Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 26-16 win over Florida

Five things you need to know from No. 20 Kentucky’s 26-16 win over No. 12 Florida in the 2022 SEC football opener at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville:

1. UK football’s new all-time wins leader. With the victory, Mark Stoops (61-53 since 2013) officially passed Paul “Bear” Bryant (60-23-5 from 1946 through 1953) and is now the winningest coach in Kentucky Wildcats football history.

Adding 2022 to the 2018 and 2021 victories over Florida, Stoops is the first UK head man to beat the Gators as many as three times since Fran Curci beat Florida four times in the 1970s.

Stoops started his Kentucky tenure 12-26, but has gone 49-27 since.

After beginning 2-12 vs. ranked teams, Stoops has now gone 8-8 against foes ranked in the AP Top 25 since the start of the 2018 season.

2. UK defense stones Gators. The victory that made Mark Stoops the all-time UK wins leader was a vintage Stoops-era performance.

Kentucky’s defense dominated Florida. The Cats’ “D” set up one Wildcats touchdown with a Jordan Wright interception that was returned to the Florida 6-yard line and scored the game-winning TD on a Keidron Smith 65-yard interception return.

The Cats held Florida to 91 total yards in the second half.

UK’s veteran linebackers were stellar. Junior outside linebacker/rush end J.J. Weaver had a team-high nine tackles. Super-senior inside backers Jacquez Jones (seven stops) and DeAndre Square (six) controlled the middle of the field.

In his first game of the season after missing last week for undisclosed reasons, strongside linebacker Wright had six tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack to go with his interception.

UK’s cornerbacks also came up huge. Smith had a pass breakup to go with his game-winning interception return. Carrington Valentine had a crucial pass breakup on a Florida fourth-down attempt in the final quarter and finished with five tackles and three pass breakups.

A week after the play of Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson in the Gators’ 29-26 upset of Utah had some in the media comparing him to Vince Young and Cam Newton, the UK defense held Richardson to 14-of-35 passing for 148 yards and 4 rushing yards on six attempts.

3. Will Levis wins QB battle. The Kentucky quarterback was the clear victor in the marquee QB matchup with Richardson.

Levis finished 13-of-24 for 202 yards and a touchdown with one interception. Levis again showed his toughness by standing in against a fierce Florida pass rush that sacked him three times in the first half.

The UK QB got offensive help from:

▪ Running back Kavosiey Smoke, who ran for 80 yards on 14 carries;

▪ True freshman wide receiver Dane Key, who made an acrobatic, 55-yard touchdown catch to get Kentucky on the scoreboard and finished with team highs of three receptions and 83 receiving yards;

▪ Redshirt freshman wideout Chauncey Magwood, who had two catches for 47 yards;

▪ The UK tight ends, who combined to catch five passes for 74 yards.

4. UK’s favorite schedule slot. With the victory, Kentucky has now won the second game on its schedule in 23 of its past 25 football seasons.

5. Cats go back-to-back over the Gators. Kentucky’s victory Saturday night followed last season’s 20-13 UK win over UF in Lexington. This is the first time Kentucky has beaten Florida in two consecutive seasons since 1976 and 1977.

Counting Kentucky’s 2018 win in Gainesville, UK has now beaten the Gators three out of five overall and two out of the past three in “The Swamp.”

Fashion police

For its 2022 SEC opener, Kentucky wore white helmets, white jerseys with blue letters and numbers and white pants.

Since the start of the 2015 season, UK is now 6-4 in all white.