Florida football: Know your enemy – Kentucky Wildcats
By Nick Knudsen
Florida football no longer holds a three-decade win streak over Kentucky, but the 2019 Cats are quite a different squad after losing starting QB Terry Wilson for the season and five players to the 2019 NFL Draft.
Can UK put together back-to-back wins in the series against Florida football for the first time since 1976-77?
The Gators lead the series 51-18, however, four of the last five contests have been nail-biters.
Kentucky’s 3-1 record against AP Top 25 opponents last season was a significant improvement from their all-time record of 44-200-5 against AP Top 25 opponents.
Quick Opponent Summary
2018 SEC Coach of the Year, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops, has led
Stoops’ aggressive approach to recruiting has taken the Wildcats from annual after-thought to a pesky out on a week-to-week basis in the SEC. Since Stoops was hired at the end of 2012, Kentucky has finished no worse than 35th in the Rivals recruiting rankings.
- 2019 – 30th
- 2018 – 30th
- 2017 – 26th
- 2016 – 28th
- 2015 – 35th
- 2014 – 17th
- 2013 – 29th
Contrast those performances on the recruiting trail to the end Joker Phillips era and you’ll see why Kentucky has improved under Stoops:
- 2012 – 63rd
- 2011 – 61st
- 2010 – 50th
The Wildcats are off to a 2-0 start this season with wins over two MAC opponents, Toledo and Eastern Michigan.
Toledo gave Kentucky a tough time in the first-half before jumping out to 7-0 and 14-7 leads before being outscored 24-10 in the second half.
QB Sawyer Smith stepped in after an injury to go 5-9 passing for 76 yards with two touchdowns through the air, including a 54-yard strike to WR Ahmad Wagner as the Wildcats easily knocked off Eastern Michigan 38-17 last Saturday.
Offensive Outlook
Key players:
- QB Sawyer Smith (JR)
- WR Lynn Bowden Jr.
- C Drake Johnson
- RB Asim Rose
- LG Logan Stenberg
- LT Landon Young
Quarterback
QB Terry Wilson suffered a season-ending injury in the game against Eastern Michigan. The junior tore the patellar tendon in his left knee after an EMU defender brought him down with a horse-collar tackle.
A year after leading Kentucky to their first 10-win season since 1977, Wilson’s injury will test a UK program that is seeking to prove that 2018 was not a fluke.
Junior QB Sawyer Smith, a transfer from Troy from Cantonment, Florida, took over last week after the Wilson injury in the third quarter. Kentucky was up 24-10 when Smith dropped back for his first pass of the night and hit WR Ahmad Wagner for a 54-yard touchdown pass. The Wildcats were fairly conservative with their new quarterback from that point forward.
Freshman QB Nik Scalzo from season three of the Netflix series “QB1: Beyond the Lights” is also out for the season with a knee injury (torn ACL in right knee).
Running Back
Bye, bye, Benny!
Kentucky has tapped RB Asim Rose (JR) to fill in for the departed Snell. Rose finished third on the team in rushing with 72 carries for 442 yards and five touchdowns last season.
Through two games, Rose has carried the ball 33 times for 146 yards with two touchdowns. The 6’1″, 210 LBS running back from Cleveland, Ohio, longest run from scrimmage is 21 yards.
RB Kavosiey Smoke has been the Wildcats’ second option in the first two games with 18 rushing attempts for 170 yards and two touchdowns.
Losing QB Terry Wilson will significantly impact the ground game since the junior quarterback was the second leading rusher for Kentucky in 2018. RB Chris Rodriguez Jr. could see an increase in carries against the Gators as the Wildcats try to find a way to make up for the loss in yardage on the ground.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Five of Kentucky’s top seven receivers from last season have departed.
Junior WR Lynn Bowden Jr. poses the biggest threat to a depleted Gators secondary. Last season, he hauled in 67 receptions, a UK record for most pass receptions by a sophomore, with team-leading 745 receiving yards and five touchdowns.
Bowden has 13 catches for 131 yards and 1 TD this season.
