Not many coaches have talked as much trash about Kentucky as Steve Spurrier, and it has been going on for more than three decades now.

From, “They couldn’t run the ball, and you could see, they can’t pass it” after a 42-7 win over the Wildcats during his time in Florida in 1995, to his infamous “Kentucky has a heck of a punter, I know that” line he said while head coach at South Carolina.

Despite playing them annually, the reason for his hatred of the Wildcats is not quite clear as he had a record of 20-3 against Kentucky, 12-0 at Florida, and 8-3 at South Carolina. Out of college football coaching for almost a decade, Spurrier is still getting his jabs in at Kentucky.

Earlier this season, Spurrier called Kentucky’s performance in a 31-6 loss to South Carolina “embarrassing”, which to be honest, it was. As the Wildcats prepare to match up against Florida this week, he was interviewed by the Courier Journal’s Ryan Black and was not able to contain himself from slighting Kentucky and Mark Stoops again.

“Everybody says (coach Mark Stoops) has done a heck of a job there. So I guess 3-3 may be pretty good for (Kentucky), I don’t know,” Spurrier said of Kentucky this season.

“I think he’s doing a good job — not a great job, but a good job. A ‘great job,’ you’re competing for divisions, this, that, and the other. But maybe Kentucky and South Carolina and those schools, if you can win more than you lose? That’s pretty good, pretty good.”

Interestingly enough, Florida is also 3-3. That said, Spurrier did give his former (and seems to still be current) foe a compliment of sorts.

“Kentucky was not quite up to SEC standards back in that time,” Spurrier said, referring to his 12-year tenure at Florida, “but they are now. They’ve got athletes. Their athletes look as good as anybody.”

As the Wildcats travel to Gainesville to take on the Gators on Saturday, Spurrier says “it must be” a relief to be back on the road, after being informed of UK’s abysmal 2-10 record in their last twelve SEC home games.

What is Spurrier doing himself these days, outside of taking shots at Kentucky? Judging paper airplane contests…

“A comedy of errors” is what can describe Kentucky’s performance against Vanderbilt on Saturday. Despite having more offensive yards than the Commodores, the Wildcats continuously shot themselves in the foot, leaving multiple scores off the board.

Coming off a bye week, the lack of discipline was concerning. It is something that Mark Stoops wants to find a solution for as Kentucky enters the toughest stretch of their schedule. That starts with a team meeting on Monday, and he discussed that on his weekly call-in show on Monday.

“The biggest thing is messaging for the week and getting ready for that team meeting, ” Stoops said. “I thought it went very well with a lot of accountability needed to be shown and done in a lot of areas. We’ve watched all that (film) and watched it together as a team. Started from there.”

This Kentucky team has more talent than Vanderbilt and South Carolina, yet they were embarrassed by both teams due to compounded and often self-inflicted mistakes. Going into week eight, they should be past that. That starts with holding each player accountable.

“You’re grown. I don’t anticipate anybody in here being sensitive because I’m calling you out in front of the whole team,” Stoops said in his message to them. “It’s not about pointing fingers, it’s about finding a solution to why we’re making the same mistakes and getting them corrected.

“If they can’t handle that, then they can move on.”

As Kentucky travels to ‘The Swamp’ to take on Florida this weekend, we will see if this week’s meeting will push things back in the right direction.

Jamon Dumas-Johnson transferred to Kentucky from Georgia, having won two national championships with the Bulldogs. In seven weeks at Kentucky, Dumas-Johnson has already experienced more losses than he did in three seasons in Athens.

Simply put, he’s not used to losing and made that clear after the Wildcats suffered an embarrassing loss to Vanderbilt.

“We gotta make some changes,” Dumas-Johnson told the media after the game. “Not try, we gotta make some changes because I’m not used to this feeling and I don’t like this feeling.”

Having come off a historical road win over Ole Miss and a bye-week, this week’s performance was certainly a letdown. The worst part though, there is nothing to point to as to why.

“No matter what message you give to a team, you gotta go out there and execute the call,” said Dumas-Johnson. “Play as a team, but I don’t think we played our ball today. The reason why? I don’t know, but we just gotta play ball. We’ve already seen what type of ball we can play as a team. That just didn’t happen today. Why? I don’t know.”

An issue that has plagued Kentucky for a large part of Stoops’ tenure, reared its head once again, a lack of discipline. The final tally, twelve penalties for 105 yards, leaving multiple scores on the field.

“They killed the whole game,” Dumas-Johnson said when asked about the penalties. “As a whole, we just gotta limit the penalties. It kills a game like that. You have no chance when you have penalties like that, especially that last drive.”

The Kentucky linebacker, clearly frustrated, is looking to use his experience to help the team get back on the right track.

“We just got calm down. I’ve been in situations like this and came out on top multiple times. Get a quick stop, three-and-out, let the offense try to do their thing, give the offense a chance. I think that’s what we did the last two minutes, but the message is to just calm down, we’re good.”

Next week the Wildcats travel to ‘The Swamp’ to take on Florida, a place they have only won in twice in 45 seasons. Sitting at 3-3, there is a possibility that Kentucky is not bowl-eligible for the first time since 2015.