As he sat comfortably in a collared Gators shirt, smiling at the wreath of reporters surrounding him minutes after his team demolished Kentucky 45-7 on Saturday, defensive lineman Caleb Brantley said something interesting.
“I just think a lot of guys (weren’t) hyped to play UMass,” he said.
Brantley was talking about the team from the week before — Massachusetts — the one that had lost 41 of its last 49 games, the same one the Gators struggled to put to sleep until the fourth quarter.
“You feel me?” Brantley added.
He was asked why Florida’s performance against Kentucky looked so different from its Week 1 showing, when the Gators’ play felt akin to slowly pulling an old bandage off a freshly scabbed wound.