6-foot 5-inch, 234-pound WR Ahmad Wagner transferred to Kentucky after playing three seasons for the Iowa basketball team.
According to the UK Sports Communications team, Wagner a.k.a. “Flag-ner” (“A” for effort to the UK crew by way of Curtis Burch on that nickname), drew three pass interference calls in four targets last season and has drawn a total of five penalties in 2019.
Though he has yet to make a huge impact on the stat sheet, the potential is there. Wagner has targeted 14 times in his career with six receptions for 128 yards and eight pass interference calls.
Why spend so much time discussing a guy with a limited stat sheet?
With Gators CB C.J. Henderson missing this game, a shallow Florida defensive backfield does not need a matchup problem in the red zone.
TE Justin Rigg (JR) enters the season with seven career catches and has only notched one catch on the season, so don’t expect much of a threat from the tight end spot.
Offensive Line
Kentucky features three returning starters with 49 combined career starts.
LT Landon Young (JR)- 6’7″/321 LBS
- A knee injury kept the junior out for the 2018 season. Started six games during his sophomore season.
LG Logan Stenberg (SR) – 6’6″/321 LBS
- The three-year starter was selected as a preseason second-team All-American by Sporting News and is the key piece to the UK offensive line.
C Drake Jackson (JR) – 6’2″/312 LBS
- Another three-year starter; has started 22 consecutive games for the Wildcats.
RG Luke Fortner (JR) – 6’6″/305 LBS
- The Ohio native played in 11 of 13 games in 2018 and played in eight games in 2017.
RT Darian Kinnard (SO) – 6’5″/325 LBS
- Beat out RT Naasir Watkins (SO) for the starting spot.
Defensive Breakdown
Key players:
- NG Quinton Bohanna
- LB Kash Daniel
- DE Josh Paschal
- S Davonte Robinson
- LB Boogie Watson
Four starters return for new defensive coordinate Brad White, though the Cats did retain 19 letter-winners, 11 of which started at least one game during the season.
The 2018 Wildcats allowed only 16.8 points per game, their best output in the category since 1979.
Defensive Line
The defensive line is among the most experienced group on the Kentucky roster.
Two starters: NG Quinton Bohanna and 6’9″ DE Calvin Taylor Jr. return.
UK will heavily rotate their defensive front, so expect to see a heavy combination of T.J. Carter and Kordell Looney at defensive end, Phil Hoskins at defensive tackle, and Marquan McCall at nose guard.
NG Abule Abada-Fitzgerald and NG Qua Mahone are also expected to contribute to some degree this season.
Linebackers
It’s going to be nearly impossible for Kentucky to replace monster DE/LB Josh Allen‘s 88 tackles, 21 TFL, and 17 sacks, but LB Josh Paschal and LB Boogie Watson are next in line to try.
Paschal is coming off of a redshirt season while Watson brings his seven-game starting experience with him into 2019.
LB Kash Daniel returns as the captain and looks to build on last season’s output of 75 tackles and 7.5 TFL despite playing with a broken left hand for a significant part of the season.
Secondary
The Wildcats top-five contributors in the secondary all made it into NFL camps this past August.
Replacing all four starters in the secondary is never an easy task.
In July, one of UK’s top returning players, S Davonte Robinson suffered an injury to his right quadriceps muscle that will keep him out for the season.
The youth movement is in full force throughout the secondary:
- Tyrell Aijan (SO) – Nickel
- Cedrick Dort Jr. (SO) – CB
- Jamari Brown (R-FR) – CB
- Jordan Griffin (SR) – SS
- Yusuf Corker (SO) – FS
Florida will no doubt look to take advantage of this young secondary with their experienced set of receivers.
Special Teams
Junior P Max Duffy has averaged nearly 46-yards per punt for his career. That average puts him among the top punters the history of Kentucky football.
Gators' injury report against Kentucky. dark. Next
K Chance Poore (R-FR) is 2-for-4 on field goal attempts and has made all three extra-point tries in 2018. He was the top-rated punter/kicker in the 2018 class according to ProKicker.com.