5 Things to Watch: Kentucky-Florida

Kentucky (2-0) opens SEC play tomorrow at Florida (1-0), where the Wildcats will try to break a 16-game league losing streak and a 27-game skid against the Gators. It's a tall order for a young team, but here are five things to watch that will impact the outcome:

1. Bud Dupree, Za'Darius Smith vs. Florida's retooled O-line. The Gators will be without starting left tackle D.J. Humphries, a former five-star recruit who chipped a bone in his ankle. Senior right tackle Chaz Green, who has 20 career starts, will slide to the left side. He's coming back from a shoulder injury that cost him all of 2013 but should be a solid fill-in for Humphries. The bigger concern comes in Green's replacement on the right side: freshman Rod Johnson, who will make his first career start. Florida's interior is inexperienced as well, with 13 career starts combined between the top three guards.

Fending off Dupree and Smith, one of the SEC's top pairs of pass rushers, will be quite a headache for offensive line coach Mike Summers, a former UK assistant. "It's a concern," Gators coordinator Kurt Roper said. "The first thing you do when you turn on film is: 'Can they rush the passer?' And these guys can. We've got to hold up, plain and simple. We've got to find a way to win those battles as much as we possibly can and make some plays, but I think that's obviously something that's going to be a challenge all night for our guys."

2. Can the Cats count on their kicker? Redshirt freshman Austin MacGinnis was rated a consensus top-five kicker recruit nationally and UK's coaches raved about his poise in preseason practices. But through two games, he's looked a lot like you might expect from a rookie: inconsistent. He's 3 of 6 on field goals, with quite an interesting hit/miss chart: wide right from 28 yards, wide left from 35, wide right from 41 … but right down the middle and just long enough on a school-record tying 53-yarder last week against Ohio.

"One of them he rushed, and the other one he felt like he hit good (but) he needs to take into consideration the wind," head coach Mark Stoops said of MacGinnis' two misses against the Bobcats. "He looks at what he's doing, just technically, and studies that. He's worked on it to improve. I obviously had a lot of faith in him when I (sent) him out there to kick a 53-yarder. I think it was important. He heard me ask (special teams coach Craig Naivar) right in front of him, 'Can he make this?' And he said yeah, so let's go do it. I hope that helps him, his confidence. I think it will."

3. Will the "WildKemp" take off? Before he made headlines for his "rubbing it in their faces" trash talk about Florida, sophomore tailback Jojo Kemp excited fans with a few direct snaps in as a "Wildcat" quarterback last week against Ohio. He ran for 16 yards on one of those plays. Former UK star Randall Cobb was so successful on direct snaps that fans dubbed it the "WildCobb." Kemp said that package is "real fun" for him and he's "adding my own sauce to it," although he does not have a personalized nickname for it yet. "But I'll be working on it," he said. "Thanks for telling me." He's open to "WildKemp."

Offensive coordinator Neal Brown said Kemp isn't the only non-QB who could take direct snaps. "We've got a few different packages. We try to use one each week. We try to make them different so guys can't game plan. Jojo does a nice job. He had a good feel for it last year when we put him back there. I think two of his better runs were from that Wildcat. It's difficult to game plan. They're hard to fit defensively. So that's something we'll continue to do."

4. Sunshine State homecoming for several Cats. Kemp is one of 11 players in Kentucky's two-deep who are from Florida. The others: offensive linemen Nick Haynes, Ramsey Meyers and Jordan Swindle, wide receivers Javess Blue and Garrett Johnson, defensive tackles Mike Douglas and Regie Meant, and defensive backs Blake McClain, Kendall Randolph and Nate Willis. Both Swindle's parents went to UF "so I was automatically a Gator fan," he said, "but now I'm … not." Kemp will have "over 50" folks from home at the game, including his 6-year-old sister who has never been to a game.

Randolph got "15 to 20" ticket requests. "A lot of people that are going to be tuned in," he said. "Some old coaches, got a lot of friends playing for the other side, so it's going to be pretty cool." Douglas has "about 14" supporters coming to the game. "It's just good I get to see them," he said. "I don't usually go back home to Florida much, so it's just a nice little reunion after the game." McClain will have "20-something" in the stands. "I had to get a lot of extra tickets," he said. "It's fun playing back at home in front of all your friends and family."

5. Wading into The Swamp for the first time. Through two games, 25 players have made their UK debut: nine true freshmen, 10 redshirt freshmen, one sophomore and five transfers. None of them have played in road game, and their first will come at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in front of nearly 90,000 hostile fans. Quarterback Patrick Towles, who is making his first start away from home, said former Cats QB Jared Lorenzen "used to say he'd get sick – get sea sick – when they started swaying back and forth, puking on the sideline. I don't know if that's what he ate before the game."

Stoops has been to The Swamp plenty as a former Miami assistant and Florida State coordinator. "It will be a real challenge," he said. "I think it's a great venue, obviously one of the best venues in college football. You'll probably hear me say that every road game in the SEC, but it's a great place, a great atmosphere. Very passionate fan base. It will be a real challenge. It's certainly not easy. It will be really good for us to see where we're at."

* For instant updates on the Wildcats, follow me on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ. Email me at ktucker@courier-journal.com.