Kentucky football: 4 things Wildcats must do offensively to beat Florida

Rolling into Week No. 2 and there is no change in the thought process that Kentucky football doesn’t have to beat Florida to contend for the Southeastern Conference East. Still, the opportunity is there to make a statement and these are the four things the Wildcats must do offensively to win in the Swamp.

Historically the Wildcats haven’t had a lot of success against the Gators, especially in Gainsville.

Kentucky has not beaten Florida in back-to-back seasons since 1976-77 and not being able to compete in the trenches, play balanced Kentucky football, or give Will Levis time in the pocket will mean that doing it in 2021 and 2022 won’t happen.

But I’m not saying they won’t do all of those things, and in fact, I am confident they can.

Will it be easy? No, because no game in the SEC is easy no matter what team it is.

Can Kentucky win? Yes

Will they win? Yes

This really is a toss-up game with the current spread on FanDuel listed at 5.5 points. It’s a game of reverse strengths of what we have seen in years past with Kentucky this season having the edge at receiver and Florida having the advantage in the trenches.

At least here are the offensive things the Wildcats must do to succeed in order to end up on the winning side.

No. 1 Big Blue Wall must show significant improvement

Kentucky’s keys to winning don’t rest solely on one area but to get the offense going and allow Levis time to operate and make things happen it starts with the offensive line where the Big Blue Wall has to play more cohesive.

Against Miami, it was a whole new wall with players in different starting spots so it was expected they would have some issues. The talent and depth are there and they just need some live game experience for the glue to dry and make it solid.

They have veterans that know what it takes and the history of the Big Blue Wall and what it means to Kentucky’s offense as center Eli Cox pointed out after the Miami win. Cox started at right guard and moved over to center this season.

"“It’s all fixable. We have a young group that doesn’t have as much experience as we’re used to seeing in the past. I mean, we had to replace three guys lost to the NFL so you can’t rebuild the wall overnight. It’s going to take some time.”"

After week one they were some adjustments including moving Kenneth Horsey over to left tackle to give experience in protecting Levis with freshman Jager Burton between he and Cox at left guard. To the right are guard Tashawn Manning and veteran tackle Jeremy Flax.

Florida will try to break through the wall the question is can the wall hold up, even crack a bit but just not break?