The Kentucky Wildcats have been a thorn in the Gators’ side for the last seven years or so.
In 2014, it took triple-overtime for the Gators to escape the Swamp with a win. It took Kentucky completely ignoring two Gators receivers and missing a field goal for the Gators to win in 2017. It took a career backup quarterback named Kyle Trask leading an unforgettable fourth-quarter comeback for UF to win in 2019.
And, of course, Kentucky snapped its 31-game losing streak to Florida in the Swamp in 2018.
Even though the Gators have a significantly more talented roster than the Wildcats on an annual basis, just about every game between these teams seems to take 10 years off of the lives of everybody who’s watching.
Saturday’s battle in Lexington between No. 10 Florida and Kentucky has the makings of more of the same. The Wildcats (4-0, 2-0 SEC) are undefeated and will have a raucous crowd at Kroger Field to support them, as the game sold out earlier this week.
“[Kentucky coach Mark Stoops] has done a great job of building the program with the identity,” UF coach Dan Mullen said. “They’re going to be a big, physical defense. Then they have a strong running game that is complemented by play-action pass. When you play them with that identity, that’s who they are, and he’s been really successful with that.
“I always give Mark a lot of credit. I think he’s built a program the right way, and it shows with their consistency with how they’ve won the last several years.”
As usual, the defense is the strength of Stoops’ team. They rank ninth in the country in total defense (260 yards per game), 20th in rushing defense (87.5 yards), 27th in passing defense (172.8 yards) and tied for 28th in scoring defense (17.8 points).
They play an aggressive, attacking and yet fundamentally sound form of defense. They’re not going to give the Gators a whole lot of free yards and first downs. UF (3-1, 1-1) will have to earn everything it gets.
“They’ve got a lot of starters coming back, and, just watching the film, they look fast,” Gators receiver Justin Shorter said. “They look like a great team that’s hungry. We have to keep working hard during the week. It basically all starts on Sunday after that game ends. Like, ‘What are you doing on Sunday to get better?’ I think we’re going to run the ball, pass the ball, do everything that we have been doing, really take strides and keep on growing as a team.”
Outside linebacker J.J. Weaver is their best defensive player. He leads them with 3.5 sacks and is tied for the team lead with 5.5 tackles-for-loss. He’s also forced a fumble.
Linebacker DeAndre Square is tied for the team lead with 24 tackles, and he’s tied with Weaver for the lead in tackles-for-loss.
Linebacker Jacquez Jones (team-best-tying 24 stops and an interception) and free safety Yusuf Corker (SEC-leading six passes broken up) are a couple of more players to watch.
“They’re a big, physical defense, and that’s what they play, but they have a lot of experience, a lot of seniors, a lot of fifth-year seniors, veteran guys that have been there,” Mullen said. “They understand the scheme inside and out. You watch them, they’re very sound in what they do, and, when you have your guys that are confident in what they’re doing and they know the scheme and defense, they’re there and able to make plays.”
Offensively, the Wildcats once again base everything they do around a power running game. They rank fifth in the conference with 204.5 rushing yards per game. Chris Rodriguez leads the league with 513 yards and three touchdowns on 85 carries (six yards per carry). Kavosiey Smoke is a solid No. 2 option with 142 yards on 29 carries.
However, the way they go about running the ball is different this year under new offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who worked for the Los Angeles Rams over the previous three seasons.
Instead of crowding the line with two running backs and two tight ends and operating in a proverbial phone booth, the Wildcats have entered the 21st century by spreading the defense sideline to sideline and running the ball where there are fewer defenders.
“The running backs run really hard, probably run as hard as any backs in the conference from the standpoint of they’ll bleed you and make a three-yard gain a five-yard gain, and they’ll try to keep guys on track,” UF defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “It’s a much more difficult challenge than, say, last week.”
They also have a solid play-action passing game to complement their ground game now thanks to Coen’s NFL background and the addition of Penn State transfer Will Levis at quarterback.
