Saturday, September 8
Gainesville, FL
7:30 PM
Florida Gators
vs
Kentucky
Dan Mullen's first loss as UF head coach was the program's first loss to Kentucky in 32 years.
Wildcats Rain Three Decades of Frustration on Gators' Parade
Saturday, September 8, 2018 | Football, Chris Harry
And it did Saturday.
It only took 11,620 days and seven UK head coaches.
Take a bow, Mark Stoops, the one on the Wildcats' sidelines who oversaw the end of the longest active run by one Division I and FBS opponent over another — dating to 1987 — at 31 straight games, with a 21-10 road win before a shellshocked Spurrier/Florida field crowd. Take a bow, especially, UK quarterback Terry Wilson, who passed for 151 yards and a couple touchdowns, and added another 105 rushing on 10 attempts, part of a Cats' offensive onslaught that finished with 454 total yards, including 303 on the ground. Tailback Benny Snell led the way with 175 rushing yards on 27 carries.
Wilson threw touchdown strikes of 29 yards on the game's first series and 54 yards early in the second half on a third-and-16. In between, he sped off on a 24-yard touchdown run on the first series after intermission that put the Wildcats (2-0, 1-0) in front for good, 14-10, as it turned out.
"The streak had nothing to do with [this] game and [will have] nothing to do with next week's game," said Mullen, the first coach to lose to Kentucky since Galen Hall did so in Lexington on Nov. 15, 1986. "It happens in sports. It's a tough loss for us. We have to find a way to get better and improve next week. That's about all my thoughts on that."
Oh, but he had other thoughts, the most prominent of which focused on the necessity of practicing harder and forging more of a toughness between the games. It was evident in this one that Kentucky was the more physical team; clearly the one that executed better.
"We know what we have to do," senior offensive tackle Martez Ivy said. "It may not seem that simple to y'all, but it is to me."
Put simply, Florida could not keep up with Kentucky on either side of the ball. The aforementioned offensive numbers cranked out by the Wildcats were alarming in that they looked so easy — on the road, no less — against a UF defensive line that was supposed to be deep and athletic, for the number of tackles the Gators (1-1, 0-1) missed, and that UK threw just five incompletions in 16 attempts.
On the other side, UF sophomore quarterback Feleipe Franks and his unit finished with 360 yards and struggled to run the football. Franks was nowhere as calm and crisp as he was in throwing five first-half touchdowns in the season-opening rout of Charleston Southern last week. Kentucky's defense presented a far greater challenge, as everyone knew it would, and Franks completed 17 of 38 passes for 232 yards, two touchdown, was intercepted once and fumbled on the game's final play, a turnover the Cats returned for take-that-losing-streak touchdown as time expired.
"We did a bunch of things," Franks said when asked about the offensive problems. "A bunch of guys wish we could have done better."
Kentucky, on the other hand, was on point and undaunted from the start.
"Obviously, it's hard to describe the feeling that I'm feeling right now," Stoops said. "Our fan base has waited a long time for this. To say that it doesn't bother them would be a lie because it's the unnecessary burden that these players carry when they come into a streak like that. They don't deserve that because they weren't a part of it. We don't have to deal with it anymore."
The Wildcats drew first blood when Wilson had a 29-yard touchdown pass to David Bouvier that capped a nine-play, 91-yard drive after UF's opening possession ended with a punt downed at the UK 9. Early in the drive, sophomore cornerback Marco Wilson, an All-America candidate, went down with a knee injury. After being attended to by trainers, Wilson hobbled to the locker room on his own (he did not return), but then the Cats took off.
UK converted a pair of third downs when Wilson had a six-yard run on third-and-3, and Snell, working from the Wildcat, bulled through the middle of the defense for 14 yards. On the very next play, Wilson took advantage of the hard Florida pass rush by breaking containment and speeding 31 yards up the right sideline to the Gators' 23. Two plays later, Wilson rolled right and under pressure as he closed on the sideline, threw his touchdown pass over UF safety Brad Stewart, with Bouvier falling to the turf in the end zone as he hauled in the pass at the 5:07 mark of the period.
True freshman kicker Evan McPherson hit a 29-yard field goal to get UF on the board two plays into the second period. The Gators, with the help of a 30-yard pass from Franks to tailback Jordan Scarlett, had a second-and-1 from the Wildcats' 3, but Franks was sacked for a nine-yard loss, then threw incomplete on third down, forcing the Gators to settle for the field goal.
UF made it 10 straight points when Franks threw an 18-yard touchdown to tight end Moral Stephens to cap a quick four-play, 63-yard drive and go up 10-7. The Wildcats threatened to tie or take the lead just before intermission, but Wilson was picked off by cornerback C.J. Henderson at the UF 2 in the final seconds before the break.
The Cats started their first possession in the second half at their 10. Wilson converted a third-and-7 by scrambling from his end zone for 19 yards. Snell went for seven on third-and-2, then for 18 two plays later. No UF defender came close to touching Wilson on his go-ahead touchdown run, which started with a roll to his left, followed by a diagonal cutback right through a gaping hole in the line.
The play capped the Cats' second drive of at least 90 yards on the night.
Kentucky needed just five plays to go 78 yards the next time it had the ball, with wideout Lynn Bowden, Jr., racing past the safety Jeawon Taylor by a good five yards on third-and-16 and Wilson making a perfect throw with no pressure from the UF pass rush. The made the score 21-10.
Mullen was asked if there were pass rush issues or coverage breakdowns on the play.
"That's a 'yes' question," he said, as in both.
A field-goal attempt by McPherson would have made it a one-possession game to start the fourth, but he missed from 36. Franks' short touchdown throw to Freddie Swain, followed by a failed two-point conversion, drew UF to 21-16 with just 3:34 remaining.
The Cats, using Snell in the Wildcat, ran just over three minutes off the clock, then punted the ball to the Florida 5 with 29 seconds to go.
There would be no miracle finish.
"What if we hit a Hail Mary on the last play?" Mullen asked. "Besides us celebrating on the field, we'd still have the same issues and same problems."
They'll have them Sunday.
And start addressing them Monday.
"It's over with. Nothing we can do about it now," UF wideout Josh Hammond said. "We can't let the season go to waste like we did last year. Just be ready to work. It's past us and we need to move forward from it."
Players Mentioned
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