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Another year, another loss at the hands of the Gators. It was annoying losing to them in the 90’s, but they were at their peak and we were clearly struggling then. Now that we’re winning Conference titles and have a strong, consistent program, losing to them annually is way beyond annoying. It’s maddening. We’ve tried lots of different approaches…coming in with the better team, coming in with the underdog, blah blah blah…same result. Oh well, at the risk of sounding like a gamecock fan, there’s always next year. The conference title is obviously out of the picture for us, but we can certainly factor into the title race for someone as we’ll face Auburn in two weeks with them in the thick of both the conference title chase as well as the national championship race given USC’s loss. First things first, let’s get back on the winning train and knock off Kentucky, who is having an improved year for a coach on the hotseat. This would be a huge statement win for their program, even given the clearly flawed team we’re trotting out there..

Looking Back at Week 9

The good: For the second straight year, the defense came out a little slow but generally played well enough to win. Despite Stafford’s continued struggles with INTs, he still showed why he’s got to be considered a star in the making. The most enjoyable part of that miserable day for me was seeing Tim Tebow struggle, particularly the key turnover.

The bad: Oh boy. This year’s award for “player that crapped his pants in the UF game” goes to Martrez Milner for his continued struggles with what you would think would be a relative staple for a receiving position, that being acctually catching the football. Milner had several drops of highly catchable balls that contributed to numerous stalled drives. Our running game struggled early and never really got going consistently which we knew was likely to be the case given the strength of their D. For the 2nd consecutive week, we turned the ball over 5 times. I’m thinking 1-1 is about the best you could hope for if you insist on turning it over 5 times in back-to-back games. The breaks went against us…the punt hits Kelin Johnson’s leg, Moses gets called for a facemask even though he didn’t grab it (touched it yes, grabbed it no), Nelson got away with lots of contact downfield on our receivers all day while Oliver gets called for a ticky-tack brush, etc. Just a bad day in all. It doesn’t really matter if the breaks go your way though when your OL plays as horrific as they did Saturday. At the risk of sounding like I’m making excuses, the officiating was pretty bad, especially on anything involving Reggie Nelson in pass coverage.

The indifferent: Our first 3rd down attempt was interesting. We didn’t convert, but I liked what we did there. In an effort to get Henderson more involved, we moved him to the backfield, had 4 wides and ran him into the flat. Unfortunately UF had called a solid defense against that formation and Henderson was hit immediately, but I liked the idea of trying some different things. We used the same formation later for a 1st down.

UK Offense

The UK offense has some weapons and can score in bunches when they are on, but they are extremely streaky. In their 4 losses, they’re averaging 13 points…compare that to the 38 they’re averaging in their wins. It’s feast or famine for these guys. They’re a bad rushing offense, but they can certainly move the ball through the air, like the UK teams of the Hal Mumme-days.

The UK QB is their typically massive, cannon-armed guy. Andre Woodson tips the scales at 6-5, 230+ and can move. He’s not going to run a whole lot by design although he’s not immobile. Most of his runs this season have been the result of a porous OL that’s given up an average of 3 sacks per game. His passing numbers look particularly good, completing nearly 60% of his passes (58%) to go with a very fine 18 TD to 5 INT ratio. He’s averaging over 240 ypg through the air.

At RB, the Wildcats have been without the services of do everything TB Rafael Little for much of the year. In his place, youngster Tony Dixon has taken over. Dixon isn’t nearly the threat that Little provides, averaging under 3.5 ypc on the season and a long rush of only 16 yards.

The UK WR corps will look considerably less intimidating than the unit we saw last week. Keenan Burton leads the team in yards and catches while Dicky Lyons heads the team in TDs (8). Each of them has a reception over 70 yards this season so they’ve got some speed. Both guys have over 30 receptions on the season. They also account for 13 of the team’s 18 TD receptions. Burton has some size, but Lyons is a smaller type of slot receiver. UK always seemed to have a solid TE and this year is no different, with Jacob Tamme being a nice option down the seam for them. He’s 3rd on the team in catches. Backup QB Curtis Pulley has 14 catches on the year and plays all over the place.

Like I said before, the UK OL has struggled keeping their QB upright. Their OTs are smallish, 6-3, sub-300 pound types. Their right guard is listed at 6-1, 282. They aren’t a good run blocking unit as their stats indicate and they don’t do particularly well in pass protection.

Bottom Line: We held the vaunted UF attack at bay for the entirety of the 2nd half and most of the game for that matter. UK can move the ball through the air, but after how well we acquitted ourselves against the pass last week, we should be ready for the task. Our DL and LBs should get pressure without the threat of a serious running game. Woodson hasn’t made many mistakes this year, but his high completion percentage coupled with his number of sacks tells me he’s probably not throwing the ball away as often as he should.

Key Matchup to watch when they have the ball: Once again….we’ll need pressure from our DEs. They had another rough week and will likely get double teamed this week, but we need to see that explosiveness that we know they’re capable of.