Kentucky's win at Auburn impressed Florida coach Billy Gonzales. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky broke its 10-game Southeastern Conference losing streak with a 10-3 win at Auburn when it had seven sacks.
“Up front, they’ve always been big, and (coach Mark Stoops) has recruited length on the outside and edges,” Florida interim coach Billy Gonzales said. “They’ve been very aggressive.
“It’ll be a great challenge for our offensive line, who didn’t give up a sack (last week).”
Sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway has completed 65 percent of his passes for 1,679 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions this season. Running back Jadan Baugh has 683 rushing yards on 132 carries (5.2 per rush) and five touchdowns.
“They can create explosive plays and they have some elite athletes on the offensive side of the ball, well, across the board, on their team. But with DJ, he could throw the ball, he could hurt you with his legs, he buys time, and he has the strength to get the ball down the field,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “They certainly can hurt you at any time, so it’s about team defense again.
“I think probably the best running back we’ve played all year (Jadan Baugh) and that’s saying a lot, there’s a lot of good ones, but then the skill at wide receiver puts a lot of stress on you. ”
Florida (3-5) has made just “slight” changes according to Stoops since head coach Billy Napier was fired and Gonzales took over.
“Nothing drastic, nothing I care to talk about right now that were obvious to us. I know they played very hard, they played very good, had every opportunity to beat Georgia in a hard-fought game (last week),” Stoops said.
Kentucky’s defensive line played extremely well against Texas and was not the culprit when Tennessee put up 54 points against UK. The UK defense was dominant against Auburn holding the Tigers to 241 total yards.
“The D-line in general played extremely hard, they were also very disciplined. They were very precise on the games we were running. A couple times we were light in the box and short with the quarterback draw, we hit it for a loss. Just things like that sometimes go unseen,” Stoops said about the play at Auburn.
“They did a lot of things good but they played extremely hard but they also executed the little things. Khalil (Saunders) has been disruptive and playing very good for a long time.
“I thought Sam (Greene) really stood out in this game, very disruptive, really just played very sudden, very sure, very strong, made good tackles, he executed the defense very well. I think he had seven tackles, a sack, TFL, quarterback pressure. He did a lot of things.”
Gonzales certainly paid attention to what Kentucky (3-5, 1-5 SEC) did at Auburn as he prepared for Saturday night’s game at Kroger Field.
“Tey showed a lot of grit all the way through. I thought they fought. They went on the road, you had to play in a tough environment and they prevailed,” Gonzales said. “At the end of the day, they didn’t just hold on, they finished it when they needed to finish it, and they did a good job taking care of the ball, controlling the ball. They’ve done a good job of doing that all year long.”
8 Responses
Saunders was my dark horse on the line to lead the team in sacks. He has played extremely well. I expect him to have a sack vs Florida. I also think Bryant or Lovett gets a pick 6. Kentucky wins but it comes down to the wire. Kentucky 31 Florida 24. If we win I think we make a bowl game. If we lose we will go 5-7.
We're going to have to eat cereal from a plate because we're not getting a bowl.
FL may have trouble rebounding from a thriller vs UGA that slipped away at the end of the game, which should give UK a nice advantqge.
FL showed they have a lot of very talented players by giving UGA such a battle. I believe the timing (following a very tough FL loss to UGA while UK has a big boost in confidence after a road win in the SEC) is a major factor in this game. FL is about 3 1/2 pt favorite, so it will probably be close.
I believe the UK secondary will be the deciding factor in this game, and it has been a weakness for a long time.
Another game of experience for Boyer is more than welcomed as UK needs to score more points.in order to beat the remaining SEC teams.
I thought the defensive line won the game at Auburn. Their sacks were nice to see, and several other times, the DL forced their QB out of the pocket and forced him to scramble.
I agree with Little Baron that the UK secondary is the vulnerability on defense.
As for Florida, I see them as a mirror image of Auburn. Here are the data.
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: Aub 3.023 Fla 2.992
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: Aub 0.784 Fla 0.776
Adjusted Net Efficiency: Aub 2.239 Fla 2.216
The analysis shows UK a 4 point underdog, and Sagarin makes Florida a 1 point favorite. Vegas opened Florida -4 and it is currently Florida -3.
I think this is THE GAME Stoops must win if he has any hope of returning to UK next year, and I believe that this UK team can pull it off again, BUT
Unlike last week, when the defense managed to prevent a single touchdown by Auburn, the UK offense must be ready to put points on the board against Florida.
I think the team that scores 24 points first will win this game. Can this offense even put up 24 against this Florida defense, which is the second best defense in the SEC, second to Oklahoma.
As always, your analysis is very informative & the game results usually prove your projections are quite accurate.
The “24 points to win” sounds very likely. 10 points won’t beat FL.
I think the call playing by UK will have a much bigger impact on the game results than the FL coaching change. They performed better with the new coach, nearly beating UGA, so there is no loss at HC.
This is a home game and UK has more “momentum” than anytime in 2025 or 2025, so UK needs to win this one while the D is playing so well.
Surely someone on the staff could be given the play calling duty to improve it. It coudp only get better than a recording that repeats “run up the middle” because that is a wasted play over 90% of the time.
Larry V and followers there's a great video piece about former KY football player Josh Pascal on KSR about his journey through his cancer ordeal. It got my eyes water.
I think it is actually a story the Detroit Lions, not KSR, did. Very good piece
Yes, your right Larry
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