No. 20 Gators face UK squad motivated to snap 30-game skid

GAINESVILLE The last time Florida and Kentucky met is a fading memory for the Gators — just one game during a long season.

For the Wildcats, a humbling 45-7 loss on Sept. 10, 2016, is fresh and impossible to escape.

A video of the game played on a loop this week in Kentucky’s weight room, a reminder of the historic gap between the programs.

“I was up there,” coach Mark Stoops said. “I was actually working out a little bit, and I was kind of pissed off watching it every day.”

As if 30 years of futility against the Gators was not enough to light a fire in everyone associated with Kentucky football, Stoops and his staff added more.

Meanwhile, UF sophomore receiver Freddie Swain was blissfully ignorant to the Gators’ 30-season stranglehold in a series dating back to 1917.

Coaches, he said, have not even mentioned the streak.

“They tell us it’s just a game, you know what I’m saying, don’t take anybody lightly,” Swain said.

The No. 20 Gators (1-1, 1-0 SEC) have plenty at stake themselves beyond keeping alive a streak no UF team wants to end on its watch.

Coach Jim McElwain’s squad is riding an emotional high following last Saturday’s win on the final play against Tennessee.

But redshirt freshman quarterback Feleipe Franks’ 63-yard touchdown pass on the final play did not wash away the previous 59 minutes. A team with a tissuepaper thin margin for error suffered a pair of costly fumbles, myriad missed tackles and several shaky blitz pickups.

A similarly sloppy performance at Kentucky (3-0, 1-0) could end with UF’s second loss to an unranked team during the McElwain era, joining a 31-10 defeat last November at Arkansas. The Gators’ only previous loss in 10 meetings with the Razorbacks was during the 1982 Bluebonnet Bowl.

egthompson@ orlandosentinel.com