The Opening Kickoff: Gators at Kentucky — Focused On Finishing Strong
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Gators interim head coach Billy Gonzales has been around the block a time or two.
He’s been part of two national championship teams at UF, experienced a losing season as co-offensive coordinator at Illinois, and helped former Gators head coach Dan Mullen take Mississippi State all the way to No. 1 in the country.
Gonzales’ latest challenge on his coaching journey is to lead Florida through a midseason transition after the firing of Billy Napier. In his first game as a head coach, the Gators put up a fight against fifth-ranked Georgia last week in Jacksonville before losing 24-20. Next up, trying to win at Kentucky.
The Gators (3-5, 2-3 in the Southeastern Conference) face the Wildcats (3-5, 1-5) at Kroger Field on Saturday night in a matchup between two programs attempting to become bowl eligible and salvage what is left of disappointing seasons.
Play for one another. pic.twitter.com/pppGJI94kB
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) November 7, 2025
Gonzales made clear where his priorities are this week.
“I think for us as a coaching staff, and I think the players, if you’re a competitor, no matter who you’re playing, you’re going to go out and go play,” Gonzales said. “If you’re playing one-on-one pickup basketball game against somebody at the rec center, your goal is to win no matter what you’re doing. So for us, the challenge is to continue to keep pushing the guys, continue to put them in the best possible position.”
The Gators have lost their last two games at Kentucky and have yet to win a road game this season.
Can the Gators find a way to finish the job on Saturday?
Gonzales is hopeful. He sees a team that remains invested, and he is doing his best to make sure that does not change.
A win would certainly help.
“They’ve done a really good job,” Gonzales said. “These guys want to win.”
In our latest edition of The Opening Kickoff, here is a closer look at the Florida-Kentucky game:
THREE STORYLINES
- The Gators have four regular-season games remaining and need to win three of them to become bowl eligible. After facing the Wildcats, Florida visits Ole Miss and then closes the regular season with home games against Tennessee and Florida State.
- Veteran UF assistant Billy Gonzales lost his first game as interim coach after replacing Billy Napier. Gonzales is in his third stint at Florida and nearly pulled off an upset of No. 5 Georgia in his debut as a head coach. Florida is a four-point favorite on Saturday night.
- Gators quarterback DJ Lagway, in his first career SEC start, threw for 259 yards and rushed for 46 in a 48-20 victory over the Wildcats last season at The Swamp. Lagway has been inconsistent as a sophomore coming off an injury-plagued offseason. Can he turn in another big performance in his first visit to Kentucky?
THREE PLAYERS TO WATCH
- Gators running back Jadan Baugh has a team-high 683 yards rushing and is averaging 85.4 yards per game. Baugh needs to average 79.3 yards per game over the final four regular-season games to become UF’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Kelvin Taylor (1,035 yards in 2015).
- Kentucky redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley has sparked the Wildcats of late. In his last three games (vs. Texas, vs. Tennessee and at Auburn), Boley has completed 75 of 103 for 749 yards and six touchdowns. A Kentucky native, Boley made his collegiate debut in mop-up duty last season at The Swamp and finished 0-for-6 with an interception.
- The Gators are hopeful that true freshman receiver Vernell Brown III can return to form after leaving the Mississippi State win three weeks ago with an upper-body injury. Brown missed the loss to Georgia, and with fellow receivers Dallas Wilson and Eugene Wilson III out against Kentucky, the more Brown can do, the better for the Gators.
FIVE QUESTIONS WITH … GATORS RB KD DANIELS
A sophomore from West Point, Miss., Daniels scored his first career touchdown in last season’s Gasparilla Bowl win over Tulane …
Q: What’s it been like to get more playing time recently?
A: Obviously, for everybody, they want to have a chance to play. We have some guys banged out. With that comes opportunities, and I just had to stay ready and wait until my number’s called.
Q: How patient did you have to be waiting for your turn?
A: First and foremost, I’m a man of God. So, even through those times of thinking that I’m ready, maybe I’m going through that season to be able to handle success or that time that’s for me playing. There’s a lot of talent in our room. It just gave me time to look back on the things that I needed to work on and just help me in the long run.”
Q: What have you learned playing behind guys like Montrell Johnson Jr., Jadan Baugh and Ja’Kobi Jackson?
A: Just watching them. Most of the time, they played a different position when they were in high school, and they played running back. So, the main things like footwork and pass pro and different things. We all just work with each other.
Q: What do you remember from that TD in the bowl game where you picked up the ball on the ground and ran toward the end zone?
A: Me looking at DJ. Obviously, that was a quarterback sneak or whatever, I was not thinking the ball was just going to squirt out to me, so I just feel like when that happened, my instincts just kicked in, and it was just wildcat all over again, and I just got hold of the ball.
Q: What is the mood of the team as you guys hit the road again?
A: I feel like it starts with practice each day — always competing with each other and always just, having fun while doing it because it can be a long season, and I feel like going on the road we have to create our own energy to be able to perform to our ability that we need to.
THREE DIGITS
3 — Wins for Florida in true SEC road games since the start of the 2021 season (3 wins, 13 losses).
236 — Yards passing needed by Gators quarterback DJ Lagway to match last season’s total. Lagway threw for 1,915 yards as a freshman.
10 — Consecutive home SEC losses for Kentucky. The Wildcats’ last home win over an SEC opponent was a 33-14 victory over UF in 2023.
