UF coach Urban Meyer is a big fan of telling his players they have a 90 percent chance of winning when they block a punt. He hasn't given them odds for blocking two punts and a field goal yet, but cornerback Joe Haden seems to have figured it out.
"I guess what happens is you win 63 to something," he said.
The No. 5 Gators did just that Saturday against Kentucky, turning three blocked kicks into three touchdowns in the first half of their 63-5 thrashing of the Wildcats.
Kentucky came into the game hoping that its defense - the top unit in the Southeastern Conference in terms of points per game - could slow down UF's offense, but there wasn't much the Wildcats could do after falling into an early hole.
"The mental breakdowns after having two punts blocked just kind of cascaded on us," Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said. "It was just a disaster. It's hard to get back on track after that, and I did a poor job of getting us back on track."
Any momentum Kentucky gathered from stopping UF on its first drive quickly evaporated as freshman defensive end William Green burst into the Wildcats' backfield and smothered a punt, which running back Chris Rainey recovered at the 3-yard line.
One play later, quarterback Tim Tebow tacked another rushing score onto his resume, and the Gators had a 7-0 lead.
Green's play was easy after Kentucky's last blocker slid to cover speedster Jeff Demps, a strategy the Wildcats abandoned on their next punt attempt less than two minutes later. This time Demps wasn't blocked, and he got a hand on punter Tim Masthay's attempt.
"Obviously, we missed a blocking assignment on both of them," Brooks said. "They probably had a pretty good plan, but our rules are fairly simple. We turned somebody loose. You have to give them credit for a good job and give us an 'F' for execution."
Receiver Deonte Thompson snatched the ball after Demps' block and rolled out of bounds at the 1-yard line, and Brandon James capitalized on the next play with another touchdown run.
UF's first two scoring drives totaled two plays, 4 yards and eight seconds to all but end the contest, as the Gators led 14-0 less than six minutes in.
"That's about as good as you can get for the start of a game," said Meyer, who is 12-0 at UF when blocking a punt. "That's the first thing I do on Sundays. I come in, do a TV show and start watching (punts), and you always try to get some indicators."
Haden got in on the block party early in the second quarter.
The Wildcats, trailing 28-0, were poised to score after intercepting Tebow in UF territory, but their touchdown bid fell short when Haden broke up a third-down pass near the goal line to force a 32-yard field goal attempt.
Haden breezed around the edge, reached up with one hand and deflected the kick, which safety Major Wright caught and returned to the UF 40.
Three plays later, the Gators had another touchdown and a 35-0 advantage.
"He didn't really block me, so it was kind of easy," Haden said.
Haden's play gave UF three blocked kicks on the day, enough to tie the school record set by the 2006 squad against South Carolina.
