Defensive meeting: On Wednesday, several United Kingdom defensive players made available for interviews revealed sophomore outside linebacker Denzil Ware had called a players-only meeting after the Southern Miss loss. The Wildcats will attempt to get their first win over the Gators since 1986. Defensively, Kentucky is allowing 44 points and 520 yards per game.
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Florida narrowly escaped the upset bid last season, scraping by with a 14-9 win.
The one bright spot for the Wildcats last weekend was the play of Barker.
This week, Barker and the Kentucky offense will face a Florida defense that will have its best cornerback back from suspension, Jalen Tabor. Florida head coach Jim McElwain suspended both Tabor and tight end C’yontai Lewis last month after a practice altercation on August 16. Luke Del Rio is completing 65.9 percent of his passes for 256 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
WILDCATS’ WIDEOUTS: Maligned the past few years for dropped passes, Kentucky receivers had an impressive opener against Southern Miss.
Last season, it was the Gators’ offense that let them down in games against Florida State, Alabama and MI.
Kentucky’s shining moment came off the foot of Zoe Swift in the 89th minute as Swift took a bouncing ball in the box after a Tanya Samarzich corner was overserved from the far side and Swift was there to put it into the net past Kaylan Marckese, who made two saves on the night. “These two teams have never played, and I think that’s the key”. Kicker Eddy Pineiro scored nine of the team’s 24 points last Saturday, so the Gators’ offense will need to move the ball better against the Wildcats.
“You’ve got to stick to the game plan, don’t try to be a hero”, Barker said.
Barker played at Vanderbilt as a redshirt freshman and has traveled on the road with the team in each of the last two seasons, but the environment he faces at The Swamp will likely be the most hard of his young career.
Kentucky’s total passing yards and the number of yards gained per pass were noticeably greater than their Golden Eagle counterparts.
Although the Gators’ offense seemed to sputter in the opener, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said it will present a challenge this week.
What is a concern is that according to ESPN Stats & Information, Kentucky is 1-21 in road games since 2011, the second-worst record in FBS during this span. A year later, those numbers were 31.3 and 407. The last time the Gators failed to reach 30 points in 11 straight games was in 1979, a winless season.
The streak is an afterthought to Florida because the Gators are out to wash away the bitter taste of last season’s miserable finish.
“It’s tough to put your finger on Florida, because going in you have to look back to a year ago when they won all the close games”, Danielson said. It doesn’t matter. And that’s where we’ve got to learn where the Florida Gators can’t be up and down. His counterpart, Luke Del Rio, won’t need to be ideal against the Wildcats, but he will just need to be efficient, much like how he was against the Minutemen in his Gators debut.
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– Written by Antwan Staley, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network and has extensive experience covering Florida sports teams.
