The last time Kentucky beat Florida was in 1986 — 31 long years ago. On Saturday night at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky., the Wildcats looked as if they were finally going to beat Florida — but disaster struck in the fourth quarter. With less than a minute left, Florida quarterback Luke Del Rio threw a touchdown to a wide open Freddie Swain thanks to Kentucky’s defense only having 10 men on the field. The 11th player on Kentucky’s defense can be seen running off the field on the bottom right here:
Kentucky forgot to cover the receiver who caught Florida’s game-winning touchdown
Wildcats fans watched a heartbreaker in Lexington.
The score gave the Gators a 28-27 lead. Kentucky did get the ball back with less than a minute left, and they were able to get into field goal range, but a holding call negated a play that would have set up an easy game-winning field goal.
The Cats had to try for a 57-yarder instead and didn’t make it.
The Wildcats took seemingly a comfortable 13-point lead with a 50-yard field goal with 11:33 to go, but Florida countered with a touchdown run from Brandon Powell, and got the ball back quick after forcing Kentucky to punt with less than two minutes running off the clock.
In the second half, Florida head coach Jim McElwain decided to put Del Rio in for starting quarterback Feleipe Franks, a decision that seemed a bit questionable at first, but Del Rio was successfully able to lead two big drives that ended up winning the game. It’ll be interesting to see what Florida’s quarterback situation will be moving forward.
The NCAA’s longest active winning streak of 31 straight victories Florida has over Kentucky continues, and it was in heartbreaking fashion for Wildcat fans.
To give you a little refresher on just how long ago 1986 was, here are some things that were happening the last time the Wildcats beat the Gators:
New Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley was 3 years old. In 2017, Riley replaced Bob Stoops, the brother of UK coach Mark.
The Berlin Wall still stood. Ronald Reagan was serving his second term as president, and the wall didn’t come down until 1989.
Top Gun was the highest-grossing movie. Three decades later, there’s talk of a sequel.
Oprah Winfrey’s first television show aired. She’s been one of America’s most famous people for most of the time since.
Not only is this a heartbreaking loss for Kentucky fans, but also one for Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops — Saturday night would have easily been the biggest victory in his Wildcat head coaching tenure.
For Florida, this is now the second consecutive come-from-behind victory, having beaten Tennessee on a Hail Mary last week. The Gators now have control of their SEC East destiny, with games against Vanderbilt, Georgia, Missouri, and South Carolina remaining.
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