Florida fans know not to look past this game. Even when they’ve been overmatched in recent years, the Kentucky Wildcats have found ways to make these games anxiety-inducing for UF fans.
Mark Stoops has another good team in Lexington this year, and the ‘Cats are off to a 4-0 start. But the last couple of games have been a bit tough for them. They just barely got past a Football Championship Subdivision team in Chattanooga before scraping by a struggling South Carolina team last weekend.
The Gators come to town next week, and while this is a well-balanced Kentucky team that could certainly give them fits, UK will need to play a much more complete game this week to compete with Florida.
CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee doesn’t see it happening. He thinks UF will roll in its first real road test of the season, predicting that the team will cover an 8.5-point spread.
Kroger Field will be hopping on Saturday night when the Gators roll into town, but they won’t get the kind of game that they’re expecting. The Wildcats offense has taken a significant step back over the last two games against Chattanooga and South Carolina, while the Gators defense has been on point since out-playing Alabama for the final three quarters of the 31-29 loss to the Tide two weeks ago. The evolution of Emory Jones will continue and the Gators will pull away in the second half to win by two or more touchdowns. Pick: Florida (-8.5)
Jones is coming off his best game as Florida’s starter against Tennessee last week, and he’ll look to have another solid game by avoiding turnovers again this time around.
Kentucky has a solid defense, but no one to this point has been able to slow down UF’s rushing attack, and it’s hard to imagine that a Wildcats team with an FBS-worst -9 turnover differential will play enough of a mistake-free game to be competitive at the end.
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