Gators overrun at Kentucky, suffer third straight loss to Wildcats

LEXINGTON, Ky. — When it comes to the Florida Gators, Kentucky is no longer just a basketball school.

Florida spent three decades distancing itself from the Wildcats in football with cold-blooded disregard for a school known for cutting down the nets in March but no-showing on the gridiron during the fall.

But the Wildcats’ one-sided 33-14 win on Saturday showed coach Mark Stoops’ program not only has closed the gap but has left the Gators in the dust. Any gains Billy Napier’s program made with a Sept. 16 home upset of Tennessee went up in smoke.

“Not a lot of positives,” Napier said. “They were ready to play and they flat-out beat us.”

The loss also continued the Gators’ road woes under Napier, who is now 1-7 away from the Swamp. Three straight UF defeats by Kentucky is a first since Bear Bryant was the Wildcats’ coach more than 60 years ago.

Now losers of four of the past six meetings in the series, No. 22 Florida (3-2, 1-1 SEC) was manhandled by the Wildcats and undone once again by a killer special-teams penalty.

“They were the more physical team,” Napier said. “We did not win the line of scrimmage or the edges and they affected our quarterback. Very disappointed in our team.”

Kentucky staked an early 10-0 lead following an opening three-and-out by Florida and a Graham Mertz interception on the next drive.

After UF finally forced the Wildcats (5-0, 2-0) to punt, officials flagged freshman defensive back Dijon Johnson for leaping over a Kentucky blocker on a punt return, leading to a 15-yard penalty and giving back the ball. On the first play, tailback Ray Davis ran 75 yards for a touchdown, the biggest gain on a 280-yard day for the Vanderbilt transfer.

Napier’s squad now has six special-teams penalties despite even more attention put on cleaning up miscues after committing two on punt returns during a lackluster 22-7 win against Charlotte.

“We covered it thoroughly throughout the week,” Napier said. “We just got a young player out there that made a poor decision and he knows he made a mistake. That was a pivotal moment in the game.”

A season after leading Vanderbilt to its first win against Florida in Nashville since 1988, Davis steamrollered a much-improved Gators’ defense that entered the game ranked second in the SEC against the run.

“It kind of hurts me to my heart and it hurts the guys that I play behind and in front to know that we were out-physicaled today by Kentucky,” sophomore linebacker Shemar James said.

Meanwhile, Florida’s offense stumbled out the gates — gaining just 39 yards in the first quarter —and could not keep pace.

A 4-yard touchdown pass from Mertz to tight end Hayden Hansen cut the lead to 23-7 with 34 seconds left in the first half. It proved too little, too late. Mertz’s 33-yard touchdown to Ricky Pearsall pulled UF within two possessions at 30-14.

The Gators could get no closer, suffering the largest margin of defeat against Kentucky since 1979.

Florida had its chances but failed to capitalize.

With UF facing 1st-and-10 from its 38 early in the fourth quarter, Kentucky sacked Mertz for the third time, this one for a 13-yard loss. The Gators had no choice but to go for a first down. But on third-and-9, Napier called a run for Trevor Etienne that gained 5 yards. Mertz’s 3-yard completion to Arlis Boardinham shy of the first-down marker gave the Wildcats the ball.

A 50-yard field goal by Alex Raynor just cleared the crossbar for Kentucky’s final points.

Napier defended his play-calling in the wake of outside criticism that the 44-year-old too often has been overly conservative.

“There’s always good and bad,” he said. “Some of it is well deserved. Some of it, maybe they don’t quite know what they’re talking about. It’s probably a mixed bag.”

Until Stoops arrived in 2013, a matchup with Kentucky had become all-too predictable.

Steve Spurrier routinely toyed with the Wildcats, his teams scoring more than 50 points five times including a 73-7 drubbing in 1994. Urban Meyer’s 2008 national champion hung 63 points on Kentucky, one of four straight wins with more than 40 points.

Under Napier, the Gators have scored three touchdowns in two games against Kentucky.

“We deserve every bit of criticism that we’re going to get for this game,” he said. “That’s part of it.”

Following the dispiriting and embarrassing defeat, the Gators headed to their bus and soon would board an airplane back to Gainesville.

Much soul-searching would lay ahead as the season entered October.

“Definitely frustrated,” said Mertz, who is now 23-14 as a starter. “But there’s only one right way to go after a game like that: How do we move forward? There’s two different ways to go and there’s one you never want to go down.

“There’s one route I’m going down.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com