Kentucky fans have witnessed some heartbreaking losses in their 31-year drought vs. Florida

The longest active winning streak in the nation, Florida over Kentucky, extended to 31 years on Saturday night in Lexington, and it was a heartbreaking finish. The Wildcats held a lead or were tied with Florida the entire night, until the end of the fourth quarter.

The Gators took their first lead with less than a minute left in the game on this touchdown pass from Luke Del Rio to a wide open Freddie Swain in the end zone. Even worse, Kentucky had to defend the play with just 10 defenders on the field — look at the UK player run off the field at the bottom left here:

The heartbreak doesn’t end there. Kentucky got the ball back and was driving to set up a game-winning field goal, until a holding penalty negated a huge run that would’ve set up an easy field goal.

Instead, the Wildcats had to try a 57-yarder that was no good, sealing the Florida win and making it 31 straight.

In 1993, Kentucky held a 20-17 lead with less than 10 seconds left on the clock in Lexington. But Gator quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who threw three picks that night, threw a touchdown to receiver Chris Doering with three seconds left. Florida radio announcer Mick Hubert’s “DOERING’S GOT A TOUCHDOWN!” call became an instant classic:

The touchdown sealed a 24-20 Florida win.

Then 10 years later in 2003, the 14-year-old streak looked to be in danger. It was Rich Brooks’ first season, and his team was up 21-3 at halftime. But in the fourth quarter, true freshman quarterback Chris Leak took over, throwing two touchdown passes and a 2-point conversion to go up 24-21 with a little over three minutes left in the game. The Wildcats tried a 49-yard field goal with less than a minute left, but it was no good.

The game in 2007 looked like one of Kentucky’s best shots, after a historic upset over No. 1 LSU the week prior, with the Wildcats hosting Florida in Lexington. The Wildcats went down to Tim Tebow and Florida’s offense 28-10 in the second half, but UK’s offense pulled within a score in the third quarter. A pair of Gator fourth-quarter touchdowns would seal Florida’s 45-37 victory, with Kentucky scoring a touchdown in the final seconds.

In 2014 in Gainesville, Kentucky lost, 36-30, in triple overtime amid dubious officiating. During the game’s first overtime, Florida had the ball second and tied things up on a pass from Jeff Driskel to Demarcus Robinson on fourth down. But it looked like Driskel didn’t get the ball snapped before the play clock hit zero:

The next season, the Wildcats held Florida’s offense to just 14 points the whole night, keeping them off the board entirely in the second half. But Kentucky could just score two field goals in the fourth quarter lost 14-9 to Florida then 14-9 at home in 2015.

It’s still a little hard to believe Florida pulled out that 2017 win. UK will snap this streak some day, right?