Florida safety gives Kentucky plenty to ponder
Talkative Florida safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson wasted no time Monday providing the Kentucky Wildcats with some bulletin board material for the week.
Gardner-Johnson had a quick response when he was asked about the Gators’ long winning streak against the Wildcats.
“It’s 31, right?” he said. “It’ll be 32 after Saturday.”
He then went on to elaborate on his prediction of a UF win Saturday night.
“They’ve got some good players,” Gardner-Johnson said. “They’re disciplined. They play us hard every year. They’re coming in with a chip on their shoulder that they can beat us.
“It’s in The Swamp. Our team is capable, and we know what’s going to happen Saturday. We’ve just got to go out there and play, execute our game plan and just do what we’ve got to do.”
It’s safe to say the Wildcats will be seeing Gardner-Johnson’s comments throughout the week.
Reese might return: Starting middle linebacker David Reese missed the opener with an injured ankle and his status for Saturday’s game will be evaluated later in the week, UF coach Dan Mullen said Monday.
“We were hoping he would be back this week, so I have to get with our training staff on him,” Mullen said. “I don’t think he’s going to practice early in the week. Hopefully, at the end of the week he can be ready to go.”
Cornerback C.J. McWilliams (unspecified) is expected to return this week after sitting out the opener, while safety Shawn Davis (unspecified) is out for the second straight week. Freshman wide receiver Jacob Copeland (knee) remains out. Mullen said he should be back in a week or two.
Starting defensive tackle T.J. Slaton left Saturday’s game with a shoulder stinger, but returned and is good to go this week, Mullen said. moments, the redshirt sophomore remained motionless as trainers and medical staff arrived to help before taking him to a hospital.
As UCF players sat on their charter plane early Friday morning after earning a 56-17 win over the Huskies, they received a phone call that lifted their spirits.
“We were on FaceTime with Aaron,” Brandon Moore said of the surprise call from his injured teammate. “Everybody was pretty happy to see him smile. We were just happy to see that he was up and smiling.”
UCF linebacker Eric Mitchell added, “When we got on the phone, he was smiling so everybody started smiling. We were all glad to hear from him because it was scary.”
Robinson spent Friday at a hospital in Hartford as precaution before traveling back to Orlando Saturday.
“He’s back in town and doing well,” coach Josh Heupel said Monday. “I saw him again here this morning. I think he’s definitely moving in the right direction and obviously we’re all thankful that he’s going to be all right.”
Heupel said Robinson suffered a concussion.