There is one stat, one piece of historical knowledge, that should tell you everything you need to know about Florida’s series against Kentucky in football.
And it is this – Florida has beaten Kentucky more times than it has beaten any other team.
The Gators have won 53 times against the Wildcats, almost all of them on one of the campuses.
That’s more than Florida has defeated Georgia (44), Vanderbilt (42), Auburn (39) or Florida State (36).
But to simply point to the Gators winning 33 of the last 34 games would be a disservice to a team that has often given Florida all it could handle before falling away in a pool of Big Blue misery.
Florida-Kentucky is a weird series, which is why the older you are as a Gator fan, the more trepidatious about Saturday’s game and at the same time wondering how Kentucky will screw it up.
There was a time when the Wildcats could go into this game with a chance to win and certainly one would think they have a chance in this one. Way back when we only had one game to watch each Saturday, Kentucky stayed right with Florida, actually having the lead in the series 16-14 after taking four of six in the late 1970s.
But then Charley Pell happened. And then Galen Hall. And it just kept getting worse.
But, see, you can’t tell the story of this series without talking about the magical way Florida has been able to win some of those games and the way Kentucky has been — for four decades — the gift that keeps on giving.
You all know most of the stories because they are part of the Gator DNA. Still, a quick look back at the craziness of a crazy series.