Mark Stoops responds to Roman Harper's prediction on Florida game

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops is not worried about Roman Harper’s comments about the Wildcats ahead of a marquee matchup with Florida on Saturday. After Harper said Wednesday on the Paul Finebaum Show that he expects the Gators to “win it pretty handily,” Stoops got his chance to respond.

Stoops also joined Finebaum on Wednesday, where he learned of Harper’s prediction and subsequently offered his thoughts.

“Your people were so kind to play it as I was waiting for you to jump back on after the commercial break,” the Wildcats coach said. “That’s the first I heard of it. I’m not worried about that. I understand that comes with it. Heck, I wasn’t real pleased with certain facets of the game this past Saturday. But I certainly don’t need anybody to motivate us to get prepared for Florida.”

Coming off of just its fourth 10-win season in program history, Kentucky opened up this season with a 37-13 against Miami (OH) in which quarterback Will Levis finished with 303 yards passing and three touchdowns.

The Gators, on the other hand, started the Billy Napier era Saturday with a thrilling 29-26 upset of No. 7 Utah. Quarterback Anthony Richardson rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winning score with 1:25 remaining.

The Gators and Wildcats are set to kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday in Gainesville.

Roman Harper predicts Florida to beat Kentucky ‘handily’

Roman Harper knows who he is picking between Florida and Kentucky this weekend. The former Alabama safety and current SEC Network analyst joined the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday, where he made a bold prediction about who will come out on top.

“Going into the season, everybody had Kentucky over Florida, and I probably did too,” Harper said. “But after one game, I’m completely off of that. Florida is gonna win this game, and I think they’re gonna win it pretty handily, too.”

“Florida is going win this game and I think they’re going to win it handily.”@Harp41 previews Kentucky at Florida 🔥

(via @finebaum) pic.twitter.com/3UP1IQtp48

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) September 7, 2022

Harper went on to say he thought the Wildcats looked “a little bit softer” up front on both the offensive and defensive line. That is what he ultimately believes will be the difference, as he predicts Kentucky to have trouble both establishing the run on offense and stopping it on defense.

“If you wanna win this game, you’ve got to do it up front,” Harper said. “Kentucky looked a little bit softer — and I hate using that word — but they were not as physical running the football. …That is not what I’m used to seeing out of a Kentucky offensive line. Also, they lost some production on the defensive side of the ball. So I anticipate Florida really dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. With the run game at Florida of the running backs to the quarterback and defensive line.”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.