Florida football: Gators can utilize the run game against the Wildcats

As fun as Florida football’s win against Utah was, it’s time to put that behind us and look ahead to the Gator’s next opponent.

This Saturday, SEC East rival Kentucky will make their way into The Swamp.

While Florida has historically owned the Wildcats on the football field, the series has been pretty even in the last few years between these two teams. Florida has had some rough seasons and gone through multiple coaches, while Mark Stoops has turned Kentucky into a solid program.

As we head into the game this weekend, we wanted to take the time and scout out Kentucky and see what UF will be dealing with.

Here, we’ll take a look at the defensive group that UF will have to score points on.

Florida football: Beating experience isn’t easy

While Kentucky may not have much blue chip talent defensively, they do have lots of experience. Only two of their starters are underclassmen, with the rest all being well-tenured players.

The unit as a whole is led by junior linebacker JJ Weaver. He had 5 tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble in their week one game against Miami-Ohio. In his last two years of action, he’s totaled 77 tackles and 7 sacks.

With all the experience that they’re bringing in, it’s likely that they won’t be as fazed by The Swamp as Utah was.

They’ll have a disciplined secondary that won’t bite on fakes too often either. Between their starting corners and safeties, they have two seniors (Tyrell Ajian and Keidron Smith) and two juniors (Carrington Valentine and Jalen Geiger).

Florida football: The QB run game should be lethal

What makes the Gator offense so good is the threat of Anthony Richardson in the run game.

QBs thrive on the ground when the defense plays man, as they can run routes away from one side of the field to open it up for AR to run like we saw in the Utah game.

The issue for a team like Kentucky, however, is that if they play zone to limit AR on the ground, they’ll have to let the RBs go crazy instead. And the Wildcats don’t have the personnel to stop both sides of the ground game.

I have the Gators absolutely gashing Kentucky on the ground in this game. There won’t be many possessions where Florida doesn’t put points on the board.

With this type of success offensively, I love the Gators’ chances in this game.

Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.