Mark Stoops isn’t one for moral victories.But even Stoops, for all his reminders that his tenure will ultimately be judged by wins, had to admit that what he saw from his Kentucky team in a loss at Florida was something special.” ‘We weren’t perfect, but it was a perfect effort tonight,’ ” Stoops said, borrowing a quote from “When The Game Stands Tall,” the movie the team watched together on Friday night. “So I really appreciate our players, their commitment to the preparation. They left it all on the field.”As perfect as the effort was, it came up just short in a 36-30 triple-overtime loss in Gainesville, Fla. In a game that featured more twists and turns than an Austin MacGinnis game-tying field goal, UK (2-1, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) came unimaginably close to finally putting an end to a losing streak to Florida (3-0, 1-0 SEC) that now stands at 28 games.The outcome was in doubt until Matt Jones ran in the game-winning one-yard touchdown in the third overtime, with both the Wildcats and Gators appearing on the verge of sealing victory on multiple occasions. Seemingly every series of a second half that followed a bruising first half that ended with the score tied 3-3, there was a game-turning play. Disappointed to have fallen short, the Cats surely spent the flight home to Lexington ruing all the moments that could have made the difference. The most noteworthy was the play that Florida used to force a second overtime period.With UK leading 27-20, Jason Hatcher tackled Kelvin Taylor for a four-yard loss to set up a fourth and 7 from the Wildcat nine. Receiving the snap just in time to avoid a delay of game, Jeff Driskel fired a pass over the head of Ashely Lowery to Demarcus Robinson — the only Gator UK never had an answer for — for a game-tying touchdown.But for all the plays not made that could have turned the outcome, there were just as many moments that showed exactly how far Kentucky football has come under Stoops’ watch.”I am very proud of them, yes,” Stoops said. “Very much, because it’s not easy. That’s a good football team. I was just very proud of the way we kept responding and facing adversity and coming back and making plays and having a great opportunity to win the game.”It started on defense, where UK held its opponent without a first-half touchdown for the third consecutive game to start the 2014 season. The Gators moved the ball, but Za’Darius Smith and the Cats’ physical front seven never wilted as the offense found its feet against a speedy and talented Florida group. Florida only managed a field goal, which UK answered with a gutsy two-minute drill to tie it headed to the locker room.When the two teams retook the field, it was a whole new ballgame.”We were trying a lot of things, and we were all scratching and clawing for the best opportunity to stop each other,” Stoops said. “The first half it was defense and then all of the sudden there, third and fourth quarter, offenses start moving the ball.”After Patrick Towles threw an interception on the first possession of the second half and Florida quickly capitalized with a touchdown, the sophomore responded in his first road start. He guided back-to-back touchdown drives in the third quarter, tossing a pair of long scoring passes to freshman Garrett Johnson, who had a coming-out party in his return to his home state with six catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Johnson, however, was but one of six Stoops recruits to touch the ball on offense against Florida. Four more played significant action on the offensive line and eight made tackles on defense.”That’s why we recruited them,” offensive coordinator Neal Brown said. “They’re not scared of this moment. It got loud in there tonight. It got loud. This was a big-time environment. They never blinked and I’m not surprised one bit. I’m zero surprised. That’s why we recruited them. That’s why a lot of people in the country recruited them.”Towles would later lead the drive that sent the game to overtime. It was a 12-play, 43-yard drive that chewed up 5:10 and eventually set up a 51-yard Austin MacGinnis field goal that first looked good, then appeared to curve outside the goalposts and finally glanced off the upright and through.”I take my hat off to him,” Stoops said of MacGinnis, who made 3-of-4 field goals. “He was clutch. He made some very difficult kicks. I’m proud of him.”Towles seemed poised to turn around and lead the game-winning drive in regulation after the defense came up with a clutch stop. Pinned deep with a third and 16 on his own one-yard line following a booming punt and an intentional grounding call, Towles calmly dropped back into the end zone and delivered a strike for a first down to Johnson down the middle. Two plays later, he did the same, but the pass glanced off the hands of Ryan Timmons into the waiting arms of Keanu Neal for Towles’ third interception.”I can’t put all the interceptions on him,” Stoops said. “The one late, down the sideline on third down, that was as good as punt. Threw it up and gave our guy an opportunity to make a play. We had to resort to that a little bit, where we wanted our big wideouts to try to go up and make a play.”More often than not, those big receivers came up with plays. All told, Towles completed 24-of-45 passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns to go with 22 rushing yards.”In here, in this atmosphere. I thought he did a great job keeping plays alive, not taking sacks,” Brown said. “I thought he did a really good job running the football when we asked him to do that. I was extremely proud of how he played and it was a big step in his maturation process.”The third of Towles touchdowns was the play of the day for UK and nearly the game winner. On the first play of overtime, Towles threw in the flat to Stanley “Boom” Williams. The true freshman probed for space, found none and committed what would be a cardinal sin for almost any player in the country, attempting to reverse the field on Florida’s defense. For a player of Williams’ ability, it proved to be a 25-yard touchdown and the running back’s introduction to the SEC.”Boom’s play in the first overtime, that was a terrific individual effort by him to get in the end zone,” Stoops said.Had UK managed a stop on that fateful fourth down, Williams’ play would have been the signature moment in the signature win of Stoops’ tenure in Lexington. Instead, it’s the first loss of 2014, encouraging as certain aspects of it may be.”Of course we’ve made progress, but obviously not enough progress or else we would have won that game,” Towles said. “Like I said, losing sucks. It’s awful. I hate it. It’s not something that’s going to become a habit around here. We’ll watch it tomorrow, we’ll get better and we’ll be ready to go in two weeks.”Following a bye, UK will return to action in Commonwealth Stadium. In that game against Vanderbilt, the Cats will look to take what they gained from a loss and turn it into what they’re really after: a win.”We’re never, ever gonna be happy with moral victories,” Stoops said. “But if we lay it on the line like that and prepare like that and go to play like that, then we’ll grow up and we’ll have more opportunities to win. And when we get in those opportunities, you got to learn from this and you got to make plays.”All quotes via Kyle Tucker, Louisville Courier-Journal