Two members of Florida’s coaching staff are deeply familiar with the team’s 26 straight wins over Kentucky because they spent time on the wrong side of that streak.
Offensive coordinator Brent Pease and wide receivers coach Joker Phillips will make their first trip back to Commonwealth Stadium when the No. 20 Gators visit the Wildcats on Saturday (7 p.m., ESPNU).
Phillips had the longer and more memorable run at Kentucky. He spent 23 seasons there, beginning with his time as a UK wide receiver from 1981 through ’84. After many years as an assistant, he served as the Wildcats’ head coach for three seasons before being fired in 2012.
Florida (2-1, 1-0 SEC) doesn’t allow Phillips to speak to the media, but coach Will Muschamp said it will be an emotional game for him.
“Anytime you spend as much time as we spend in the office, working hard for the university, there’s no question that’s part of it,” Muschamp said.
Phillips never beat the Gators, and his three losses as head coach came by a total of 110 points. Kentucky (1-2, 0-0), which has lost to UF by an average of 40.4 points per game over the past five years, is a 13-point underdog at home this week.
Muschamp said Phillips provided insight on Kentucky’s personnel, but the Wildcats’ scheme has changed completely under new coach Mark Stoops, formerly the defensive coordinator at Florida State.
Pease was Kentucky’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2001 and ’02 under coach Guy Morriss. The 2002 game in Gainesville still gnaws at him.
“I mean, the one year we were pretty close,” Pease said Tuesday. “We actually were ahead and, you know, didn’t get it done.”
The Wildcats were up 28-25 late in the third quarter before Rex Grossman led Florida to a 39-34 victory. That was the Gators’ 16th straight win over Kentucky.
One of Pease’s quarterbacks at UK was Jared Lorenzen, who apparently resented his coaching style. When the Gators hired Pease last year, Lorenzen tweeted, “Seriously, Brent Pease at Florida? He’s freaking crazy and was brutal at UK when I was there.”
Pease was asked about it at a booster club event a few months afterward and said he would be “trying to get to 50 points on those guys” when UF hosted the Wildcats later that year. The Gators won 38-0, extending Kentucky’s drought to 26 years.
Muschamp and his staff dismiss the streak’s significance, but Pease said the Wildcats used it as a motivational tool.
“When I was there they continued pumping into you: This is the time to do it. Let’s prepare to break the streak,” Pease said.
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