GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The mood inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium late in the first half Saturday resided somewhere between boredom and mild angst. Something just seemed off and it had nothing to do with the fact this is normally Florida-Florida State Week.
Instead, the sixth-ranked Gators trailed Kentucky and appeared on their way to a halftime deficit, somewhere they haven't been all season.
And then the most important play of the game unfolded and changed everything in Florida's 34-10 victory. A shanked punt by 27-year-old Australian Max Duffy, who won the Ray Guy Award as the nation's top punter last season, landed in the arms of Gators return man
Kadarius Toney.
It wasn't supposed to.
"I love Max and Max is our guy, but he missed a punt,'' Wildcats coach Mark Stoops said. "We're going dead left. He shanked it right."
Duffy's misfire may have been costly to the Wildcats, but the Gators' good fortune on the play wasn't by accident. Florida's coaching staff was aware that Duffy often rolls to his right when he punts and then kicks away from the return man. To counter that strategy, special-teams coach
Greg Knox had Toney set up for a return on the right side of the field and freshman receiver
Xzavier Henderson on the left.
Kentucky's plan was that if anyone was going to return the punt, it wasn't going to be the dynamic Toney, who is having the best season of his career and is one of the most electrifying players in college football with the ball in his hands.
The Gators had their own plan.
"We wanted to use two returners to take advantage of that situation that they were in and see if he made a mistake,'' UF coach
Dan Mullen said. "If he was supposed to punt it left and punted it right, you know, we thought, 'OK, KT [Toney] is going to be all by himself.' Or if he is supposed to punt it right, then Xzavier is going to be by himself. Our guys up front did a great job of holding it up to get the return going, and then you saw KT, once he got in the open field, he is a dangerous guy in the open field with the ball in his hand."
When Duffy's 40-yard punt on fourth-and-1 from Kentucky's 10 sailed right instead of left, Wildcats defenders Marquez Bembry and Brett Slusher were stranded alone on an island as Toney caught the kick at midfield. The majority of Kentucky's cover team headed in the direction of Henderson, who wisely signaled for a fair catch to keep the Wildcats guessing. Meanwhile, Toney darted past Bembry, dashed around Slusher and raced into the end zone for a 50-yard score and 14-10 Gators lead with 42 seconds left before halftime.
The punt return was Florida's first for a touchdown since
Freddie Swain's 85-yarder against Colorado State in 2018, Mullen's first season.
"That was great,'' linebacker
James Houston IV said. "They had a great game plan for what the kicker, the punter for Kentucky, was trying to do and to kick it to this side and that side, so we had those two returners out there. Executed what we had been practicing all week."
In an instant, Florida Field woke up and the Gators never let up, winning their fifth consecutive game and edging closer to their first Southeastern Conference Eastern Division crown since 2016. Florida can clinch with a victory next week at Tennessee.
"It's one of our different return packages that we have in," Mullen said. "They have an excellent punter. I think a lot of people use two returners to figure out where he is going to punt."
With Toney's return serving as the spark, the Gators figured out the rest. Quarterback
Kyle Trask connected with tight end
Kyle Pitts for three scores. The defense, which struggled to slow down Kentucky's ball-control approach in the first half, dominated in the second half.
Trask finished 21 of 27 for 256 yards and three touchdowns, giving him 34 on the season to move into a tie with Rex Grossman (34 in 2001) for the third-most touchdown passes in school history in a single season. Only Danny Wuerffel (39 in 1996; 35 in 1995) has thrown more.
Trask did his part, as did Pitts, who caught five passes for 99 yards in his return from a concussion and nose injury in the Georgia game. But without Toney's return, who knows if the Wildcats could have pulled another upset like they did in 2018 when they snapped Florida's 31-game win streak in the series.
"It was huge,'' Trask said. "I think special teams did a great job today, executing in key moments. I think Kentucky also did a great job of slowing the game down and working the clock in the first half. I think we only had around 20 plays, and we've just got to be more efficient as a whole. But yeah, that was huge.
"It gave us the lead going into halftime. It was definitely a play that had a huge impact on the game."
In a season of big plays, Toney's return stands as one of the biggest. If the Gators keep winning, the play will continue to rise on the growth chart.
