Roman Harper calls UK soft; picks Florida to win handily on Saturday

With the battle of the Kentucky Wildcats and the Florida Gators only days away, it appears that fans and media are all jumping on the Gators bandwagon before the matchup in The Swamp.

Former Alabama Crimson Tide star Roman Harper is one of the national media folks to join the mix, as he joined The Paul Finebaum show on Tuesday and made a bold prediction for the outcome of the game.

“Going into the season everybody had Kentucky above Florida. I probably did too. But after one game I’m completely off of that,” Harper stated. “Florida is going to win this game, and I think they’re going to win it pretty handily too. It’s going to look dominant. I’m not trending toward a blowout, but it is in The Swamp, and they do play better. They do play differently.”

On top of this bold prediction, Harper made a statement that is going to be bulletin board material inside the UK football training facility this week.

“If you want to win this game, you got to stop Florida up front. Kentucky looked a little bit softer. I hate using the word soft, but they’re not as physical up front running the football. You can’t run for 50 yards.”

With Stoops scheduled to appear on Finebaum Wednesday night, Harper wanted to pass along this message to provide some juice to the Kentucky coach and his locker room.

“Tell Coach Stoops I said it to motivate them. ‘Coach, you all did not push anybody around. You were a little soft up front last week. That is not what I’m used to seeing out of a Kentucky offensive line.”

Of course, Vince Marrow heard these comments and has already responded.

Harper did walk back the comments at the end of the segment apologizing for calling them soft.

Either way, the damage is done, and this staff and team have heard the news. Stoops’ teams have always thrived with a chip on their shoulder, and this is another instance of just that.

Should be a fun one Saturday night.