The five big questions Kentucky football must answer against No. 22 Florida
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Preview: No. 22 Florida at Kentucky
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Florida football game at noon at Kroger Field.
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Due to an early-season schedule that has been softer than mashed potatoes, unbeaten Kentucky (4-0, 1-0 SEC) enters Saturday’s SEC East showdown with No. 22 Florida (3-1, 1-0 SEC) with all its major questions still needing to be answered.
Start with the game-specific query that hangs heaviest over UK’s attempt to beat UF for a third straight season:
Has Kentucky’s slate to date — wins over Ball State (now 1-3), Eastern Kentucky (1-3), Akron (1-3) and Vanderbilt (2-3) — left it at a “big-game disadvantage” for Saturday’s high noon tilt against a Florida team that has already played (and lost) at then-No. 14 Utah and beaten then-No. 11 Tennessee?
In the broader view, how Mark Stoops and the troops fare against Billy Napier’s Gators is going to provide the first meaningful feedback to five primary questions that were among Kentucky football’s main concerns throughout the preseason.
Question one: How improved is the Kentucky offensive line?
En route to giving up a whopping 47 quarterback sacks in 2022, UK had already surrendered 16 sacks of Will Levis through last year’s first four games.
This season, the Wildcats have allowed only four sacks of Devin Leary in the initial four games.
Florida has not been great at sacking QBs in 2023 (seven team sacks), but the Gators’ defensive front is light years ahead of what Kentucky has previously faced.
Question two: Without a Benny Snell/Christopher Rodriguez-style power running back, can UK rush the football when it needs to against SEC run defenses?
So far in 2023, Kentucky is averaging 131.5 yards a game on the ground. If that holds for a full season, it will be the second-lowest rushing total of the Stoops coaching era (since 2013).
A very stout SEC run defense, Florida is 14th in the FBS, giving up only 82 rushing yards a game.
Question three: How seamless will Devin Leary’s transition be from running an up-tempo, spread attack at North Carolina State to directing Kentucky’s pro-style offense?
So far, the transfer quarterback has not been as accurate (59.34 completion percentage and five interceptions) nor as consistent (penchant for playing one strong half a game) as expected.
What Leary does bring into the Florida game is a track record of success as a starting QB in home conference games. Over the prior two seasons at N.C. State, Leary’s record in league home games as a starting QB was 5-0, including wins over Clemson (2021) and Florida State (2022).
On Saturday, we’ll see if that knack travels from the ACC to the SEC.
Question four: Has the Kentucky schedule to date prepared the Wildcats defense to stand up to Florida’s physical rushing attack?
In Florida’s 29-16 upset of Tennessee, the Gators used sophomore running back Trevor Etienne (172 yards rushing and a touchdown on 23 carries; a robust 7.5 yards a carry average) to control the game.
UK will enter Saturday’s game ninth in the FBS against the run, allowing only 77.5 rushing yards a game. What is unclear is whether that impressive number more reflects the strength of Kentucky’s defensive front or the limitations of the rushing attacks UK has faced.
Of the three FBS opponents the Cats have played, not one ranks in the top 100 in the country in rushing — 104. Ball State (118.5 yards a game); 113. Vanderbilt (108.6); 120. Akron (97.5).
Question five: Will the revamped UK special teams hold up under big-game pressure?
After Kentucky’s special teams melted down in 2022, Stoops brought on assistant Jay Boulware with the mandate to fix the UK kicking game.
So far, so good.
Other than a blocked punt vs. Eastern Kentucky and some lost field position from misreading some kicks on punt returns, the new-look Kentucky special teams have performed about as well as anyone could have hoped.
New place-kicker Alex Raynor is perfect as a Wildcat — 4-of-4 on field-goal tries and 20-of-20 on extra points.
Holdover punter Wilson Berry is averaging 44.9 yards a kick.
Barion Brown leads the SEC in kickoff return average (33.2 yards a return) and is second in punt return average (23.5).
One season after Kentucky long-snapping was too often an adventure, there have so far been no issues for the Wildcats in that area even as UK is now relying on true freshman Walker Himebauch to snap for both punts and field goals.
There’s a different pressure, however, when a special teams unit has to execute under game-deciding pressure in a big Southeastern Conference showdown. Kentucky’s revamped special teams will potentially face that test for the first time Saturday.
Whatever the ultimate outcome for UK vs. Florida, we will at last start to get answers — five games into the season — to the questions that will determine the ultimate arc of the Wildcats’ season.
This story was originally published September 28, 2023 at 1:07 PM.
