Official Game Thread, Week 2: #25 Florida Gators 16 - Kentucky Wildcats 27, 9/8/2018

[Escambia94]

Date: Saturday, September 8
Game Time: 7:30 ET/ 6:30 PT
Venue: Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, FL
Networks: SEC Network, WRUF online

Line: Florida -14, o/u: 49.5

Mr./ Ms. Two Bits: legendary gymnast and 31-time All-American Bridget Sloan
[TWEET]https://twitter.com/GatorsChris/status/1036977431603630085?s=19
[/TWEET]

Gators lead the series 51-17-0 and has
31 straight victories going back to 1987. This is the longest string of victories in NCAA! The last Kentucky win was on November 15, 1986, which was a 10-3 victory by College Football Hall of Fame coach Jerry Claiborne over Florida's Galen Hall and the NCAA sanction depleted Gators.

Dan Mullen is 8-1 against Kentucky, and in the last 3 seasons MSU has put up, 42, 40 and 45 points against the Wildcats.

Dan Mullen (average score 42-20)

• October 30, 2009 Lexington, KY Mississippi State 31–24
• October 29, 2010 Starkville, MS #23Mississippi State 24–17
• October 29, 2011 Lexington, KY Mississippi State 28–16
• October 6, 2012 Lexington, KY #20 Mississippi State 27–14
• October 24, 2013 Starkville, MS Mississippi State 28–22
• October 25, 2014 Lexington, KY #1Mississippi State 45–31
• October 24, 2015 Starkville, MS Mississippi State 42–16
• October 22, 2016 Lexington, KY Kentucky 40–38
• October 21, 2017 Starkville, MS Mississippi State 45–7

In that same period, Florida has managed to keep the win streak alive against Kentucky with three different head coaches. Home games are in bold print.

Jim McElwain (average score 29-14)

• September 23, 2017 Florida 28-27
• September 10, 2016 Florida 45-7
• September 19, 2015 Florida 14-9

Will Muschamp (average score 33-12)

• September 13, 2014 Florida 36-30OT
• September 28, 2013 Florida 24-7
• September 22, 2012 Florida 38-0
• September 24, 2011 Florida 48-10

Urban Meyer (average score since Mullen left 45-11, 46-19 while Mullen was OC)

• September 25, 2010 Florida 48-14
• September 26, 2009 Florida 41-7
• September 25, 2008 Florida 63-5

The last time Florida scored more than 50 points against Kentucky, Dan Mullen was the offensive coordinator.

 

[DRU2012]

Date: Saturday, September 8
Game Time: 7:30 ET/ 6:30 PT
Venue: Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, FL
Networks: SEC Network, WRUF online

Line: Florida -14, o/u: 49.5

Mr./ Ms. Two Bits: legendary gymnast and 31-time All-American Bridget Sloan
[TWEET]https://twitter.com/GatorsChris/status/1036977431603630085?s=19
[/TWEET]

Gators lead the series 51-17-0 and has
31 straight victories going back to 1987. This is the longest string of victories in NCAA! The last Kentucky win was on November 15, 1986, which was a 10-3 victory by College Football Hall of Fame coach Jerry Claiborne over Florida's Galen Hall and the NCAA sanction depleted Gators.

Dan Mullen is 7-1 against Kentucky, and in the last 3 seasons MSU has put up, 42, 40 and 45 points against the Wildcats.

• October 30, 2009 Lexington, KY Mississippi State 31–24
• October 29, 2010 Starkville, MS #23Mississippi State 24–17
• October 29, 2011 Lexington, KY Mississippi State 28–16
• October 6, 2012 Lexington, KY #20 Mississippi State 27–14
• October 24, 2013 Starkville, MS Mississippi State 28–22
• October 25, 2014 Lexington, KY #1Mississippi State 45–31
• October 24, 2015 Starkville, MS Mississippi State 42–16
• October 22, 2016 Lexington, KY Kentucky 40–38
• October 21, 2017 Starkville, MS Mississippi State 45–7

In that same period, Florida has managed to keep the win streak alive against Kentucky with three different head coaches. Home games are in bold print.