INJURY REPORT
FLORIDA — OUT: LB Grayson Howard (undisclosed), ILB Ty Jackson (undisclosed), WR Taylor Spierto (undisclosed), WR Eugene Wilson III (undisclosed), WR Dallas Wilson (foot), DB Javion Toombs (undisclosed), DB Micheal Caraway Jr. (undisclosed), RB Ja’Kobi Jackson (lower body), DB Aaron Gates (shoulder, out for season), CB Dijon Johnson (knee, out for season), DL Caleb Banks (foot), DL LJ McCray (foot), RB Treyaun Webb (hamstring). PROBABLE: WR Vernell Brown III (upper body), WR Aidan Mizell (lower body). DOUBTFUL: WR Kahleil Jackson (knee, has not played), OL Fletcher Westphal (wrist, has not played). KENTUCKY — OUT: WR Troy Stellato, RB Jamarion Wilcox, DB Terhyon Nichols, DB Jaden Smith, ILB Devin Smith,
OL Aba Selm, WR David Washington Jr., TE Elijah Brown. PROBABLE: DB DJ Waller Jr., DL Tavion Gadson.
NEWS, NOTES, NUGGETS
- The Gators and Wildcats are meeting for the 76th time. Florida leads the all-time series 54-21.
- Florida is 22-12 all-time at Kentucky but has lost two consecutive at Kroger Field since a 29-21 win in 2019.
- The Gators won 31 consecutive games in the rivalry from 1987 to 2017. The streak ended when the Wildcats defeated the Gators 27-16 at The Swamp on Sept. 8, 2018.
- Mark Stoops is the winningest coach in Kentucky history, with a 70-78 record in his 13th season. He is the longest-tenured coach in the SEC and has a 4-3 record in his last seven games against the Gators. However, Florida is 8-4 overall against Stoops, who lost his first five games to the Gators.
- Florida is 0-4 away from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium this season, losing at LSU, at Miami, at Texas A&M and to Georgia in Jacksonville.
- Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is 9-6 in the first 15 starts of his career. Lagway, who led the Gators to six wins in seven starts as a freshman, has started all eight games this season.
- The UF defense, after averaging 11.0 missed tackles per game last season according to Pro Football Focus, has reduced that number to 7.1 this season, which ranks the ninth-best tackle grade among FBS teams.
- Gators receiver Vernell Brown III ranks second among FBS freshmen in catches (32), receiving yards (451) and yards per game (64.1).
- Florida went 2-for-11 on third down in the loss to Georgia, a trend that has plagued the Gators all season. Florida is last in the SEC with a 30.7% third-down conversion rate.
- Former Gators offensive linemen Joshua Braun and Jalen Farmer start for the Wildcats. Braun is Kentucky’s starting left guard, and Farmer starts at right guard.
FLASHBACK FILE
The Florida-Kentucky game is later in the season than usual. So is Florida’s home game against Tennessee on Nov. 23. The moves added a twist to the Gators’ traditional schedule in 2025 and created a rare occurrence for UF over the past three decades: a late-season November game in Lexington.
Starting in 1992, when the SEC added South Carolina and Arkansas, Kentucky became one of the first games on UF’s schedule. In fact, the Gators opened the 1992 season at home with a 35-19 victory over the Wildcats. Saturday’s game is Florida’s first November trip to the Bluegrass State since former Gators coach Steve Spurrier‘s first season (1990). The Gators rolled to a 47-15 victory, improving to 9-1. A closer look via “The Steve Spurrier Show,” hosted by Mick Hubert:
THEY SAID IT
- “It’s no different. We’re still communicating on a daily basis, sending texts and sending email, and getting a chance to talk to them on the phone. They’re still Florida Gators. We’re still Florida Gator coaches, and we’re still recruiting our student-athletes to come to this university. It’s a great opportunity. Again, this is the University of Florida. We want to go out and get these players to come here, and they understand that part. This is a special place.” — Florida interim head coach Billy Gonzales on recruiting during a midseason transition
- “An injury-plagued offseason led to lost practice time and a loss of confidence. Lagway didn’t improve his fundamentals or ability to read defenses. A sophomore slump has turned a breakout 2024 season into a distant memory and UF’s closing stretch into an audition.” — Orlando Sentinel UF beat writer Edgar Thompson on Gators quarterback DJ Lagway
- “I expect Kentucky to come out and play quite well. There was such a cloud hanging over the program going into last week’s game, given that it had been more than a year since they won any SEC game. So, to finally get that monkey off their back, I think that was certainly a weight off not just the shoulders of the players but of Mark Stoops and all the scrutiny he’s under about maybe what his future might be if things just spiral from here.” — Ryan Black of the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal via the Gainesville Sun
THEY WROTE IT
WHY GATORS WILL WIN
They get the running game going early (sound familiar?), limit Kentucky’s explosive plays, and quarterback DJ Lagway stays away from turnovers. Those three are imperative, but so is execution at key moments. The Gators could have beaten Georgia and others if they had made plays when they had a chance.
WHY KENTUCKY WILL WIN
The Wildcats take the field with renewed confidence after winning at Auburn last week for their first SEC victory of the season. The loss cost Auburn’s coach, Hugh Freeze, his job and provided a much-needed jolt to Kentucky. If the Wildcats play with the same intensity on defense (seven sacks, 12 tackles-for-loss) as they did at Auburn, they should put away the Gators.
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