I feel that the reality of what happened Saturday night is lost on a lot of people.
Yes, the Florida football team won its seventh-consecutive game. And yes, the Gators lost starting quarterback Feleipe Franks for the season. And again, yes, Kyle Trask undoubtedly wrote himself into UF folklore with his miraculous fourth quarter comeback win over the Wildcats.
But the gloomier truth about that trip to Lexington, Kentucky, for the Gators is that they were just an untimely gust of wind away from potentially having an entirely different outcome.
Chance Poore — an unfortunate name for a kicker — was just inches wide right on his go-ahead field goal attempt late in the fourth quarter from 35 yards out. The missed kick didn’t unfold the way most potential go-ahead kicks do.
The fact that there was still time on the clock after Poore’s missed kick took away from its finality. It took away from the excitement. The Gators scoring quickly on a Josh Hammond 76-yard rushing touchdown and thus leaving the door open for the Wildcats to force overtime made the end of the game just plain weird.
Florida’s offense was extremely poor for three quarters. Trask leading two scoring drives late in the game and Hammond’s rushing score helped to mask that performance in the box score. It also covered up the fact that the Gators running game was nonexistent and would have averaged a measly two yards per carry and fallen well short of 100 yards if it weren’t for Hammond.
UF came storming back in the fourth to retake the lead. Even so, the Gators left themselves vulnerable to such a kick by their subpar play for most of the night and were largely at the mercy of Poore’s foot.
If UF lost that game and its starting quarterback, the talk around the program would have a completely different tone. But Florida escaped, still undefeated and with lofty season goals still well within reach.
I’m not trying to take anything away from the comeback. I’m just trying to put into perspective just how close that kick was and how different the dialogue around this team could have been.
It’s easy to look at the Kentucky game through blue- and orange-colored glasses.
Trask emerged a hero. The Gators emerged victorious. But that luck or divine intervention by the football powers will not be enough against the likes of Auburn, LSU and Georgia in a four-week span.
Follow Kyle Wood on Twitter @Kkylewood and contact him at kwood@alligator.org.