Jim McElwain

• September 23, 2017 Florida 28-27
• September 10, 2016 Florida 45-7
• September 19, 2015 Florida 14-9

Will Muschamp

• September 13, 2014 Florida 36-30OT
• September 28, 2013 Florida 24-7
• September 22, 2012 Florida 38-0
• September 24, 2011 Florida 48-10

Urban Meyer

• September 25, 2010 Florida 48-14
• September 26, 2009 Florida 41-7
• September 25, 2008 Florida 63-5

The last time Florida scored more than 50 points against Kentucky, Dan Mullen was the offensive coordinator.

Well, I pretty well "shot my pre-game wad" in that post I put up earlier...
Only thing I have to add concerns the streak: "A lot of self-important media prognosticators have dismissed the whole idea that it has ANY impact on the game OR the players as ridiculous--and personally, I hope and wish that were the case: I think that when you just stick to talent, coaching, personnel and the general direction all are headed, plus the fact that it is a night game at The Swamp, it all adds up to a likely Gator win...But here's the thing: It gets/has GOTTEN inside their heads! Yes, more the fans and media (overwhelmingly so), but the players know all about it, to say the LEAST--they've been hearing about it since they got to UK, and been exposed to an ever-growing, higher and higher crescendo of comments and questions each September since. At this point, it's GOTTA be some kind of unpredictable factor; for UK, it can either distract or motivate, while for US it IS "irrelevant"--and hopefully stays that way, truly "means NOTHING" to our guys. Because straight up, as a rising program beginning to find itself, opening SEC play at HOME at night, it appears we can win this one handily just playing to our capabilities. Any "intangible" emotional factors can only be a danger: We don't NEED any of the rest here.
I just wanna see us go out with spirit and poise, handle ourselves with inspired composure and take care of business.
A lot of talk about this being "a transitional year" for our Florida Gators...Here's hoping it turns out that we are well-INTO that "transition" after all, and are only going to get better from here. The danger will be the inevitable "uneven patches" of play "transition" implies; so it'll be us, and our own states of mind and preparation that likely will determine how much or little of "the old Gators" of the last few years comes to the fore. Limit THAT, and we WIN this one pretty easily--and similarly the ones ahead we OUGHTTA win, at least.
We're still early in this season's investigation of which ones/how many of those "ones ahead" belong in that category. In this way, this game in particular will go a LONG way towards showing us where we're headed now, and (even more so) how far along we are in that direction.

 

[Escambia94]

The Gators need to put on a good show against Kentucky. Plenty of highly touted recruits will be watching!

• 4-star DE Justin Egiobe (Bama)(OV)
• 4-star WR Trey Knox
• 4-star WR TJ Jones
• 4-star DE Braylen Ingram
• 4-star OT Jalen Rivers (2020)
• 4-star DE Chanz Williams (2020)
• 4-star DT Jaelin Humphries (Gators)
• 4-star LB Diwun Black (Gators)
• 4-star LB Zykeivous Walker (2020)
• 4-star CB Kaiir Elam
• 4-star ATH Jaquavion Fraziars (2020)
• 3-star OL Riley Simonds (Gators)
• 3-star OT Kamaar Bell
• 3-star OT Ethan White (Gators)
• 3-star S Aaron Beasley (Tennessee)

 

[Escambia94]

12 more hours. I will be unpacking my household goods most of the day, so I will have to follow the game on Twitter.

 

[DRU2012]

12 more hours. I will be unpacking my household goods most of the day, so I will have to follow the game on Twitter.

