Kentucky 14 @ #9 Florida 48:  Postmortem

Frustrating, yes …. but one game does not the season make ,,,,,

that is all

Watched the game on the DVR due to a dinner engagement…

- Running game: Locke sure tried hard, but the O-line just wasn’t big enough to move the Gators around… T2 was certainly missed!
- O-line: speaking of which… Not big enough (did I just say that?) to open holes for Locke. OK job on pass protection, but didn’t give Hartline enough time to look more than 1, maybe 2 reads…
- Matthews came to play, that’s a good thing!
- D-line: Hello?? Absolutely 0 pressure on Brantley all night! And did they watch any film on Florida running the option??
- D-secondary: Not fast enough to keep up with Florida… On top of that, when Florida caught the ball there wasn’t a D-back with 2 yards on 95% of the passes…
- A freshman scores 6 TD’s on us? Really?

I think I need another drink…

were so far behind Florida’s that it was obvious to see on the first offensive possession for both teams. Florida gets 4 and 5 star recruits and we get 1, 2 and 3 star recruits. Simple fact of life. Next game please.

If Florida had their offense together last week we wouldn’t have had these expectations. This is only one game, and one we counted as a loss anyway. But, Steve Brown needs to do some soul searching.

It’ll all be forgiven if we beat Mississippi next week.

As most of you know,I don’t like or know football. Tonight I decided to watch since we were favored by 14. From the beginning it looked like boys playing men. I guess playing in the SEC in football is just so we share their bowl money! It has become mental now with the players. They know they are outmatched and show it on the field. Sorry for these thoughts but it was what I saw!

we play scared and weak. It’s the same everytime. Tackling was terrible. Play calling was way too conservative early. You have to take chances in order to beat a team like FL not run the ball right up the middle and take few to no chances down the field. FL defender shot the gap on Hartline and took it to the house because guess what, if you keep throwing underneath 5 yds each time, you don’t have to worry about getting burned deep. Just frustrating all around. I’m tired of UK being mediocre in football each year, but maybe this is the best it will ever be.

Florida put the pieces together tonight (finally) and played like a Top 10 football team. I don’t think there are too many teams in the country that can come into the Swamp at night and even be competitive against the Gators when they are playing like that, much less have a chance to actually win.

Had this been two weeks ago, the outcome may have been different.

I’m proud of our guys for their commitment to improve. They also played hard, as they have all season, but this time that effort was more productive.

I know it sucks to be on the losing end, but I hope it can be kept in perspective.

See y’all next year in Lexington.

Thanks for a cleanly-played game and we’ll

Florida utterly dominated us on offense and defense.

It didn’t seem like it was fear of Florida, this time. UF simply dominated with a superior offense, defense and, unfortunately, coaching staff.

With that said, UK is not a bad team. Joker is not a bad coach. IMO
They just went up against a much, much better team — speed kills.

But, you can lose by 1 or play Florida… come Sunday morning, it’s one loss, either way.
UK is 3-1.

in SEC play. We could be 0-3 like some.

Florida and Alabama are the Duke’s, Carolina’s and Kentucky’s in football. Its been that way forever and will remain so.
If the powers that control athletics at UK were as serious about football as they are basketball, things would change. Budgets for the program shouldn’t be a factor – Florida does it. Do they operate in the red? Could we pack a 100k stadium, I think so and then some, if the fans knew we were going balls out to compete against the big boys.
If we paid a new head coach and staff equal to what we pay Calipari things would change over night. We could hire a Coach like Tony Dungy and open the purse strings to him and say – make us competitive, it would happen. Its simply desire to change and compete and economics.

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Over 9:00 remaining in the game, trailing by 27
.
Recipe A:

• Convert a single “4th-and-11” play from the opponent’s 18 yard-line
• If the 4th down conversion does not result in a TD, produce a TD from 1st-and-Goal from somewhere inside the opponent’s 7 yard-line
• Convert 4 conventional PATs

• mix with 3 touchdowns over the last 9:00 of the game to produce a WIN on the road

Recipe B:

• Convert a 35-yard field goal
• Convert 3 consecutive 2-Point Conversions after touchdowns

• mix with 3 touchdowns over the last 9:00 of the game to produce a TIE on the road, and go into overtime.

Recipe C:

 * Just flat out give up with over 9:00 remaining.

- – - – - – -
– - – - – - -

Of those options, why am I left just hoping that the coaching staff chose Recipe B over Recipe C ?? And how are either ‘B’ or ‘C’ anywhere close to as good a plan as ’A" ??

The fact that we spent more time tackling harmless air molecules than Florida Gators bothers me. So does the fact that we have no 3rd Down pass routes that go past the first-down marker- instead praying that guys who are completely covered will be able to catch the ball well short of the first-down mark and somehow carry the defenders on their back for a first down. All of that bothers me.

But what bothers me more is that I thought the team’s “identity” was supposed to be that of tough, disciplined, army fatigue wearing “Operation Win”. Instead, the coaching staff with 9:00 left in the game decides the best thing for the program to do is take on an “identity” that is about as soft as a pack of 3-ply bathroom tissue.

There is obviously no shame in losing to a team with superior talent. Heck, we actually count on it every winter during basketball season. No problem there- we have no control over the other team’s talent level.

But I don’t think cyring "(Operation) Uncle! " is a good way for a fresh, young regime to get things kicked off in its first season of conference play.

.

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If fans and the university are satisfied with the status quo – then don’t change it.

If you wish to be serious about football then “radical changes” are required.

We could had hired another low bucks coach to replace Billy G. but for some strange reason we decided to go balls out and hire and pay for the biggest name coach and one of the most successful in the land. Gees, why did we do that. We could had kept Billy and suggest he change some plays or play someone differnt off the bench. Why didn’t we pursue another middle of the pack coach instead of Cal - I wonder…..!

I remember when IOWA,was a doormat in the Big Ten.All they did was hired hayden Frye..

Why didn’t Alabama keep Mike Shula who was fairly successful there, but yes with him leading them they were mid-pack in the SEC. Instead they decided to woe Nick Saban from the Dolphins for a cool $32 million 8 year contract.

Looks like they were very serious in their drive to return to the top. Maybe not as much so in Basketball – but that’s their thing Football.

Florida seems to be serious about each sport with Billy D. being the second highest paid coach behind coach Cal.

So its all about what you want and and pay for.