Kentucky’s 5-0 for the first time since 2018. It’s OK to start dreaming big, now.
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Game day: Kentucky 20, Florida 13
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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For the first time since 1986, Kentucky defeated Florida at home. The Wildcats’ 20-13 victory improved their record to 5-0 on the year.
Let’s examine the implications of that result beyond the scoreboard.
East Dreams
Unless you have faith that this edition of the Wildcats has a chance of toppling Georgia, its hopes of the winning the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division were slim regardless of Saturday’s outcome. The win, though, strongly positions Kentucky finish as the No. 2 team in the East, which would match the 2018 team’s final spot in the standings.
Going to Atlanta is this team’s goal, but there’s no shame at in finishing second in the division, especially when for much of your program’s history you’ve been in the bottom three of the entire league, not just the division. Kentucky needs to keep winning games like Saturday’s — especially ones on its home field — in order to prove that it’s capable to going up another level, but it’s worth maintaining a healthy perspective. This school went 41 years between 10-win football seasons; this season it has a window to make that happen for a second time in four years. Fans of few programs are in a position to dismiss that possibility as a ho-hum one.
Now, if the Cats stumble in a couple of games in which they’re likely to be favored, it will be worth having a conversation full of “what ifs” and its ilk. But Saturday’s win officially puts the possibility of a “special season” in play, not just in Kentucky football history, but by most any program’s standards.
0-3 avoided
I’m convince that Kentucky doesn’t have a chance against Georgia (nor does any other team in the country outside of, maybe, Alabama). Its defense is too dominant and the Cats, while improved on offense, are too mistake prone to think they’d actually have a shot in Athens.
Now, LSU’s a different story. The Tigers have not seemed overpowering in 2021. Coming into their matchup with Auburn, which started around the time Kentucky’s game ended, they were allowing 22.8 points per game (fourth-worst in the SEC, ahead of Mississippi State, Missouri and Vanderbilt) and averaging 377.8 yards per game (third-worst in the league, ahead of South Carolina and Vanderbilt). The name on the front of their jerseys is intimidating, but Kentucky should match up pretty well in this battle of felines.
Defeating LSU for the first time since 2007 — they’ve only played twice since that 43-37 triple-overtime classic — would be a feather in the Wildcats’ cap regardless of whether the Tigers are ranked. Aside from a stretch from 1989-1999 when UK won six of 11 meetings, LSU could generally be counted on to have the upperhand. It’s 40-16-1 all-time against the Wildcats. Putting another “L” in its column — and not having a let down — would give Kentucky as much momentum as possible going into the Georgia match-up.
Beating Florida means an 0-3 start to October is off the table, too. That game and the next two were circled a long time ago as the *gulp* part of the schedule, and the Cats got off on the right foot. If they stay on the right one next week, even a drubbing at Georgia would be easy to get over.
Milestones
▪ After losing 31 straight games in the series, UK has split its last four meetings with Florida (2-2).
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 9:25 PM.
