Kentucky Using Harper's "Soft" Comment for Motivation

The Wildcats are letting Harper's words fuel them for Saturday in Gainesville

It's safe to say that Roman Harper's comments on Kentucky football have made its way back to practice in Lexington. 

On Tuesday's edition of The Paul Finebaum Show, Harper had some choice words regarding the upcoming matchup between No. 20 Kentucky and No. 12 Florida. 

“Going into the season everybody had Kentucky above Florida. I probably did too, but after one game I’m completely off of that. I’m completely off of that,” Harper said. “Florida is going to win this game, and I think they’re going to win it pretty handily too. It’s going to look dominant. I’m not trending toward a blowout, but it is in The Swamp and they do play better, they do play differently.”

Not only did the SEC Network analyst predict the Gators to win, he didn't have great things to say about the Wildcats: 

“Use me as ammo. I’m the ammo guy. If you need it, I’m feeding you right now, Kentucky Wildcats,” Harper said. “But if you want to win this game, you gotta stop Florida up front. Kentucky looked a little bit softer, I hate using the word softer, but they were not as physical up front running the football. You can’t run for 50 yards.”

The ammo was received, first by Tight Ends Coach Vince Marrow: 

Calling our guys soft lol @UKFootball will never be soft trust me on that partner.

— CoachMarrowUK (@vincemarrow) September 7, 2022

Following practice on Wednesday, many of the Wildcat defenders made it known that Harpers words made it to the locker room. 

"That's crazy ain't it? We've got it though, for sure, we're ready for it," junior outsider linebacker J.J. Weaver said. "They're talking a lot, saying 'we're not good, we're not this', so yes (practice) turned up a lot. We don't like people talking about us." 

Ole Miss transfers Keidron Smith and Jacquez Jones both pointed back to words they heard from their former head coach, Lane Kiffin:

"One thing I did learn from Lane Kiffin is never give the other team any motivation. You heard what they said...we're digesting it and we're gonna see what happens on Saturday," Smith said. 

Kiffin has infamously had a way with words, a way that doesn't usually involve any sugarcoating.

"He calls it rat poison. You got people out there that are going to talk, but you know, we gotta keep that in the back of the mind and go out there and play with a chip on our shoulder," Jones said. "That was kinda disrespectful, but everybody has their opinion, but at the same time we just gotta go out there and show them that we're not soft and it's not gonna be like that. It added more fire to me."

There's only one place to find out who's right, and that's on the gridiron. After once being favored in the preseason, the tides have since turned in favor of the Gators being victorious on Saturday. 

The Wildcats are letting Harper's words add fuel to the fire, just like he expected.

"It's kinda like a slap in the face," Jones said. "We're gonna take it personal but at the end of the day we're gonna go play Kentucky football."