Florida Gators

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A fitting place to begin is where Gators head coach Billy Napier started when he walked into his postgame press conference.

"Not a lot of positive to talk about," Napier said.

Those were his first words.

That mood loomed everywhere you turned Saturday afternoon in the vicinity of No. 22-ranked Florida's locker room at Kroger Field following a 33-14 loss at Kentucky. Shortly after Napier's press conference wrapped, Gators defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong exited the locker room.

He approached a straggler with his hand extended.

"That's not who we are. I promise we'll be better the next game,'' he said.

Gators quarterback Graham Mertz shared a table with linebacker Shemar James as they spoke with the media while Kentucky fans celebrated within earshot a third consecutive win over Florida. Both players appeared exhausted and ready to throw the previous three hours in the trash.

But Mertz said that's not the way it works. For the Gators to get better, they must carry what transpired Saturday with them until next week when Vanderbilt visits the Swamp. "I'm frustrated. I could've been a lot better for this team today. I don't think I played close to my best game,'' said Mertz, who completed 25 of 30 passes for 244 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. "It's more on a front of, I could've done my job better for everyone in that locker room. Definitely frustrated, but there is only one right way to go after a game like that, and it's how do we move forward.

"There's two different ways to go, and there's one you never want to go down. There's one route I'm going down. I'm going down full force."

The Gators stepped onto the field Saturday with momentum and a three-game win streak, the program's first since 2020. But storm clouds formed on the game's opening drive when the Gators seemingly converted a third-and-15 on a 23-yard run by Montrell Johnson Jr. Bring it back. Receiver Kahleil Jackson was called for holding, and after another Johnson run of five yards, Florida punted.

The Wildcats took over at their 12 and turned to running back Ray Davis, who rushed five times for 60 yards on a 12-play, 81-yard drive that resulted in a 24-yard field goal from Alex Raynor and a 3-0 lead. Davis was just getting started.

The senior tailback who started his career at Temple, transferred to Vanderbilt — he rushed for 122 yards in the Commodores' upset of Florida last season in Nashville — and is now the featured back for Kentucky, dominated the day. Davis rushed for a career-high 280 yards and three touchdowns. He also caught a 9-yard touchdown pass in one of the great individual performances against a UF defense. Davis' rushing performance marked the second-best day ever against a Gators defense behind the 287 yards Tyrion Davis-Price spit out in 2021.

Florida's defense, a bright spot under first-year coordinator Armstrong, had no answers for Kentucky's physical offensive line and Davis. The Gators missed tackles, got ran over and beat up.

"It came down to being gap sound. Guys were jumping out of their gaps, not tackling very well," James said. "With a back like that, you miss a tackle, and it's 10 more yards, 15 more yards, 20 more yards. It just came down to execution. We were just shooting ourselves in the foot, not wrapping up, not tackling, getting him to the ground."

James said the early start didn't help, either.

"We came out very flat defensively. We kind of got it together in the second half,'' James said. "You have to start fast and finish fast in order to win in the SEC."

Kentucky won the way Napier envisioned the Gators winning: fast and physical. Kentucky came out swinging and led 23-0 after Davis' 3-yard run with 8:54 left before halftime. Kentucky owned a 244-44 advantage in total yards at the time.

"Anybody that knows me knows that that game right there is going to be hard on me," Napier said. "They were the most physical team. They controlled the line of scrimmage."



Florida managed to generate a scoring drive before halftime, capped by Mertz's 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Hayden Hansen. However, receiver Caleb Douglas injured his left leg two plays before on a leaping 34-yard reception. Napier said the injury is significant and that Douglas will be unavailable indefinitely.

Davis added another scoring run in the second half to make it 30-7. The Gators closed to 30-14 midway through the third quarter on Mertz's 33-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Pearsall. However, the Gators failed to muster any serious threat from there and failed twice on fourth down, trying to cut into the lead.

The loss continued a concerning trend for the Gators, who have now lost 13 of their last 14 games away from the Swamp, a streak that started in 2021 with a loss at Kentucky. Since then, the Gators are 1-9 in true road games, 0-2 against Georgia in Jacksonville, and 0-2 in bowl games. Their only win away from home over that stretch came last season at Texas A&M.

The latest defeat sparked the inevitable grumbling from fans on social media about play-calling, the team's toughness, special-team mistakes and too many penalties. The Gators committed 10 for 86 yards Saturday, and in two road games this season, have been flagged 19 times.

Napier addressed some of the concerns on Saturday.

"Fundamentally, very disappointed in our team," he said. "I told the players, I know one way to do this, and that is to take complete ownership of it. I think for me personally, as a leader, I have to do a better job for our team in all ways. Ultimately, that's my job, to have our football team ready to play. And I'm going to take ownership of that because I know what we're capable of.

"I do believe that we had a good week. I do believe that we were in the right frame of mind. But when the ball got put down, we didn't execute. We weren't physically ready, and certainly, the way the game went early, it got out of hand."

It was a day without positives for the Gators other than they made it home safely from another harrowing road trip.