Kentucky has moved past Southern Mississippi and is focused on Florida.
Although a season-opening 44-35 loss to the Golden Eagles lingered earlier this week, the Wildcats (0-1) shifted their focus to Saturday’s Southeastern Conference opener at Florida, a team Kentucky hasn’t beaten since 1986. In addition, it’s been longer — 37 years — since the Wildcats have defeated the Gators in Gainesville.
Under Stoops, Kentucky has lost the past two games to Florida (1-0) by a combined margin of 11 points. In the last meeting at Steve Spurrier-Florida Field, the Wildcats dropped a 36-30 setback in triple overtime. A year ago, dropped passes and other mistakes proved to be costly in a 14-9 loss to the Gators at revamped Commonwealth Stadium.
Stoops said two consecutive close calls against the Gators give his team confidence, but doesn’t want to overemphasize the past two games against the team’s SEC East foe.
“I always say every year is a year year and a new team,” Stoops said. “Last year’s game — win or lose is behind you. I definitely think our players will respond and play well.”
Like Stoops, Florida coach Jim McElwain said past performances won’t be a factor this weekend.
“Both teams haven’t played each other (this season), it’s 0-0,” he said. “Last year was a true dogfight (in Lexington) and (the streak) is obviously there, but it doesn’t mean much because these two teams have not played against each other.”
Following last week’s loss, Stoops apologized, saying fans, administrators, and others deserved better from the Wildcats and preached a similar message to his team this week. Stoops said his troops spent most of the week “trying to be focused and do the best they can.” The team also held a players-only meeting to make sure everyone was on the same page.
“Everybody can do better and I think that was the big message is dig in and don’t have any regrets and have the discipline to prepare the right way,” Stoops said. “I saw a lot of guys trying to do that.”
Stoops is hopeful his defensive unit can rebound from a dismal performance in last week’s season-opening setback. The Wildcats gave up 520 yards of offense against the Eagles, including 296 rushing yards. The main point of emphasis for Stoops and his defensive staff this week has been developing more depth beyond the first-team performers.
“We’ve got a long season with a lot of practices,” Stoops said. “In particular on Tuesday and Wednesday, they gotta get out here and have some big physical days. That’s where we’ve gotta continue to bring guys along and develop them and we’ve done that.”
Kentucky defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot said the Wildcats can’t afford to lose focus from the first snap to the final whistle. Kentucky surrendered 34 unanswered points, including 27 in the second half last week.
“We just have to emphasize finishing games and making sure that the guys don’t lose focus the longer the game gets, the more tired they get,” Eliot said. “That they stay locked in the entire game so they can be disciplined to execute and to play with their technique for the second half.”
On the other side of the ball, Kentucky’s offense opened the Eddie Gran by scoring 21 points in the first quarter, becoming just the eighth team in school history to tally three touchdowns in the first 15 minutes. The quick start also tied a school record for most points scored in the opening frame.
Despite the fast start, the Wildcats flamed out in the second half and recorded just two first downs, while quarterback Drew Barker threw an interception and was responsible for two fumbles in the final two quarters, allowing the Eagles to overcome a 35-17 halftime deficit. Kentucky had possession for just 7:28 in the second half.
Gran said the lack of offensive plays during the second half last week, which halted the team’s quick-strike offense, was because of a lack of execution.
“(The) biggest thing is execution,” he said earlier this week. “In anything, it’s the details. It’s everything. It’s coaching. It’s fundamentals. It’s them taking care of their business, maybe a play call.
“You can go back and look at the 56 plays or whatever it is and I wish I had about six calls back. I really do, but you can’t do that every week. You’re not going to be able to take those six calls back. So we’ve got to be able to handle adversity when things, when momentums shift. We’ve got to be able to handle that better.”
Game tracker: Kentucky at Florida, 3:30 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: CBS, Channel 27, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter