Roman Harper makes bold prediction for Florida vs Kentucky
Roman Harper knows who he is picking between Florida and Kentucky this weekend. The former Alabama safety and current SEC Network analyst joined the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday, where he made a bold prediction about who will come out on top.
“Going into the season, everybody had Kentucky over Florida, and I probably did too,” Harper said. “But after one game, I’m completely off of that. Florida is gonna win this game, and I think they’re gonna win it pretty handily, too.”
Harper went on to say he thought the Wildcats looked “a little bit softer” up front on both the offensive and defensive line. That is what he ultimately believes will be the different, as he predicts Kentucky to have trouble both establishing the run on offense and stopping it on defense.
“If you wanna win this game, you’ve got to do it up front,” Harper said. “Kentucky looked a little bit softer — and I hate using that word — but they were not as physical running the football. …That is not what I’m used to seeing out of a Kentucky offensive line. Also, they lost some production on the defensive side of the ball. So I anticipate Florida really dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. With the run game at Florida of the running backs to the quarterback and defensive line.”
Harper’s faith in the Gators rushing attack is based on the performance of quarterback Anthony Richardson from this past week. In a thrilling 29-26 upset of No. 7 Utah, Richardson rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winning score with 1:25 remaining.
“I’ll also say this last thing about Florida’s quarterback Anthony Richardson: I was not all in on him before,” Harper admitted. “I wanted to see more of him and I still need to see more of him in the pass game, but this kid is not normal.
“Any time the option is available to either hand it off to the running back or the quarterback pull it, most times you try and stop the running back. If I’m defending Florida, I want you to give it to the running back every time. I do not wanna see Anthony Richardson running up and down the sidelines. The running back gets like five yards. Anthony Richardson’s getting like 36 yards in a heartbeat. Everybody else feeds off that. It’s big energy off of that when he has big plays like that.”
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops responds to Roman Harper’s prediction
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops is now aware of Roman Harper’s comments about his team ahead of a marquee matchup with Florida on Saturday. After Harper said Wednesday on the Paul Finebaum Show that he expects the Gators to “win it pretty handily,” Stoops got his chance to respond.
Stoops also joined Finebaum on Wednesday, where he learned of Harper’s prediction and subsequently offered his thoughts.
“Your people were so kind to play it as I was waiting for you to jump back on after the commercial break,” the Wildcats coach said. “That’s the first I heard of it. I’m not worried about that. I understand that comes with it. Heck, I wasn’t real pleased with certain facets of the game this past Saturday. But I certainly don’t need anybody to motivate us to get prepared for Florida.”
The Gators and Wildcats are set to kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday in Gainesville.