Mark Stoops' top Kentucky feat is taming Florida Gators. Your move, Billy Napier | Toppmeyer

Kentucky football’s seven straight bowl appearances or even its pair of recent 10-win seasons aren’t coach Mark Stoops’ crowning achievements. A team’s record and postseason eligibility are influenced by the number of MAC opponents on its schedule – not that Stoops would know anything about that.

Stoops’ pinnacle feat, rather, is how he redefined the Kentucky-Florida series. This morphed into a pivotal game for each program after long being a series best suited for an alternate channel hidden somewhere in the 900s of your satellite service’s guide.

Three times in the last five years, Kentucky won this game. Losing twice to UK contributed to Dan Mullen’s ouster, and Stoops’ three triumphs in 10 tries against the Gators helped afford him enviable job security in a conference where that’s rare.

Dare I say this has become something of a rivalry? Imagine, pondering that thought 15 years ago.

Steve Spurrier once said of the Wildcats: “Kentucky has a heck of a punter. I know that.”

That described Kentucky before Stoops, particularly against Florida: Punts and losses.

And now, get a load of this: Kentucky (4-0, 1-0 SEC) is a three-point favorite for its home game Saturday (noon ET) against the Gators (3-1, 1-0).

If that’s not a shocking reversal of fortunes, here’s another: Kentucky boasts the better receivers. The Wildcats might even have better cornerbacks.

How about … quarterback? Now, that would truly be something. The Wildcats rarely boast a quarterback that can rival Florida’s, but good coaches could disagree about whether they’d prefer UK’s Devin Leary or UF’s Graham Mertz taking the snaps on a fall Saturday.

Leary peaked in 2021. Mertz has been better this season.

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Kentucky made transfers an asset. Leary and running back Ray Davis – one of the SEC’s best – are portal plunders. Top receiver Tayvion Robinson is a transfer, too. Players of their caliber considering Kentucky as a worthy destination should tell you how Stoops recast the image of a long-moribund program in a basketball state.

This matchup will be among the conference’s highlight games Saturday, a marker of the SEC's enfeebled state but also a testament to this series' pivot toward competitiveness.

In fact, seeing this game earmarked for the noon timeslot feels outdated. It's worthy of primetime – not that Stoops is worried about Kentucky’s fan base oversleeping the moment.

“I have great confidence in the people of Kentucky that can get up very early and pound some beers,” Stoops said.

And some bourbon, too, no doubt.

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When UK's sideline featured Bill Curry, Guy Morriss or Joker Phillips, fans needed to pound beers so they wouldn’t remember what happened after kickoff. Now, Kentucky has hope of pregame libations lubricating in-game celebration.

Kentucky fans hazarded a trip into an active construction zone to take over Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium last week. Beating Vanderbilt used to be notable for Kentucky. They were effectively the same program. Now, beating Vanderbilt is expected, and so is challenging Florida, although Gators fans probably see it differently.

Considering Florida beat Kentucky 31 straight games until the streak snapped in 2018, the new reality that the Wildcats aren’t automatic chum for the Gators takes some getting used to.

Stoops’ 2018 team was his best. The Wildcats won 10 games then and again in 2021, when the they also beat Florida. Those 2018 Wildcats were a pesky bunch on defense. Most of Stoops’ best teams are. Can’t say just yet whether this team fits that mold. Kentucky’s schedule is usually a joke before the Florida game, and this year was no different.

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If Florida coach Billy Napier aims to enjoy a tenure anywhere near as long as Stoops’, he’ll need to score some wins against rivals Georgia, Florida State, Tennessee and LSU. Beating the Vols two weeks ago earned Napier goodwill from Gators fans, some of whom stuck around for a while after the clock hit zero to see that Napier left the field to a chorus of cheers.

The Wildcats aren’t roadkill anymore, but losing to UK still turns cheers into groans and reawakens the pitchforks on the message boards.

The Wildcats can beat the Gators, but Florida fans don’t think they should. That makes this a dangerous game for Napier, while Stoops plays with house money. He's already beat the Gators three more times than any coach since Jerry Claiborne tripped up Florida once. Taming the Gators will be a pillar of Stoops' legacy.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Mark Stoops' top Kentucky feat is taming Florida. Your move, Billy Napier