The night when the BBN helped Kentucky take down Florida

As one of the loudest Kroger Field crowds in memory roared and roared, Kentucky defensive end Josh Paschal looked across the line of scrimmage and noticed something.

Florida’s offensive guards were having to hit center Kingsley Eguakun to let him know when it was time to snap the ball.

“He couldn’t hear the cadence. He couldn’t hear the (quarterback’s hands) clap,” Paschal said.

A Kentucky fan base that had waited 35 maddening years to witness the Wildcats beat the mighty Gators in a football game played in Lexington at last took matters into its own hands.

Starting loud and staying loud throughout a taut, defensive struggle, a crowd of 61,632 helped the Cats (5-0, 3-0 SEC) upset the No. 10 Gators (3-2, 1-2), 20-13.

The Big Blue Nation’s impact on the game was shown in the fact that the Florida offense was called for a whopping eight illegal procedure penalties — even one time going from a third-and-1 to a third-and-11 on back-to-back false starts.

“The fans were killing them,” UK outside linebacker J.J. Weaver said.

It was UK’s first victory over UF in Lexington since Bill Ransdell, Mark Higgs and Tony Mayes led Kentucky over Florida 10-3 on a chilly, rainy November afternoon in 1986. The win snapped a 16-game UK home-field losing streak vs. the Gators.

“(A loud crowd) affects the offense as it did tonight with some of those pre-snap penalties,” Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said. “Really a big shout-out to (the fans).”

What was going to be a long night of false starting for Florida began in the first quarter, on a third-and-8 from the Gators 27, when right tackle Jean Delance was whistled.

It was on Florida’s first drive of the second quarter when a third-and-1 from the Gators 21 instead became a third-and-11 from the 11 after back-to-back illegal procedure calls on running back Malik Davis and left guard Ethan White, respectively.

“The crowd was so loud,” Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White said. “It took us out of third-and-shorts and it put us into third-and-mediums — or even that back-to-back that got us (from third-and-short) into third-and-long. Those were huge.”

Florida’s first drive of the third quarter was sabotaged by an illegal procedure penalty charged to the center, Eguakun.

That turned a third-and-4 at the UK 37 into a third-and-9 — which was foiled by a Tyrell Ajian pass breakup.

After Kentucky took a 13-10 lead when Trevin Wallace caught a Florida field goal that had been blocked by Paschal and returned it 76 yards for the go-ahead score, the Gators’ ensuing drive was undermined when right guard Stewart Reese was whistled for UF’s fifth false start.

Once a 9-yard Christopher Rodriguez touchdown run, set up by a Weaver interception, had given UK a 20-10 lead early in the fourth quarter, Florida drove the ball to the UK 11.

Facing a fourth-and-2, Gators head man Dan Mullen decided to gamble and go.

Yet with Kentucky fans in full vocal exertion, Florida never got its fourth-down play off — because left guard White was called for moving ahead of the snap for a second time.

Pushed back to the 16, Florida had to settle for a 33-yard Jace Christmann field goal that made it 20-13 with 6:23 left in the game.

When the Kentucky offense failed on its following drive to pick up even one first down, Wildcats backers of all ages had every reason to feel a nauseous dread about what was ahead.

Young members of the Big Blue Nation could think back to 2017, when a 27-14 fourth-quarter Kentucky lead became a 28-27 win for Florida. Or to 2019, when a 21-10 fourth-quarter UK advantage turned into a 29-21 UF victory.

Cats fans with some gray around the temples could recall 1993 when the Wildcats intercepted seven — seven! — Florida passes only to somehow lose 24-20. Or they could remember 2003, when UK took a 21-3 lead into the fourth quarter only to see the Gators score 21 straight for a 24-21 win.

Yet as Florida drove perilously close to the Cats’ goal line, the Kentucky fans, rather than succumb to the ghosts of Gators nightmares past, lifted their voices in support of a gutty UK defense.

“It was so loud, you couldn’t even hear,” Kentucky’s Wallace said.

With the Gators facing third-and-goal at the UK 5, left tackle Richard Gouraige became the fourth Florida offensive lineman whistled for premature movement.

After a Kentucky face mask gave Florida a new set of downs, UF had it second-and-goal from the 9 when running back Davis was flagged for his second false start.

After UK had stopped seven UF snaps in the red zone, the game came down to one final Gators’ play.

On fourth-and-goal from the 8 with 22 seconds left, the pass of Florida quarterback Emory Jones was knocked down at the goal line by Kentucky linebacker Jacquez Jones.

For UK’s first victory over a top-10 team since 2010, heroes on the field were abundant.

But, both coaches agreed, the contribution of the folks wearing the blue and white in the stands was a big part of the story, too.

“Give their crowd credit,” Florida’s Mullen said, “they were loud and came with energy.”

Said UK’s Stoops: “Thank you to the fans for affecting the play.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2021 2:44 AM.