Levis has completed 65.4 percent of his passes for 902 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions. He has a strong arm and decent mobility.
“He’s got a good arm,” Grantham said. “He’s got enough athletic ability that, when he can run on quarterback designed runs, he can escape pressure and extend plays that way. He does understand where to throw the ball relative to the coverages that you play.”
However, his former teammate at Penn State, UF defensive tackle Antonio Valentino, said Levis’ mindset is his best attribute.
“He’s not very easily shaken,” Valentino said. “He’s very strong-willed, very strong in his mind. He’s very physical as a quarterback. If he’s running the ball – at least from what I remember – he’s running the ball and he has a choice of going around you or going through you, he’s going to try to go through you. He’s very good with his legs.
“Anybody’s who’s been watching SEC football clearly sees that he can air it out when he needs to. I think he’s playing in an offense that he’s very comfortable in, and he has the tools around him to really show what he can do, and that’s really what I was just telling the guys today in meetings.”
Grantham said Kentucky’s play-action game will test his unit’s eye discipline. They cannot get out of position by having their eyes glued to the backfield.
“When you play teams that run the ball and have play-action pass, your eye-control is important, your ability to have good eyes, to make sure that you don’t give up the explosive plays by staring in the backfield and you’re keying what you’ve got to key from that standpoint,” Grantham said. “That would be more of a perimeter play or a perimeter assignment thing or technique thing that you’ve just got to make sure that you’ve got good eyes on the play-action passes.”
If they don’t, Nebraska transfer Wan’Dale Robinson will burn them deep. He leads the SEC with 402 yards and two scores on 25 catches. He’s also gained 78 yards on four carries.
“When you go play them with their backs and their line and their physicality, you do focus on the run game,” Mullen said. “We’ve got to stop the run, and that creates the matchups for the play-action shots down the field, and he’s done a great job of making explosive plays down the field.”
Valentino offered an even simpler solution for defending Kentucky’s play-action game – don’t let them run the ball. If they cannot run the ball effectively, the defensive backs will be less likely to bite on the fake handoff.
“Play-action and all of that really only works if you can establish the run,” he said. “So, obviously, first with football, playing defensive line is stop the run. You’ve got to earn the right to rush the passer on first down. So, we’ve just got to be in our gaps, do our job, play sound defense and make our plays when they come to us, and I think we’ll be fine.
“One of the biggest things is getting all 11 hats to the ball. Can’t really rely on one guy to tackle, not saying that we can’t, but just playing good defense and making it a habit that we need 11 hats to the ball every snap so that there’s no even chance of somebody breaking the tackle, breaking a big play. It’s just playing defense as a whole, just the mentality.”
Turnovers could be a huge factor in this game. The Gators are minus-3 in turnover margin, which ties for 108th nationally, while the Wildcats are dead last at minus-9. UF has forced just three turnovers this year, while Kentucky has produced just two. If one of these teams is able to turn their fortunes around this weekend, they’ll have an advantage in the game.
One of the biggest keys for the Gators is to get off to a fast start. They fell behind Alabama 21-3 in the first quarter two weeks ago and trailed Tennessee in the second quarter last week.
Kentucky is a good team, and their crowd will be fired up the way Gators fans were the past two weeks. The Gators need to jump out to an early lead and make the crowd a non-factor.
“I feel like it’s a challenge because they’re 4-0, so they’ll come into this game with a lot of confidence,” UF defensive end Princely Umanmielen said. “I think a few years ago, they upset us or we had to come back or something like that. So, obviously, they feel like they can beat us. So, I feel like they’re going to come in there with a lot of confidence, so it’s going to be a challenge for us.”
The Gators need to squash the Wildcats’ confidence quickly.
“I think it’s important to execute for four quarters,” Mullen said. “You’ve got to execute just as well at the beginning of the game as you’ve got to execute at the end of the game if you want to be a great team. So, the execution on every single snap and the focus on the play at hand is the most important thing. I don’t really care about the last play, and the next play is irrelevant. All that matters is performing on the play at hand. Every play is important.”