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It seemed quite fitting that the first game of Florida Gators coach Dan Mullen against Kentucky on Saturday night arrived the night the Gators celebrated the 25th anniversary of their 1993 team – a team that beat Alabama Bowl and, yes, have shown that beating Kentucky is part of the "Gator standard" of which Mullen speaks.
Mullen's team failed its first "standardized" major test on Saturday when the Wildcats – for the first time since the Reagan administration – defeated the Gators and ended a series of futiles that had lasted for more than three decades.
31 and done!
Kentucky 27, Florida 16.
It was bad like that?
So bad that the reserve bearer Adarius Lemons tweeted from the post-game locker room that he was leaving the team.
That's what happens when you lose in Kentucky.
It's official: the last vestige of Gator's domination has now disappeared. After the expected euphoria created by Mullen's first victory against Charleston Southern last week (53-6), Gator Nation came back to reality when the Wildcats defeated Florida's defense at 303 yards and Feleipe's quarterback Franks. nervous and inaccurate.
Saturday night, it was clear that the reconstruction of the Gator standard was going to be a major renovation project. Let 's not forget that Mullen took over a team from four to seven years ago last year. It was illusory to think that he was going to enter and immediately transform a weak and flexible program into a championship contender. After the match, you could say that Mullen was extremely concerned about how his team had been manhandled by Kentucky.
"We have to learn to practice every day," Mullen said of his team's lack of rigor. "I think our guys think the practices are supposed to be guided tours. They must learn to practice properly. It's a state of mind … It's a state of mind that takes time. And I am not a very patient person.
On this night, there would be no miracles like in 1993 – the unofficial year of the Gator standard. Steve Spurrier's Gators threw seven interceptions that night in Lexington, but still beat Kentucky on Danny Wuerffel's legendary 28-yard pass to Chris Doering in the final dramatic seconds.
The Voice of Gator Radio Mick Hubert's call to the play – ending with him doing nonsense and shouting into the microphone, "MAKE A BILLET! MAKE A TOUCH! OH MY, DOERING & # 39; S GOT AT TOUCHDOWN !!! "– is the most famous call in the history of UF.
It's inexplicable to see how Doering opened up in the final zone; just as it was inexplicable last year when Kentucky led by 13 in the fourth quarter and that twice, the UF receivers were discovered for the touchdowns. First and foremost, the goal of the Gator Standard has always been to beat Kentucky.
"There are some games you look at in the calendar as a player that you suppose you are going to win, and Kentucky was one of those teams when I was in Florida," he said. once said. "Once we beat them in 1993 in the last second, our confidence has increased. We knew they would not beat us after that. Unfortunately for them, they knew it too. The mental benefit for us has become huge. "
This mental advantage and this inherent confidence have lasted a generation and that is probably why the current Florida security, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, interviewed on the series earlier this week, replied casually: is 31, right? It will be 32 after Saturday. "
For obvious reasons, Mullen has tried to downplay the importance of the longest winning streak on an opponent and the fourth longest in history. Who can blame him? After all these years, which UF coach wants to be identified with the loss to Kentucky? Seven former Gators coaches had beaten the UK in the heat and they were not all great coaches. In fact, Ron Zook, Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain and Galen Hall all remained undefeated against Kentucky and would eventually get fired.
Until Saturday night, the last time Kentucky beat Florida, it was November 15, 1986, when the Wildcats won a 10-3 win over the Gators. Hard to believe how much the world has changed in 11,620 days since the beginning and end of the series.
The last time Kentucky won, the USFL had just split, the Bandits of Tampa Bay closed their doors and Spurrier was no longer working. Mullen was a freshman in high school. Two Gator assistants – Brian Johnson and Christian Robinson – were not even born yet.
At Mullen's press conference and all his speeches on the booster club circuit during the off-season, he tirelessly preached how he had accepted the challenge of restoring the Gator standard. It's a standard that started under Spurrier that day in 1993, when Doering split Kentucky high school and the Gators one way or another, and found a way to win.
This 1993 season really began the golden age of football in Florida. The Gators set the SEC record for points and yards that year and won the first of four consecutive conference titles. – something that Nick Saban himself has never accomplished.
"I think the 1993 team is neglected in terms of what it means in terms of changing the trajectory of the program," says Doering, now an analyst on the SEC network.
Clearly, the trajectory has dropped in recent years and the Gator standard has become the Gator sub-standard.
31 and Done.
The last time the Wildcats defeated the Gators in 1986, Beastie Boys' "Licensed to Ill" made its debut and became the first hip-hop album to hit number 1.
Here we are more than three decades later and the Gators are discovering what the Beasties have preached all these years.
"You have to fight
For your right
To party!"
Even when you play Kentucky.
Send me an email to [email protected]. Hit me on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show Open Mike every day from 6 to 9 am on FM 96.9 and AM 740.
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