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Florida can borrow Tennessee’s blueprint to get its run game going against Kentucky

Tennessee showed Florida how to run against Kentucky
ByBenjamin Henderson
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Nov 7, 2026; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators running back Duke Clark (20) runs with the ball during the second half against the Oklahoma Sooners at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images
Nov 7, 2026; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators running back Duke Clark (20) runs with the ball during the second half against the Oklahoma Sooners at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Florida’s offense has gone from looking like a juggernaut to looking like something out of a football movie where they run a montage midway through with a comedy of errors to highlight just how bad things have gotten. In Florida’s latest bid to save the season, Aaron Philo is set to take back over.

The potential good news is that Florida is taking on a mid-level Kentucky defense this week, and Tennessee provided a bit of a blueprint last week that the Gators would be wise to lean on this Saturday.

Florida should take notes from Tennessee on how to score against Kentucky

Statistically, Kentucky’s defense is nothing special. They are 76th in yards per game and 77th in points per game. Last week against Tennessee, the Wildcats' defense held up for a while until the dam broke in the 4th quarter.

What’s interesting about watching that game back is that Kentucky's defense did a number of things that we saw Oklahoma do last week. Beyond bringing safeties down into the box, what was notable was the amount of shifting their defensive line does pre-snap.

We noted yesterday the success Oklahoma had shifting against Florida and how the Gators always seemed to run right into their shift. Tennessee had success against Kentucky by simply not doing that.

On Tennessee’s opening TD, Duane Morris scored off a 66-yard run. Kentucky is shaded to Tennessee’s right pre-snap, so unlike Florida, the Volunteers dialed up a counter run to the left, and when the nickle/STAR bit on the QB keeper, Morris was gone. Mike Matthews later scored off some trickery: once again, Kentucky’s linebackers all shaded to Tennessee’s right, so the Volunteers dialed up a reverse to the left for a 24-yard TD.

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Beyond the explosives, Tennessee also seemed far more willing to test the middle of Kentucky’s defense relative to what we have seen Florida willing to do.

Duke Clark could be the key to running past Kentucky

We are going to state the following caveats to this conversation:

  • No, we are not trying to start a running back controversy between Duke Clark and Jadan Baugh.
  • Florida’s offensive line might be so bad that the following observation doesn’t matter.

One of the reasons why Clark was able to have a bit of success against Oklahoma was because the Sooners didn’t shift that often when Clark was in the game. Part of the reason for that is because Clark was often used in a Pistol set behind Tramell Jones, whereas Baugh was used in shotgun to the side of Jones.

So if Florida wants to prevent Kentucky from shifting presnap, it may need to consider more Pistol sets on Saturday. Beyond that, Florida has got to implement some more counter runs into their gameplan this week. Tennessee proved they can work, and Baugh and Clark are both capable of making them work.

It’s food for thought as Florida looks to snap this horrible stretch of offense they have been on.

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