Know the situation well...Just move again E-? =The miltary life: Grew up with it, myself.
My main concern now, beyond the earlier noted one about weather delays, is the IN-built "delay" of having to wait all day to even kickoff time. Normally, "night game at Steve Spurrier--Florida Field" (Did I get that right? That IS the official name of the place now, right? It already had a long one; that's not even the whole thing--now a real MOUTHFUL...easier than ever to just call it The Swamp!) is usually an "advantage Florida"--one we need to reestablish as a "count it as a loss coming in"- situation, btw.
But personally I'll be both following otger games on and off, AND likely slipping out to run errands, kill time, stay cool and relaxed as I hope and trust our Coaches, staff and team leaders are helping and encouraging the rest of the TEAM to do.
No matter what, "being ready" at gametime is even more crucial than usual here: If they come out hot and firing, we gotta weather the storm and then assert control. If we get the ball, I gotta think we just do that from the start--not let them get any traction, any time or comfort level.
The mark of winners at the elite level, and what Mullens is aiming for overall, is CONSISTENCY. A game like this one, where we are favored at home and have to wait all day to get to it, requires a calm and poised approach, up to and INTO the actual event. That, as much as the details of our performance, is the test here I think.
(And you have only to peek at some of the games already in progress, for example this one where a much-favored Arizona squad is getting drubbed so far, down 21-0 at the end of the 1st qtr that for TWO dropped TD bombs by Houston WRs SHOULD have been worse, to know that you just don't know WHAT will happen if/when both squads come in facing the same pressure)...I wanna see us come out and just TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS. THAT would be the best sign of all that some things have already been "turned around".

 

[DRU2012]

(...and meanwhile a MUCH-favored MSU team getting the proverbial "all it can handle" from a talent standpoint, ftom what seemed an overmatched Kansas St squad coming in. Now, these Bulldogs can, will HAVE to just suck it up and wear them down over the course of the rest of this game: If they deserve any BIT of their advance hype and early-season ranking they will continue to play hard and get it done.
Frankly, except with respect to how it all affects a team we play in a few weeks ourselves, AND our percieved strength of schedule in the SEC, I don't really give a damn--about them or anyone else's problems or performances--but there ARE lessons here that apply to us. Generally and specifically.
We all KNOW that at least SOME of our guys are watching some of these games as they gather in the lockerroom, just as we know that word gets around concerning difficulty for a future opponent in the SEC East... If it IS noted, talked about, you hope that, if anything, they recognize the warning inherent there--because, "if anything", the Wildcat players will take it as a reason for hope. But really, neither team shoud need ANY OF EITHER coming into this one; but once again, when you're waiting around all Saturday to finally get it on, well, time, nerves, emotional balance, poise and preparation, all factors determined to a great degree well before now by Coaches and at this point at best reinforced by they and the team leaders, are key. We just won't know til kickoff.)

 

[Escambia94]

I just retired from the military, left California, and returned to Texas. When I left here in 2012, the Texas Longhorns were king. Nowadays the aTm Aggies are king, so I feel like I am back in SEC country!

 

[Escambia94]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/GatorsFB/status/1038460641009389568?s=19
[/TWEET]
Your captains for today: #73 Senior OL Martez Ivey (Apopka, FL) and #23 Junior DB Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (Cocoa, Florida)!

 

[DRU2012]

Not sure if it shows, or if it does, how much, but last coupla days, and especially sweating it out watching all the games today, but for some reason I am getting more and more worried about our game tonight. It doesn't help at all that we are widely picked to win it handily, that more n more of "the experts" are confidently GIVING it to us, even to cover the two TD spread...and maybe worst of all, though they tend to deny it when specifically asked, "the streak" itself is being covertly invoked as a factor, something "getting in the heads" of the players and fans on the UK side. HEY! That kind of "statistical"\situational anomaly WILL end at some point--probably as unexpectedly as all the ways it has been sustained over the years! Yeah, it sure LOOKS like their best chances to beat us are in the rearview by now, "the window of opportunity in process of closing for some years"--but all that is exactly what worries me: Maybe not QUITE "closed"; maybe this is where the weirdness all reverses, comes back on us, and the aforementioned "unexpected" comes NOW.
I HATE THIS, the vague and inexplicable foreboding I am feeling now.
Fate, if you are gonna feed me glimpses of some possible future, GIVE ME LOTTERY NUMBERS, NOT OUT-OF-NOWHERE GATOR LOSSES!!! (please?)

