Kentucky has been down this road before with Florida.Expectations are high. Hopes of an upset are brewing. Talk of ending the streak is strong. But before UK can blink, Florida has blitzed the Cats so fast in the first quarter the last two years that the game has been over before the band has warmed up. In 2008, Florida hung 28 points on Kentucky in Gainesville, Fla., and led 42-3 at halftime. Last year was just as ugly, as the Gators chomped UK’s upset bid with 31 first-quarter points.If the Cats are looking for a key to ending the 23-game losing streak to Florida on Saturday, they need to look no further than getting off to a fast start, an imperative irony given UK’s slow start last week and last year.”You cannot come out and be not focused, not be intense, not be able to match their speed for the first quarter,” head coach Joker Phillips said. “If you do that, you could be down 14 points in a heartbeat or be down 21 points, and we’ve been there – down 28 in the first quarter.  If you don’t match the intensity, don’t match the excitement, if you allow the things that The Swamp brings to intimidate you, you could be down 28 points, no question about that.”Following Saturday’s win over Akron, some of the players suggested they’ve been playing against the tradition of Florida instead of the players. But senior defensive tackle Ricky Lumpkin isn’t agreeing with his teammates. He believes the blowouts fall on the Kentucky players. Like a prizefighter in the ring, Lumpkin said they have to withstand the first punch and not let it be a knockout blow.”We’ve played Auburn and we’ve beat them,” Lumpkin said. “We’ve played Georgia and beat them. I just think it’s us. We’re not doing the right things that it takes to win against that team. You can’t have mistakes against Florida. Florida is a good team that capitalizes on your mistakes.”And the Cats have committed the ultimate sin against the Gators, allowing two punts to get blocked in the 2008 first quarter and another one in the 2009 first quarter. Intimidation has followed and the mistakes have snowballed into a suffocating avalanche. “I feel like if we don’t have blocked punts and things like that, then we can go toe-to-toe with those guys,” senior running back Derrick Locke said. “If we go out there and have blocked punts then we will lose. It’s hard to come back like that. You give them that momentum and the game is over.”Intimidation will not be a factor, said Phillips, who chose not to reflect on the beating in The Swamp two years ago when he was asked about it Monday. Phillips said an offseason of overcoming mental toughness barriers and the attitude instilled by director of strength and conditioning Ray “Rock” Oliver has prepared the Cats for Saturday’s big game.Phillips mentioned UK’s ability to improve from eight gassers in the offseason to 26 as one of the mental hurdles the players have torn down.”Everything that we did this offseason was competing against each other, competing against someone every drill,” Phillips said. “We didn’t have a drill that we didn’t want some type of competition.”The first-year UK coach isn’t shying away from calling Saturday’s test a big game either. “This is what you come to Kentucky for,” Phillips said. “You come to play in big games.  We sign up because we want to play in SEC games.”  Despite a 3-0 start, national recognition has not followed Kentucky, the only 3-0 team in the Football Bowl Subdivision yet to receive a vote in either the Associated Top 25 or the USA Today Poll. Florida offers a chance at respect.”It’s a great opportunity for us to put a huge stamp on this program and on this football team, to show the character, show the maturity of this football team,” Phillips said. “It’s a great opportunity for us.”Florida has struggled in its three wins this season, almost looking like a shell of its national title teams of 2006 and 2008, but Phillips isn’t buying any of that.”They’re still Florida,” Phillips said.And they’re still fast; quite possibly the quickest team in college football. Running back Jeff Demps, a track star, ran the 100 meters in 9.96 seconds in the spring in winning the national championship. Even Locke, the self-proclaimed fastest man on UK’s team, conceded to Demps’ speed.”I’m smart, now,” Locke said. “I’m not going to come out here and talk senselessly. He’s one of the fastest guys in the country in the 100.”Keeping up with the speed of Florida should be more manageable for UK than it was in years past when the team had just a handful of guys who ran sub-4.5 40-yard dashes. Florida has also transitioned to a much more conventional offense post-Tim Tebow.”Every year we try to recruit guys who have speed at their position, and not only do we have speed, we have depth with our speed at the different positions,” Phillips said.Instead of just having speed at the skill positions (running back, wide receiver, etc.), UK has speed at linebacker, on the line and in the secondary. In the fastest league in the country, Kentucky is bridging the gap.”We do have a lot of speed this year,” sophomore defensive end Taylor Wyndham said. “People may look at us and think we’re a little bit smaller, but we’re more athletic and faster. I think that’s good, especially when you’re in the SEC because it’s the fastest and the best.”But keeping up and playing catch up are two different things. Kentucky hopes to avoid the latter this season.