Urban Meyer talks Kentucky

Awww.

Urban Meyer took a break from not retiring to speak to the media on his weekly teleconference, and he had a little bit to say about this weekend’s matchup with Kentucky. Here are a few notes from the Palm Beach Post.

— Meyer believes Kentucky, this week’s opponent, is “an upper-echelon SEC team.”

— Meyer’s really jacked up about next week’s Alabama game. Or not. “Oh no,” Meyer said. “No, no. Not here. If Kentucky wasn’t very good, sure I’d be concerned about (players looking ahead), but there’s no concern about that. There’s absolutely none of that right now.”

— Meyer on the Gators two-decade-plus winning streak against Kentucky: “That is mind boggling and that’s why we don’t speak of it much. What happened 20 years ago has no bearing on this Kentucky team coming in right now.”

So, apparently, the Cats have Urb’s attention. Hopefully his players are too busy getting arrested to listen to him.

Of course, to prove Meyer right, the Cats will have to perform better from the opening kick than they have in the recent past. In the last two games against the Gators, Kentucky has had nine first quarter possessions. And every…single…one of them has been a 3-and-out. That includes three blocked punts inside the Kentucky five-yard line, and has led to the Cats being down a combined 59-0 at the end of the first frame over the last two seasons. So the first step in upsetting the Gators may very well be getting a first down in the first quarter. If the Cats can manage a better start, it’ll be exactly what Joker and the crew need if something big is going to go down in Gainesville Saturday night.

Yep. Still holding out hope. Go Big Blue.