 

[DRU2012]

I just retired from the military, left California, and returned to Texas. When I left here in 2012, the Texas Longhorns were king. Nowadays the aTm Aggies are king, so I feel like I am back in SEC country!

We ARE! That at least has been one benefit of the "break" that has occurred in the "old rivalry" traditions that ongoing "conference realignment" has yielded. There's been intermittent talk of the state, by means of actual activity in the Texas Legislature (a la Florida's similar earlier move to force certain of OUR (at that point at least) "Big 3" schools to return to playing each other at a certain regular series of "home and home" games) to force a return to regular meetings between the two longtime Texas rivals--"talk" that has so far come to nought.
As it turns out, despite snide warnings from the local media and "Texas faithful" when it came that "YOU'LL be sorry!!!" blah blah blah when announced, A&M's joining the SEC has been good for both the Aggies AND the Conference--and certainly "brought the SEC CLOSER" to us out here in every way, including coverage and access to games, it seems.

 

[Escambia94]

I am not worried about tonight, because Mullen is not McDeathThreats nor is he Muschamp.

 

[Escambia94]

Suspensions:

• Sr DE CeCe Jefferson (academics, missing class)

Injuries:

• Jr LB David Reese
• So S Shawn Davis
• Fr WR Jacob Copeland

Returning from suspension:

• So WR Kadarius Toney
• So RB Adarius Lemons
• RJr DL Luke Ancrum
• So DT Kyree Campbell
• So CB Brian Edwards
• RFr (walk-on) ATH James Washington

 

[DRU2012]

I am not worried about tonight, because Mullen is not McDeathThreats nor is he Muschamp.

Thankyou, brother; I admit it: Prob just a matter of "too much time on my hands", but this day is wearing me DOWN. I HOPE I'm just needlessly freaking out, at this point. And I know you are right...ANYONE can see that Mullens is a whole different kind of Coach and MAN--There is a completely different FEEL around this program now.
By this point I am just staring vapidly at the "Goalline" show that rotates among the big moments all around the nation, letting it all wash over me as our kickoff finally, inexorably approaches.
Less than an hour now. It isn't one of our "big challenges", this or MOST seasons obviously--but a big marker of where we are and where we're headed. Thing is, I see other teams under-achieving, breaking down at crucial moments, etc (I mean, JEEZ, Colorado: When you're "settling for fieldgoals, YOU GOTTA MAKE 'EM!" Or just GO for it on 4th every time anyway. You can't leave points on field at Nebraska and expect to win...and I have always disliked Nebraska, which descended to hate when they rolled us in our first National Championship Game back in the 90s). Houston s drubbing a favored Arizona, though not emotionally upsetting in any personal way, did begin a sort of slowly building montage of "what can happen, how it happens and why we should worry about it"...By now it's got its hooks into me and only hard evidence to the contrary, reality itself, can snap me out of it.

 

[DRU2012]

Last play of game in Lincoln:
Colo wins one they come from behind to win even WITH the missed FGs in the 4th.
I can't say why, no logic to it and has NOTHING to do with our game or program--but somehow, after everything else that has worn on me today, this one gives me HOPE. ALRIGHT: Let's get to it.
GO GATORS!!!

 

[awebbf5]

Lets go gators!!!! Got my gator gear on antagonizing bbn fans in my old Kentucky home today at Walmart

 

[DRU2012]

Can't wait to see the weather in G-ville: I just couldn't FACE any kind of "lightening-delay" in this one now! And that is thr lind of thing that can disrupt things to the benefit of the underdog, too.

 

[Escambia94]

Willie Taggart: lost.
Chip Kelly: lost.
Scott Frost: lost.

Dan Mullen: do not screw this up!

 

[DRU2012]

WTF???
They've still got the Volunteer slaughfer uo on SEC Network...
Ah, here it is, just switching over now .

 

[DRU2012]

I just can't listen to the commentary here at the start...UK wins toss and defers.
C'mon offense, smash 'em upside the head...

 

[DRU2012]

Just need to settle down, settle in, take control here. First down.