Kentucky welcomed the the 22nd ranked Florida Gators to Kroger Field in the first real test of the season. Not only did Kentucky win but they made a statement by physically dominating Florida on both lines of scrimmage and won the game 33-14. That is Kentucky’s 3rd straight win over Florida and have now won 4 out of 6 over the Gators.
Offense
Kentucky clearly saw a weakness in the Florida front 7 and boy did they exploit it. After 4 weeks of clearly trying to get the passing game going, Kentucky came out and just ran the ball right down the Gators’ throat. As a team they had 36 carries for 329 yards with Ray Davis accounting for 280 of it. It was a dominant performance from him but also from a much-maligned OL. Eli Cox deserves special recognition as it was his best performance of the season.
The passing game left a lot to be desired. Devin Leary was a concerning 9/19 with a paltry 69 yards for 1 TD. Once again he was let down by some hideous drops (Barrion Brown dropped a TD that cost Kentucky 4 points early in the game) and at this point it’s hard not to think it’s a mental rut that both he and the WR group are in.
What I will say is that Leary didn’t panic, he didn’t take a sack and he didn’t throw an INT which allowed Kentucky’s run game and defense to do most of the work. Last week after the Vandy game I wrote that this offense didn’t need to score 35+ a game, it just needed to not make everyone’s job harder, and it did that. Credit to Coen for not getting caught up in trying to prove how smart he was against the “rising star” Florida DC. Coen saw how soft Florida was and knew they didn’t have a tool in their tool shed to fix that.
Defense
In short, the Kentucky defense bullied the Florida offense in the first half. Deon Walker blew up any semblance of a run game which was Florida’s bread and butter coming into the game and they were also able to generate pressure on Florida QB Graham Mertz. They only sacked him 3 times, but Mertz was constantly under pressure and narrowly avoided several more.
By the time Florida found some rhythm they were already in a three-score hole and the game was essentially over. Billy Napier adjusted to his OL getting dominated by almost exclusively relying on short passing and getting the ball out of Mertz’ hands as quick as possible. Kentucky was still able to get pressure but Mertz did a great job of absorbing hits and making plays through contact.
However, unlike last week Kentucky made enough plays to not allow this game to appear closer than it was with some big 4th down stops. Guys like Alex Afari and Keaton Wade made big plays in space and the secondary blanketed the Florida WRs.
Special Teams
Kentucky had one noticeable special teams goof with a blocked XP but credit to punter Wilson Berry who tracked down the play and made the tackle to avoid Florida getting a cheap two points. A Florida special teamer (who is a DB I believe) getting hawked down by a punter is not only hilarious it illustrates the difference in the two rosters at this point.
Kicking wise it was another good day for Alex Raynor. He obviously had the XP blocked but I don’t think that was his fault. He was 2/2 on FG including nailing a 50-yarder to put Kentucky up 3 scores.
Wilson Berry probably had his best game of the season (including the chase down tackle) with 3 punts for an average of 47.7 yards with a long of 56. The 56-yarder came on a generous bounce, but we’ll still give Berry credit for it. That being said, it was another week where an SEC team had an advantage in the punting department. It appears this is probably the ceiling for Kentucky’s unit and that is something that must be addressed in the off-season.
Final Thoughts
It wasn’t perfect but winning in the SEC rarely is. As a young adult I had to sit through some truly awful performances against Florida. I sat in awe of a program that was humming in all phases of the game and flexed their dominance. There was a stretch during my college years where Florida won 5 straight games with an aggregate score of 238-36 (2008-2012). The two programs felt like they were in different universes. Since 2013, Mark Stoops has rolled up his sleeves and done the hard work of building a foundation that has led to sustainable success and it culminated this weekend. Kentucky has become the better program with better players and better coaches despite having fewer resources. Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out Kentucky fans should be proud of the transformation that has happened in the last decade.
