First Scouting Report: Can Kentucky start a win streak vs. Florida?
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Game day: Kentucky vs. Eastern Michigan
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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:
The opponent
Kentucky (2-0 after a 38-17 win over Eastern Michigan) will face No. 10 Florida (2-0) Saturday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. The game will be telecast on ESPN.
Coach Dan Mullen’s Gators shut out Tennessee at Martin 45-0 Saturday night.
Most recent meeting
In his first road start as the Kentucky Wildcats’ quarterback, Terry Wilson threw for 151 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 105 yards and one TD while Benny Snell rushed for 175 yards on 27 carries as UK snapped an embarrassing 31-game losing streak vs. Florida with a 27-16 upset of the No. 25 Gators in Gainesville on Sept. 8, 2018.
Series history
After Kentucky delivered a 31-3 smashing of Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 1979, the Wildcats led the all-time series with the Gators 16-14. Since then, Florida has won 37 of 39 games with UK and now has a 51-18 head-to-head mark against the Wildcats.
UK’s most recent victory over UF in Lexington was a 10-3 win in 1986.
Know your foe
1. Florida opened its 2019 season a week early (Aug. 24) vs. intrastate rival Miami and escaped with a 24-20 victory. UF quarterback Feleipe Franks scored the game-winning touchdown on a 3-yard run with 8:08 left and the Gators defense recorded a whopping 10 quarterback sacks.
2. Franks, a 6-foot-6, 238-pound product of Crawfordville, Fla., has made two prior starts against Kentucky. Franks was 7-of-12 passing for 45 yards and a touchdown in 2017 in Lexington but was pulled from the game and watched backup Luke Del Rio rally the Gators from 27-14 down in the fourth quarter to a 28-27 win.
In last year’s loss to UK in The Swamp, Franks went 17-of-38 passing for 232 yards with one interception and two TD throws.
3. The last time Kentucky beat Florida in back-to-back seasons was under Fran Curci in 1976 (a 28-9 win in Lexington) and 1977 (a 14-7 victory in Gainesville).
This story was originally published September 7, 2019 at 11:24 PM.
