Gators look to avoid a new streak against Mark Stoops, Kentucky
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For more than three decades the questions would pepper players and coaches on both the Florida Gators and Kentucky Wildcats. Florida’s 31-game winning streak was an 800-pound gorilla in the room. While none of those past games made a difference in real-time, the questions would come and players were reminded. Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops was also reminded.
“If you go back and look at my quote 11 years ago, I probably said I can’t be consumed with Florida, concerned about Florida until Kentucky gets better. We always instill, and concentrate on ourselves,” Stoops said on the SEC teleconference. “My concentration was on Kentucky and getting us better and as we improve, we will have opportunities to win. And I still feel that way. Last year has nothing to do with this year.”
“I do admit, and I admitted it then, when we’re in the midst of that streak, it does get to be a little bit problematic. Because that’s all everybody talks about and then your players start thinking about it. So that was a hurdle we had to overcome and we have. But we did it by becoming a better football team, and a better program and we’re continuing to grow and continuing to get better.”
This year, Kentucky is favored over Florida for the first time under Stoops. There is a new streak that could be achieved this week. Kentucky hasn’t beaten Florida in three consecutive seasons since a four-game winning streak from 1948-1951. Bear Bryant was the coach at Kentucky then, a legendary coach who Stoops passed in career wins with, well, Kentucky’s win over Florida last season.
Mark Stoops vs. Florida
Stoops has beaten the Gators more than the previous five coaches that came before him combined. He’s given the Wildcats an identity. They recruit, develop, and play to a physical stye. They’re going to run the football, impose their will on the lines of scrimmage and play a swaming style of defense. The defense looks very familiar, but this offense is unfamiliar.
Kentucky poached Ray Davis from Vanderbilt. Davis hit Florida for 122 yards on the ground last year in Nashville. But Davis isn’t the feature of Kentucky’s offense. In fact, this Kentucky team doesn’t follow the Stoops blueprint at all. There’s no three-yards and a cloud of dust. Kentucky is explosive.
“That’s a big part of the game. I think explosives will be important in this game, in particular when you’re defending Kentucky, a lot of they’re explosives come when the ball gets to the second level in the run game and then also you got to survive the three-level vertical pass game, the shots off play action,” Billy Napier said on Wednesday night. “I think the receiver group is talented. The two kids who played as rookies last year that are in year two, the Virginia Tech transfer gives them some diversity of players in all three areas but it’s a huge part of this matchup for sure.”
Florida has a four-game losing streak away from Gainesville. Napier’s only win away from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium came against bruised and battered, five-win Texas A&M Aggies in 2022. For years the Florida Gators enjoyed when streaks were brought up during Kentukcy week. This year they’d like to end a losing streak and avoid being the first team in 70 years to lose to the Cats three times in a row.
The post Gators look to avoid a new streak against Mark Stoops, Kentucky appeared first on On3.
