Florida football: All you need to know for tonight’s game with Kentucky

Florida football opens Southeastern Conference play on the road at Kentucky tonight. Here’s all you need to know about tonight’s showdown.

Now it gets serious for No. 8 Florida football.

The Gators kick off the 2019 Southeastern Conference portion of its schedule tonight at Kroger Field against the Kentucky Wildcats.

It’s a game that has a lot of meaning for the Gators as they look to avenge last season’s loss at the hands of the Wildcats at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Here’s all you need to know about tonight’s game:

Storylines

Florida: As I mentioned, this is a game Florida football wants to use, not only to springboard into SEC play but to erase last season’s home defeat to the Wildcats. The Gators saw a lot of improvement from their Week 0 win over Miami to the Week 2 win at home against UT-Martin. But, there are still questions with the offensive line and whether Lamical Perine can get things started with the running game.

Florida Gators Football

Defensively, the Gators will be without C.J. Henderson, but as Kentucky has a new quarterback and an untested wide receiver corps, this could be a good game for Henderson to rest his injury.

Kentucky: Well, it was a tough week in Dogpatch as the Wildcats lost quarterback Terry Wilson last week, for the season. Now, Troy graduate transfer Sawyer Smith will take the reins in hopes of stopping the Gators’ defense that has 15 sacks in the first two games of the season. That same defense has held opponents to just 23% completion on third and fourth down.

Defensively, the Wildcats are also lacking some experience as four of their front five linemen graduated and the secondary is equally young and inexperienced.

Connections

Gators’ defensive line coach David Turner coached at Kentucky twice — including coaching during their Peach Bowl appearance in 1993.

Florida has no players from the Bluegrass State on the roster, but Kentucky has 18 players from the state of Florida on its roster.

Florida football wide receiver Trevon Grimes and Kentucky freshman offensive tackle Jake Pope played together for two seasons at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale.

Florida co-offensive coordinator Billy Gonzales coached with Kentucky’s assistant head coach Eddie Gran at Ole Miss (1995-1998) and Auburn (1999-2008) under Tommy Tuberville. Gonzales also coached with Kentucky defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale at Illinois in 2012.

How to watch

• Time and date: 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14.
• Where: Kroger Field — Lexington, Kentucky.
• TV: ESPN with Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Todd McShay and Molly McGrath
• Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network with Mick Hubert, Lee McGriff and Tate Casey.
• Satellite: Sirius Channel 99/XM 201.

The line

Once again, our resident gambling expert, Derek Taylor, has made his recommendation for tonight’s game. You can read that here. Florida football is favored by 8.5 points on the road in Lexington.

The weather

It’s going to be a pretty comfortable night in Lexington tonight. According to weather.com, the high at the University of Kentucky will be around 87 degrees with a 20% chance for rain. If you are going to the game, you might take a jacket as it will cool off significantly tonight with lows dropping to around 59 degrees.

The Last Line

It’s the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams and the Gators are looking for some revenge after last season. This is the perfect time for them to strike as the Wildcats have suffered some pretty telling injuries. Kentucky snapped a 31-game losing streak to Florida football last year. You can bet Dan Mullen and the Gators don’t want to make it two in a row against a hurt, but potentially dangerous Kentucky team.

What are your thoughts? Post a comment below!