UF vs. UK: Bluegrass biggie

You want to really insult Kentucky fans?

Call UK a football school.

"Now hold on heah, suh, I said, I said, we are very proud of our nice little football team but Kentucky always has been and will be a basketball school. Especially now that Tubby is gone."

Or tell 'em this one - Who are the two coaches who turned Kentucky into a football school?

Rich Brooks and Billy Donovan.

Bwaaaa!

Or just let them enjoy this week.

After being put down and stepped on for so many years, after being the butt of so many improbable comebacks, after spending so many years as an afterthought to the guys in shorts and tank tops, doesn't the Kentucky football program deserve a little love?

The school that was financially bludgeoned by Baylor for Guy Morriss, that drove Bear Bryant away, that once had a quarterback who was heavier than any of its offensive linemen, that was the poster-school for premature celebration is suddenly everybody's new favorite story.

And boy are the Wildcats getting some attention.

GameDay will be in the state of Kentucky for the first time ever ... first time for football, of course. CBS left its equipment behind from the last game at Commonwealth Stadium. See ya next week. The national media is paying attention.

And what we have on Saturday a week after the biggest win in the history of the football team is the biggest Florida-Kentucky football game ever played.

I know, the UF win in Lexington in 1984 and the UF win in Gainesville in 1991 were huge for Gator fans. But those SEC-clinching victories only mattered on one sideline.

Saturday's game is gi-normous for both teams and that doesn't happen very often.

Almost never.

Only twice in the 57 games played between the two teams have both teams been ranked at kickoff. The first was in 1950 and, no, I didn't cover that game smarty-pants. The second was in 1998 when Kentucky was barely in the rankings at 25.

Now this, Kentucky in the top 10 and Florida ranked 14th, both teams with a chance to win the SEC East, both teams with hopes of a BCS bowl game.

Florida already had enough big games on its schedule before this one swelled to date-circling proportions. Who'd have thought it? Do you think Urban Meyer recruited Tim Tebow with the selling point, "We need you to beat Kentucky?"

"You don't usually think that, but that just goes to show you how great the SEC is," Tebow said. "A team that's sometimes on the schedule isn't as tough is now number six or seven in the country."

The funny thing is, Meyer and his staff saw this coming before anybody else did.

"Last year after we played them," said wide receiver Percy Harvin, "the coaches were telling us it was going to be tough to play them this year."

And here they are.

"I had no idea (before the season) Kentucky would be a big game," said linebacker Brandon Spikes.

But in this crazy world we call college football in the craziest season anyone can remember, UF-UK has never been bigger.

They're still buzzing in Lexington about last week's win over No. 1 LSU. They're actually interested in the BCS standings. Before this week, Wildcat fans thought it stood for Basketball's Converse Sneakers.

There was a story in the Lexington-Herald Leader on Sunday about a man who quit drinking before games because he wanted to start paying attention. Just two years ago, the fans practically emptied the stadium at halftime of the Florida game to tailgate in the parking lots because the game on TV was better than the mess they were watching.

Now, they're that game on TV.

The one with Heisman implications.

Makes you shiver, eh? Who would have believed we'd be watching a Florida-Kentucky football game with two of the top five Heisman candidates on the field?

Weird.

Makes you wonder if we've all landed in some bizarro world.

Next thing you'll tell me, South Florida and Boston College could be playing for the national title.

Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or dooleyp@gvillesun.com.