The Florida Gators achieved their preseason goal of winning the SEC East and getting to the SEC Championship but fell just six points short to the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide.

Florida, playing its eight-straight week of SEC football out-scored the Tide 29-17 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an 18-point deficit. At the end of the season, an unprecedented season with no spring football, a long, stop-and-go fall camp, COVID testing, and thousands of COVID tests, Florida leaves Atlanta holding their head high.

Kyle Trask said it best. The Gators were a 16.5 point underdog when the ball was kicked on Saturday night. Florida, in the minds of everybody outside of the program, was just happy to be in Atlanta and should be gracious to take the same field as Alabama. That wasn’t their mentality.

“No one in the world gave us a damn chance,” Trask said. “We believed in ourselves. The only people that truly have an effect on the game are in the building. We worked so hard. We just ran out of time.”

The Gators moved the ball at will for most of the night. Florida had 462 yards of offense and Kyle Trask threw for 408 yards, giving him 4,125 for the season, the most any quarterback at the University of Florida has ever thrown for.

They might not have gotten it before but the way Florida played against Alabama should earn them respect.

Three times in the first half the Gators' defense got a stop, only to have something happen that put the ball back into Alabama’s hands. Trey Dean earned an effort interception, ripping the ball out of a defender’s hands. 17-yards into his return, Dean was clobbered by Alabama receiver John Metchie. Dean fumbled. Alabama recovered and scored on the next play. On one third down an illegal hands to the face personal foul was called that gave Alabama a new set of downs. On another third-down stop the Gators had too many men on the field and one offside.

The Gators needed to play flawlessly and these are just a few instances, a few plays in a game of inches, that could have changed the outcome of the game.

The Gators gave up 605 yards to Alabama, the second time the unit has given up 600 yards in a game this season (Ole Miss - 613). Florida’s defense was better in the second half — 366 of Alabama’s yards came in the first half — but it wasn’t enough. As stated above it was just a few miscues at precisely the wrong time, that made a difference.

The Gators are going to lose a lot after this year, namely Kyle Trask, Kadarius Toney, Kyle Pitts, Kyree Campbell, for starters, but getting to this game and feeling the hurt of watching another team celebrate under confetti for something that you worked for will stick with the younger players.

Kyle Trask remembered getting to the SEC Championship game in 2016 and he’s worn the backpack that was given to the players ever since. He wore it daily as a reminder, and now, a group of young Gators, have a similar experience.

“It really makes you starve,” linebacker Mohamoud Diabate said after the game. “Just sitting here, just thinking about the game, you want to get back to work with your brothers. You want to get back on task because we want to get here. Every year when we start the year our goal is to get here.

“Last year we weren’t here. This year we got here. Next year we plan on getting back here and finishing the job.”