Where does Ray Davis’ big rushing day against Florida rank in Kentucky football history?
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Game day: Kentucky 33, No. 22 Florida 14
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Ray Davis has broken new ground for the Kentucky football program.
A one-sided Kentucky showing against No. 22 Florida on Saturday afternoon at Kroger Field featured one of the best rushing performances in Wildcats football history by Davis, who ran for 280 yards and three touchdowns against the Gators in a 33-14 UK win.
That’s good enough for third on the modern, all-time UK single-game rushing list, behind only Moe Williams and Lynn Bowden Jr.
Williams owns the UK record with a 299-yard performance in September 1995 against South Carolina.
Bowden had 284 rushing yards against Louisville in a Governor’s Cup win in November 2019.
When including Kentucky’s entire football history, Davis tied the 280-yard rushing performance put together by Shipwreck Kelly in 1930 against Maryville.
Davis also found himself within a stone’s throw of the all-time SEC single-game rushing record, co-held by Vanderbilt’s Frank Mordica and Arkansas’ Darren McFadden.
Mordica, in 1978, and McFadden, in 2007, each recorded a 321-yard rushing game.
Davis also had a receiving touchdown on Saturday to tie the all-time UK single-game record with four total touchdowns.
But it’s his performance on the ground that will earn Davis the most attention ahead of UK’s trip to current No. 1 Georgia next Saturday night.
Davis is the ninth player in UK football history to rush for 200 or more yards, and this marked the 13th different instance of it happening.
He’s the first Kentucky player to surpass 200 rushing yards since Chris Rodriguez Jr. in September 2021.
Previously, Davis’ career-best day on the ground came while he was at Vanderbilt: In a November 2022 game against South Carolina, Davis had 167 yards on the ground.
He blew past that number before halftime on Saturday. In total, Davis had six rushes of at least 15 yards in the game, including a career-long 75-yard rushing score late in the first quarter.
From a career standpoint, Davis’ big rushing day also put him over 3,000 rushing yards for his college career.
Not only did Davis’ outing vault him into rare statistical air among Kentucky players, but it also put him into a select group of running backs who have had big ground games against the Gators.
Davis is only the eighth player to rush for 200 or more yards against Florida.
Among the players on that list?
Herschel Walker, Marcus Lattimore and Willis McGahee.
In fact, Davis’ 280 rushing yards Saturday were the second-most rushing yards of any player all-time against the Gators.
That record is held by Tyr Davis-Price of LSU, who ran for 287 yards against Florida in 2021.
In a vacuum, Davis’ performance was impressive. But it’s come as part of a successful start to his Kentucky career.
The former Temple and Vanderbilt running back entered Saturday’s game with 314 rushing yards and five rushing scores this season, along with a pair of receiving touchdowns.
Those statistics received a significant bump Saturday.
Davis has now scored at least one touchdown in each of UK’s first five games this season, becoming the first Wildcat to do so since Artose Pinner in 2002.
And from a team perspective, Davis has been an integral piece of UK’s undefeated 5-0 start.
Given all of this, perhaps its not a surprise that Davis has become the talk of Lexington.
He even has an offer on the table for dinner Saturday night at Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse in downtown Lexington, so long as it’s not an NCAA violation.
This story was originally published September 30, 2023 at 3:21 PM.
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