‘We’re not good enough, and that’s on us.’ Kentucky crumbles in 2nd half at Florida.
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Game day: Florida 34, Kentucky 10
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla.
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Kentucky didn’t learn its lesson after melting down in the second half at No. 1 Alabama last week. The result wasn’t as lopsided, but that didn’t make it sting any less.
Florida’s 34-10 victory in a way was more telling of where UK is, in 2020, as a program than the thumping it took in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Kentucky’s last two losses to the No. 6 Gators were decided in the fourth quarter and by single-digit margins; those defeats sandwiched a win, UK’s only one in the last 34 meetings between the Southeastern Conference “rivals.”
“It didn’t go how we wanted it to, but things happen,” said tight end Keaton Upshaw, one of the few bright spots for Kentucky’s offense on Saturday. He reeled in all three of his targets for 28 yards and the Cats’ only touchdown, a 4-yard pass from Terry Wilson that tied the game with 11:18 left in the second quarter.
For a half, Kentucky’s game plan to munch clock and keep the ball away from a pair of Kyles — quarterback Trask and tight end Pitts — worked well enough. If not for a botched punt by Max Duffy late in the second quarter, it would have likely worked well enough for Kentucky to lead at halftime. Alas, a 50-yard punt return by Kadarius Toney put the Gators ahead 14-10 with 42 seconds left in the first half.
The Wildcats to that point played Florida evenly on offense, 175-all in total yardage, but needed 20 more plays (41 to 21) and a lot more time (23:23 to 6:37) in order to make it happen. That effort proved to be for naught immediately after Florida received the second-half kickoff; it gained 75 yards on five plays — 34 more yards than Kentucky managed in the entire second half — to pad its lead, and would add three more scores before the game ended.
Two of UK’s second-half possessions ended in punts. The other four finished with turnovers — one on downs and three via interception, two thrown by Terry Wilson and one by Joey Gatewood with the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.
“It’s not good enough,” head coach Mark Stoops said. “(You’re) not gonna win games if you can’t get first downs.”
Kentucky again was without leading rusher Chris Rodriguez and starting tight end Justin Rigg due to COVID-19 protocols, but their absences alone do not explain the play-call distribution (43 rushes, 19 passes) nor the lack of catches in UK’s receiving corps outside of senior Josh Ali (32 yards on six catches, accounting for all of his targets).
“We gotta complete passes,” Stoops said. “… You can only hold on for so long without creating explosive plays. We’re not doing that. …We’re just not efficient. We’re not good enough, and that’s on us.”
Them being in uniform also would not have changed Florida’s score-extending drive to open the second half, which featured three straight penalties — two blatant face masks by Kordell Looney and J.J. Weaver, followed by a debatable pass-interference call drawn against Kelvin Joseph by Pitts — and set the table for another second-half letdown.
In total Kentucky committed eight penalties, all in the third quarter.
“Lackadaisical penalties, from what I saw,” Stoops said. “… From the sidelines, the defense was playing extremely hard, and sometimes it’s bad luck. We have to coach better. Guys were sliding up and going to the face. When you have a quarterback wrapped up or you have a running back wrapped up, there’s nothing more aggravating to a defense … than a 15 yard penalty. It’s just crazy.”
UK’s regular-season finale against South Carolina is still on the schedule for next Saturday following a host of revisions to the league schedule. A kickoff time and broadcast network have not yet been announced for that contest, which will be played at Kroger Field.
Even if it plays in a bowl game, a winning record is officially off the table for the Wildcats in 2020. But, a win over South Carolina, against whom UK has won five of the last six meetings, would provide something of a positive in a season that started off with much more promise than it has delivered. It also would probably assure UK — among a smattering of SEC teams with three or fewer wins entering the weekend — of a bowl trip, and the additional practice time that would come along with that postseason berth.
“There’s no reason to just bow our heads and just give up and just throw the towel in,” linebacker Jamin Davis said. “We gotta keep playing and stay together as a team. There’s nothing else to it. There’s nothing special about it. We just gotta keep playing.”
Next game
South Carolina at Kentucky
Saturday, Dec. 5 (Time and TV TBA)
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 5:14 PM.
