The Florida Gators will travel to Lexington, Kentucky this Saturday, September 14th, 2019, to take on the Kentucky Wildcats.

The game will take place at Kroger Field, which has been the home of the Wildcats since 1973.

Florida enters week three of the college football season at number nine in the AP Top 25 poll, while Kentucky received two votes in this weeks’ poll.

Sep 7, 2019; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops looks on during the game against the Eastern Michigan Eagles at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

This game has become one of Kentucky’s biggest games of the year.  For 31 years the Wildcats didn’t beat the Gators, but last year, Kentucky broke the streak, and to make it sweeter, they did it on the road.  Florida had a good season last year, but the loss against Kentucky at home stung.  Florida desperately wants revenge from last season.  Emotions will be high.

Kentucky vs. Florida TV channel

The Kentucky-Florida game will be broadcasted on ESPN.  Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 EST.

Kentucky vs. Florida players to watch 

Feleipe Franks is by far one of the most important players in this game.  Franks has had a very inconsistent season thus far but will look to get on track against a Kentucky defense that is still working out the kinks.  Against Miami, he did not protect the football and didn’t look very sharp.  Against UT Martin, he looked unstoppable.  So far this season he’s thrown for 524 yards with 4 passing touchdowns. Those numbers don’t sound terrible, but his QBR is currently 44th in the country.  Bottom line, Franks needs to play sharp and have a game as he did against UT Martin, where he only threw two incompletions.

Sawyer Smith will be under center for Kentucky this Saturday.  Smith takes over due to the season-ending injury to Terry Wilson.  Smith was a three-star quarterback coming out of High School and originally enrolled at Troy.  After leading them to a 10-3 record in 2018, he transferred to Kentucky to try to compete for the starting job.  He ended up losing the job to Terry Wilson, but now he will be thrown into the fire against Florida.  Last week, he threw for 76 yards with two touchdowns.

Lamical Perine is one of the most explosive backs in the SEC.  In fact, some may argue that he is Florida’s most valuable player.  On 20 carries this season he has 93 rushing yards.  Someone may look at those numbers and think that he isn’t that good, but when you account for his yards per carry, you see how effective he is.  Many Florida fans have been saying that he needs more touches, and I don’t blame them. If Perine gets going, it will be a long day for the Kentucky defense.

Kavosiey Smoke, who may have the best name in college football, is tasked will filling the shoes of Benny Snell Jr.  Smoke has rushed for 170 yards in two games, but only on 18 carries.  That’s an absurd 9.4 yards per carry for Smoke.  It’s safe to say that up to this point, he’s doing a great job filling the shoes of Benny Snell, but Smoke will also share the backfield with Asim Rose.

Kentucky vs. Florida football odds 

The line is currently favoring Florida by eight points.  The over/under is currently set at 48.

We will continue to monitor the line movements as the week progresses.

Kentucky vs. Florida predictions

The majority of experts have Florida winning this game, but there are a few that have Kentucky winning. Let’s see how the SDS crew predicted this game:

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Kentucky vs. Florida previous meetings

This will be the 79th meeting between Kentucky and Florida.  The two teams have played every year since 1967.  Florida leads the all-time series with 51 wins compared to Kentucky’s 18 wins.

The last meeting between these two teams came in 2018, a game in which Kentucky won and snapped a 31-year losing streak to Florida.  In 2017, Florida won 28-27, and in 2016 Florida won 45-7.

The largest margin of victory for Florida came in 1994 when they defeated the Wildcats 73-7.  The largest margin of victory for Kentucky came in 1917 when they defeated the Gators 52-0.

The longest winning streak in the series belongs to Florida, winning 31 games in a row from 1987-2017.

Florida week two review

Florida opened their home season last weekend against UT Martin.  The game was close in the first quarter, in fact, it was only 3-0 at the end of the first.  Florida broke the game open in the second quarter, though.  By the start of the fourth, the game was out of reach for UT Martin.  Flordia ended up winning 45-0.

Feleipe Franks had arguably his best showing (stats wise) as a Florida Gator.  He completed 25 of 27 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns.  His 92.6 completion percentage was a new career-high for him.  As a team, Florida passed for 312 yards and rushed for 231.  It was a very dominant and complete showing for the Gator offense.

The Florida defense was lights out all night.  UT Martin only had 194 total yards, which is absurd.  To make it even better, Florida only gave up 40 yards on the ground.  This was a great showing for Florida and they looked to be more disciplined than they were against Miami.

Dan Mullen in SEC openers

This will be Dan Mullen’s 11th year overall as a head coach and his second year at Florida.  Let’s take a look at how his teams have done in SEC openers:

-2009: Mississippi State loss against Auburn
-2010: Mississippi State loss against Auburn
-2011: Mississippi State loss against Auburn
-2012: Mississippi State win over Auburn
-2013: Mississippi State loss against Auburn
-2014: Mississippi State win over LSU
-2015: Mississippi State loss against LSU
-2016: Mississippi State win over South Carolina
-2017: Mississippi State win over LSU
-2018: Florida loss against Kentucky

Kentucky week two review

Kentucky hosted Eastern Michigan last weekend in Lexington.  Kentucky started the game strong, leading 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.  The game was never really a blowout, but it was never a question who would win.  Kentucky led 17-3 at halftime and went on to win the game 38-17, but it came with a hefty price.

Kentucky starting quarterback Terry Wilson was showing great improvement this season but tore his ACL against Eastern Michigan.  This is a huge blow to Kentucky’s season.  The Wildcats had a balanced attack last week.  They passed for 222 yards and rushed for 239 yards, and scored 38 points.  Overall it was a very solid showing for Kentucky.

The Kentucky defense was the strength of the team last year, but this year it has been the weakest link. Eastern Michigan passed for 337 yards against Kentucky, but only had 386 yards total.  The run defense isn’t the problem, it’s the secondary.  An interesting matchup will be Feleipe Franks versus the Kentucky secondary and Lamical Perine versus the Kentucky front seven.

Mark Stoops in SEC openers

This will be Mark Stoops’ seventh year at Kentucky and his seventh year overall as a head coach.  Let’s take a look at how his teams have done in SEC openers:

-2013: Kentucky loss against Florida
-2014: Kentucky loss against Florida
-2015: Kentucky win over South Carolina
-2016: Kentucky loss against Florida
-2017: Kentucky win over South Carolina
-2018: Kentucky win over Florida