26 years is a really, really, really long time

On3 imageby:Drew Franklin09/23/13

DrewFranklinKSR

Your University of Kentucky Wildcats football team hasn't won a game against the Florida Gators since November 15, 1986. That was 26 years, 10 months and nine days ago, the longest current win streak in an annual series in college football. Twenty-six games. Twenty. Six. Games. A lot has happened since the Wildcats last walked away victorious, way back in the 80s. Have a look:   1.) Florida scored 1,100 points to Kentucky's 435. The Gators average 42 points per game against UK during the streak. Kentucky averages a little over 16 per game. 2.) The UK basketball team won three national championships. And if Kentucky doesn't beat Florida on Saturday, next year we'll be saying the UK basketball team won four national championships. 3.) Commonwealth Stadium got a makeover. Both ends of the stadium were enclosed and suites were added to each corner after a $27.6 million renovation in 1999. The stadium received a massive audio and video upgrade in 2011 for a cool $6 million. 4.) UK hired six new head coaches. Six head football coaches have roamed the sidelines since Jerry Claiborne's Wildcats won in 1986. Mark Stoops is undefeated against Florida as a head coach. Fact. 5.) Tim Tebow was born. Tebow was born in 1987, three months before Florida's 24-17 win, the first game of the streak. Yes, it's all his fault. 6.) 31 of Urban Meyer's players were arrested. Aaron Hernandez included. 7.) UK basketball won 701 games. While the football team failed to put together a win against Florida, the basketball team won 701 games, 41 against the Gators. 8.) Joakim Noah got on our nerves. So did Matt Walsh. 9.) The internet was invented. There was no KentuckySportsRadio.com live blog during UK's last win against Florida. There was no KSR, no Twitter, no Facebook, no internet, and BTI was just learning to take his first steps. People read about the game in one of those newspaper things, I suppose. 10.) Joker Phillips discovered photoshop. comeplaywrforthejoker And the internet wishes he hadn't. 11.) Seinfield and The Simpsons debuted on television. Several popular TV shows have debuted since the streak began. Shows that seem old to us now weren't even around yet when Bill Ransdell beat the Gators. 12.) Florida basketball won two national championships. And the football team won three. 13.) Billy Donovan coached the Orlando Magic. For like an hour. 14.) There was an update on Jai Lucas and Patrick Patterson. Any update on Patterson or Lucas? 15.) Rick Minter brought a new defense to Lexington. It didn't work. Not at all. 16.) Danny Wuerffel found Chris Doering in the end zone. Kentucky was 17 seconds away from victory in 1993.  17.) Vanilla Ice recorded "Ice Ice Baby." Boston's "Amanda" was the No. 1 song in American when Kentucky last beat Florida. 18.) The Berlin Wall came down. And John Wall came up. 19.) Rick Pitino moved to Kentucky to Boston and then back to Kentucky. He did other things, too. 20.) Florida's Trey Burton scored like 500 touchdowns against UK. Burton scored six TDs, a Florida record, as a true freshman against the Wildcats in 2010. 21.) Kentucky blew an 18-point fourth quarter lead. An ill-advised throw from Jared Lorenzen let Florida back in the game with three minutes left in 2003. Florida went on to win, like always, 24-21. 22.) Shaquille O'Neal was drafted first overall in the NBA Draft. He scored 28,596 points and grabbed 13,099 rebounds during his 19-year NBA career, all while Kentucky was losing to Florida in football. 23.) Florida blocked a UK punt. And then another one. And another one. 24.) Mitch Barnhart became UK's athletic director. Barnhart, like nearly everyone else in UK athletics, was not around for Kentucky's last win against Florida. 25.) Joker Phillips uploaded another one. joker-tweet 26.) Kentucky beat Tennessee. It ended a 26-year losing streak. Time to end another one.  

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2024-03-27