Florida coach Jim McElwain said the Gators wanted to play LSU and any implication otherwise "shocks me."
Much of the blow-back following last Thursday's decision to cancel Saturday's game due to Hurricane Matthew focused on the Gators' role in postponing the game.
LSU athletic director Joe Alleva fanned the flames, leading some media members in both Louisiana and nationally to accuse UF athletics director Jeremy Foley and the Gators of delaying a decision until it was too late, thus avoiding a matchup with the Tigers.
"It just shocks me that someone could actually think that way, especially knowing us," McElwain said Monday. "I mean there isn't much thought that goes behind it to me that somebody would actually think that. And knowing us, that's pretty crazy to me."
McElwain said his players had mixed emotions regarding the SEC's 11th-hour decision to postpone the Gators' matchup with the Tigers.
"Obviously the competitive nature you know, was the first instinct," McElwain said. "And that's the first instinct in all of us. And yet the look on quite a few people's faces that you knew and had been through things before, knowing what their families were about ready to go through.
"You know, it was hard. It was hard on everybody."
Gators' guard Tyler Jordan said the families of 52 players were in the storm's projected path.
"I think you have to look at the big picture," he said.
Gators center Cam Dillard echoed his fellow lineman's sentiments on the cancellation.
"It sucked," he said. "But lives are more important than a game. It's a game."
Following the SEC's decision, LSU athletic director Joe Alleva told reporters in Baton Rogue, La., he offered solutions rejected by UF. The Tigers suggested the Gators come to Baton Rogue, La., to play Saturday and also offered to fly LSU to Gainesville, Fla., on Sunday to play.
"All I could do was offer opportunities and plead and beg to make it happen," Alleva said Thursday.
UF AD Jeremy Foley said neither option was viable given safety concerns stemming from unpredictability the storm's path and impact.
On Saturday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said UF and LSU need to find common ground and reschedule the game.
The best option appears to be each team giving up its Nov. 19 nonconference games _ UF vs. Presbyterian and LSU vs. South Alabama _ and play each other instead. The SEC's lost-revenue insurance would cover the game guarantees for each nonconference foe and LSU's losses _ around $3 million _ for giving up a home game.
Still, Alleva said Monday the school would not give up a home game. Each LSU game in Baton Rouge, La., reportedly generates around $10 million for the city.
"We are going to have a game on Nov. 19," Alleva said. "We are not going to change that situation."
Whatever happens, Gators' quarterback Austin Appleby said UF is eager to find a solution.
"We know we'll play anybody, anywhere, anytime," he said. "I'm confident, from what I've ready, they're going to do their best to get the game rescheduled. I know our locker room is really, really excited to have a chance to play them."
McElwain stood by the decision to put off the LSU game, recalling 2011 when he was offensive coordinator at Alabama and a tornado flatted parts of Tuscaloosa, Ala.
"Probably as big of an effect on me as anything, to see what the act of mother nature can do," he said. "To see what it did going down that street about two, three blocks just off where our facility was and seeing it tear all the way through town.
"Seeing what it did personally with even some of our players. Man, I'm telling you, it's a real eye-opener."
McElwain offered perspective to the critics of UF's role in the decision regarding LSU.
"Nineteen deaths, 2.5 million people without power. Families in dire needs," he said. "Obviously, they don't know me, they don't know the Florida Gators. They don't know our players.
"Dodging the game? Wow."
