to be to be a championship team and a championship program that they are.

But that’s why you come to Florida. That’s why you go to Oklahoma, to play in these big-time games on the big-time national stage. And so for us, we’ve got to come out there, play our game. And if we do that, we’re going to have the opportunity to win.