Florida football: Ranking Florida’s 2022 Opponents

Florida football opponent rankings: Kentucky Wildcats (9/10)

Metric Score: 5.5

Outside of the Bulldogs, it’s fair to say that Florida’s biggest divisional rival over the past five years has been Kentucky.

Since Mark Stoops took over the reins as Kentucky’s head coach back in 2013, the Wildcats have slowly progressed from being an SEC bottom feeder to finishing runner-up in the East. The Wildcats have managed to win a minimum of eight games in three of the last four seasons, including a record of 10-3 in 2021.

While Florida holds a decisive lead against Kentucky in the all-time record category (53-19), the Gators are only 3-2 against the Wildcats over the past five seasons. The average margin of victory in this five-year stretch has been approximately 10 points.

Though the Gators entered last year’s game ranked no. 10 in the country and were 7.5-point favorites in Lexington, the Wildcats’ defense held the Gators to just 13 points that night. The two biggest factors from that game were Florida’s exuberant amount of penalties (15 for 115 yards) and a blocked Florida field goal midway through the second quarter that was returned by Kentucky for a touchdown.

Prior to this game, most Florida fans still felt optimistic about the season after narrowly losing to no. 1 Alabama 31-29 just two weeks previously. However, the wheels began to fall off the Florida wagon after losing to Kentucky and thus ultimately ending the Dan Mullen era in Gainesville.

Once again Kentucky is favored to finish second in the SEC East this season, with Vegas oddsmakers giving the Wildcats 8.5 wins.

The Wildcats return 13 starters in 2021. This includes quarterback Will Levis, who was named third team All-SEC in the preseason after tallying over 3,200 total yards of offense and 33 touchdowns last year.

Despite losing to Kentucky, it was one of only a few games in which Florida’s defense played well last season.  The Gators held Kentucky’s offense to 224 total yards and 1-9 on third downs. It was also Levis’ worst performance at quarterback, as he posted a 24.0 QBR after throwing for just 87 yards while going 7-17 on pass attempts.

While Florida draws the benefit of playing the Wildcats at home in 2022, it will still be difficult for Florida to win this game after playing against no. 7 Utah only seven days previous.

Much like Vanderbilt, Kentucky was once an annual opponent that most Florida fans would almost automatically assume the Gators would win. But with Mark Stoops beginning his 10th season as Kentucky’s head coach and recently declaring UK as a football school now, Florida can no longer take this matchup for granted.

Dan Mullen received heavy amounts of criticism back in 2018 when he lost at home to Kentucky in Florida’s SEC season opener, snapping Florida’s 31-game winning streak against the Wildcats. Three years later, it was losing to Kentucky for a second time in four years that essentially drove a wedge between Mullen and the Florida fan base.

The last time a Florida football head coach started 0-2 at Florida was under Charley Pell back in 1979. If the Gators lose their home opener to Utah, then the SEC opener against Kentucky in week 2 becomes more vital in terms of Napier maintaining the confidence of both the team and fan base.