By LARRY VAUGHT

Two years ago Kentucky coach Joker Phillips and UK ended losing streaks against Steve Spurrier and South Carolina. Last year the Cats ended the nation’s longest single-team losing streak to Tennessee.

Now UK has a chance to do the same at Florida Saturday. The Cats’ last win over Florida was 10-3 in 1986.
Philips said he has not mentioned the losing streak to his team.

“Why bring those things up. They hear enough outside of here. We try to prepare and play as well as we can,” Phillips said. “A lot of those guys have not been part of those (losses). We are such a young team with first and second year players. The only games they realize are the one a couple played in last year and one the true freshmen are about to play in. We do not mention it. Our approach is to stay nothing and prepare to play the best we can.”

Kentucky defensive coordinator Rick Minter said UK’s players also likely have recovered mentally from the overtime loss to Western Kentucky last week better than the coaches have.

“I think coaches drool over the past more than players. I think by midnight, probably the players are moving on. It’s what we try to encourage them to do,” Minter said. “You want them to hurt when you lose because you invest everything you have in the game, but by the same token when the sun comes up the next day, you have to put it behind you, move on and get ready for the next week.”