Kentucky uses complementary football, Middle Eight blitz to steamroll Florida

The last time the Big Blue Nation left Kroger Field happy after an SEC gasme was following a 33-14 win over Florida when the Cats jumped out to a 23-0 lead before putting the game on cruise control. All UK needed to do was to play the Gators again at home to produce a big home win.

In an outright victory as a three-point home dog, Kentucky jumped out to a 31-7 lead highlighted by a 21-0 Middle Eight blitz that would only balloon to a 38-7 lead before the clock hit triple-digits. This was the program’s largest margin of victory in an SEC game since Tim Couch was slinging the ball around the yard for head coach Hal Mumme and offensive coordinator Mike Leach in 1998. UK ended a long losing streak with authority.

Kentucky (4-5, 2-5) won its second consecutive conference game by using complementary football and a huge Middle Eight to bury the Gators in front of 56,338 fans in the final SEC home game of the season.

Kentucky finds balance on offense

Cutter Boley is playing very good football right. That is especially true at Kroger Field. The redshirt freshman finished the game by completing 18-of-23 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns on 7.3 yards per attempt. Boley also chipped in 11 non-sack rushing yards while connecting on two 25-plus yard completions.

Boley produced a rock-solid performance with some nice highs. Kentucky is getting good quarterback play right now, but the offense scored 38 points in 10 possessions because of balance. The Cats found the run game against the Gators.

Seth McGowan and Dante Dowdell combined to rush 198 yards on 29 carries with a 69 percent rushing success rate in the win. Kentucky finished the game with 237 non-sack rushing yards on 5.5 yards per rush. That looked more like the UK offense the Big Blue Nation has grown accustomed to under Mark Stoops. Dowdell provided the explanation point with his 65-yard sprint up the gut on a gap scheme run in the fourth quarter.

.@DanteDowdell went 65-yards to the CRIB 🏠

📺 – SEC Network pic.twitter.com/6GC6MN2GTJ

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) November 9, 2025

Kentucky finished the game with 403 yards on 66 snaps (6.1 yards per play) with a 59 percent success rate. The Cats entered Florida territory on every drive but the final possession, and scored 24 points on its first four possessions of the game before scoring 14 points on its first two possessions of the second half.

Remember that long two offensive touchdowns or less streak? Well, it’s officially a thing of the past. Kentucky has now scored five offensive touchdowns in consecutive SEC games. In Saturday’s win, UK found the balance that they are always looking for. The passing game helped start the Middle Eight, and the run game officially closed it with 10 carries for 57 yards to put the Cats up 31-7.

This was UK’s most well-rounded offensive performance in multiple season.

Kentucky’s defense stuffs another SEC offense in a box

Texas had no answers for most of the night in Week 8 and needed two punt returns to score 10 of 13 points in regulation against Kentucky. Auburn scored just three points and never reached the endzone last weekend against UK. The Tigers just scored 38 points and rolled up over 500 yards of offense with the same personnel in an overtime loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon.

Things got ugly — real ugly — against Tennessee but it’s clear that Brad White and the rest of the defensive staff have figured out some answers.

Florida’s offense has had some issues all season and Kentucky made sure those issues didn’t go away on Saturday night. For the third time in four games, UK held an SEC offense under four yards per play. That has happened only four other times in the Mark Stoops era.

The Gators finished the game with seven points in 10 non-kneel possessions with only one red zone trip. Florida recorded an ugly 39.7 percent success rate, logged just one play over 20-plus yards, and only produced 115 non-sack rushing yards. This unit struggles to do anything when tailback Jadan Baugh cannot get rolling. The sophomore (17 carries, 64 yards) did not get rolling. Kentucky continues to stop the run at a high-level and Florida’s passing game could not get rolling.

The road team turned the ball over four times and sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway was benched in the second half after throwing three interceptions before halftime.

.@QuaysheedScott INT and then he took OFF 💨

📺 – SEC Network pic.twitter.com/cGrzK6Kjvz

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) November 9, 2025

The Gators had four total turnovers, and needed a first-and-10 at the Kentucky 13 to score their only touchdown of the game. UK dominated an SEC offense — again.

That was quite the Middle 8

An early interception by Ty Bryant immediately gave the Kentucky offense a short field that would lead to a field goal. That was a sign of things to come. Outside of the muffed punt by Ja’Mori Maclin, UK absolutely dominated field position. That played a huge role in this game, but the Middle 8 played the biggest role.

The Cats turned this game upside down in situational football.

— Holding a 10-7 lead, UK’s offense got the ball back at their own 41 with 9:43 left in the second quarter following a KD Daniels fumble. The Cats put together a 12-play, 59-yard drive to take a 17-7 lead with 3:32 left in the second quarter. That started the Middle Eight fireworks.

— A quick Florida three-and-out then gave UK’s offense the ball at their own 46 following a short 23-yard punt by the Gators. The Cats then went 54 yards in five plays to take a 24-7 lead with 1:12 left in the second quarter after Cutter Boley completed three consecutive passes to create a first-and-goal at the Florida 2.

— The teams then exchanged turnovers with DJ Lagway throwing two interceptions in the final minute only to see Cutter Boley lose a fumble and toss his own interception with seven seconds left. The game got off the rails in the final minute of the second quarter, but UK went to the half with a 14-0 lead in the Middle Eight.

— That Middle Eight lead was extended to 21-0 when Kentucky marched 75 yards in 13 plays and milked over seven minutes off the third quarter clock to begin the second half. Seven consecutive run plays took UK from the Florida 43 into the endzone paint to take a 31-7 lead with 7:34 left in the third quarter.

The Middle Eight has been a problem area for much of the Mark Stoops era. Kentucky flipped the script on Saturday night. UK steamrolled over Florida in this key situational window. That ultimately led to a blowout victory.

Everything — but the muffed punt — came together for Kentucky on this November Saturday night at Kroger Field. The Cats took advantage of a momentum-building opportunity. This squad might just make some real noise to close out this season.