Gators’ nightmare continues with blowout loss at Kentucky
After DJ Lagway threw his second of three interceptions Saturday night, there wasn’t the typical chewing out over headset from offensive coordinator above. No, he sat silently. Aimlessly.
He wasn’t the only Gator to look like his mind was elsewhere in a 38-7 loss at Kentucky. There were more than enough on a defense that allowed 233 rushing yards — the most it had given up this season — to a perennial SEC bottom-feeder that, for whatever it’s worth, was 10th in the conference in rushing.
But Lagway, amid an evening that never seemed to end, has become the poster boy of the Kafkaesque nightmare Florida is experiencing.
“It wasn’t anywhere close to what we wanted,” interim coach Billy Gonzales said after the game. “Not acceptable in any terms to take a loss the way we did.”
The Gators are a team that has spiraled from No. 15 in the preseason AP Poll to now a loss away from being bowl ineligible … with three games still to play. A team that could possibly be the worst in the SEC — a feat it hasn’t sunk in four decades. A team that benched its once Heisman-hopeful quarterback Saturday for a true freshman whose only previous playing time had come in a blowout of an FCS foe. And he, Tramell Jones Jr., looked better than Lagway, anyway, even if his efforts were moot. Florida was already trailing 24-7 when he came in to open the second half.
For anyone holding out on the dream of a postseason berth, you can make your holiday plans. Florida (3-6, 2-4 in the Southeastern Conference) won’t be busy. Barring any unforeseen drama against No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 23 Tennessee in the next two weeks the Gators will miss a bowl twice in a three-year span the first time since the 1980s. And that was because of NCAA sanctions. This Gators season can only be matched by an all-natural 0-10-1 campaign in 1979.
Since those dreary days, Kentucky (4-5, 2-5) has become the type of team Florida would schedule for a Homecoming layup. Upon Steve Spurrier’s arrival through the departure of Jim McElwain, the Gators were the elite of the now-demolished SEC East, and the Wildcats received the brunt of their force with 31 consecutive losses. But Florida has dropped four of its last five to Kentucky, and none should hurt greater than its current mid-November debacle.
Prior to upsetting Auburn 10-3 last week, Kentucky was 1-14 in its last 15 SEC contests. You’d have been hard-pressed to find a preseason SEC poll that didn’t suggest Lexington would be gearing up for basketball by the end of September. Yet the Wildcats were starting third-string quarterback Beau Allen by the fourth quarter out of fear of injuring starter Cutter Boley — in a blowout win.
How the tables have turned.
On the opposite bench rested Lagway, whose slump isn’t an outlier. His 83 yards and three interceptions Saturday only signify regression.
“That was my decision [to pull him],” Gonzales said. “We had a rough first half, and I thought it might be good for him just to gather and look at it from a coach’s point from the sideline. But we need to play better all around, not just him.”
Amid TSA shortages, the Gators’ typically reliable defense seemed to have gotten lost during its travels. Kentucky eclipsed 400 yards of offense, and while the Wildcats turned the ball over twice in the final minutes of the first half, Florida’s offense eagerly returned the favor both times.
“It’s really shocking, honestly,” linebacker Myles Graham said. “It’s really embarrassing. … I’m really blind-sided, just like everybody else is. We got to look in the mirror, and we got to do better.
“That’s completely unacceptable.”
Roughly 700 miles south, a number of concerning questions circulated through watch parties and booster email chains alike, but their premise is simple: How did we get here?
Florida ridding itself of Billy Napier after two losing seasons in three years was understandable. But even in a more hopeful loss to No. 5 Georgia, 24-20 last week, the penalty and mental issues that characterized Napier’s tenure were still clearly present. And to make matters worse, Gonzales now looks as if he’s lost the same locker room that always seemed to stave off Napier’s boot.
“I’ll take the blame for everything,” Gonzales said. “We’ve got to be better. I’ve got to be better, make sure these players continue forward.”
Somewhere in the distance, Napier’s sitting on $21 million and a bunch of schadenfreude, silently watching as Florida bottomed out.
The Gators can only wait for this season to end.
