Quantifying Jeff Demps’ speed is easy.

Florida running back Jeff Demps has won NCAA championships in the 60- and 100-meter dashes.

The Florida running back is in his fourth year of sprinting past opposing defenses without much of a challenge. It makes sense, because he doubles for the Gators on the track team. He’s the current NCAA champion in the 60-meter dash, running a 6.53-second time at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in March.

He also won the NCAA Division I championship in the 100-meter dash in June 2010, posting a world-class (and wind-aided) time of 9.96.

To compare, a 9.96 in the same event would have earned sixth place in the 2008 Olympics.

Quantifying Demps’ speed on the football field isn’t as easy. Qualifying it, though, is no problem for the Cats’ defense. They’ve seen him—assuming their eyes can focus quickly enough—in person three times now, and will see him for a fourth and final time Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium.

“I’ve never seen anybody that fast on a field,” senior cornerback Randall Burden said.

Junior defensive end Taylor Wyndham, senior linebacker Danny Trevathan and Burden all see that speed in different ways among their different levels of UK’s defense.

Wyndham said the defensive line may change things a bit schematically to position themselves better to stop Demps. The key, Wyndham said, is for the defensive line to make sure it has the edges covered to force Demps inside if at all possible. Not that Demps can’t make plays inside, but the 5-foot-7, 191-pounder becomes just another running back if he’s not given the outside.

Also important to the line, Wyndham said, is depth. To keep up with Demps, and Florida’s team speed in general, everybody has to go at 100-percent speed every down. Legs tire and breath shortens, Wyndham said.

Kentucky linebacker Danny Trevathan said the key to stopping Demps, who was a high school rival: "Catch him before he gets going."

“Florida always is fast. I don’t know how,” Wyndham said. “Those Florida guys always have that speed. I don’t know what it is. I’m from South Carolina and I didn’t get it. It’s always a quicker game. You have to play to your best and you have to play your fastest.”

Depth may be more limited this week, because head coach Joker Phillips announced Thursday that starting defensive end Collins Ukwu suffered a sprained knee. His status for Saturday is unknown.

Trevathan said before Demps hits the second level of the defense, it’s a linebacker’s job to read the play early. Demps’ speed is such that he doesn’t have a huge array of defense-juking moves. His best move, Trevathan said, is just running around a defender.

If Florida’s Chris Rainey, more of a power running back, is a Mustang more interested in straight-line running, Demps is a Formula One car. If there’s so much as a pebble in the road or a defender to go around, he’ll just maneuver around it without closing off the throttle.

Trevathan has quite a bit of experience lining up against Demps. The two went to high school about 30 miles away in central Florida, Trevathan in Leesburg and Demps in Winter Garden. Their high schools were rivals, Trevathan said, and they played every year.

“You have to make reads right when the play begins before it really gets going,” Trevathan said. “I’m going to try to read his body and his hips. A guy like that, he’s going to try to get around you. He’s not really going to try to shake you, he just wants to run around you.”

If Demps makes it to the secondary, Burden said the key is just staying in front of him. The secondary won’t change anything schematically, like Wyndham said the line will. If Demps makes it back to the secondary, at that point, Burden said somebody should have read the play well enough to be in a position to stay in front of him and wrapping up properly.

“The key is just staying in front of him because if you aren’t, he’ll just slip right by you and he’ll score,” Burden said. “It doesn’t matter how far away you are.”

In a league like the Southeastern Conference known for its speed, Burden, Trevathan and Wyndham all said that Demps is the fastest player they’ve seen.

“If anybody is close, it’s C.J. Spiller,” Burden said of the former Clemson running back that Kentucky saw in the 2009 Music City Bowl. “That’s the closest I’ve come to seeing somebody as fast as Jeff Demps on a field. But other than those two, I don’t t think you could possibly see anybody as fast.”

Said Wyndham: “Only person I could say is as fast would be C.J. Spiller when we played him in the bowl game two years ago. He was blazing fast. Demps is the only guy I’ve seen that reminds me of that speed. I’m glad we haven’t seen anybody else like that.”

So if the defensive line forces Demps inside, the linebackers read the plays properly and the secondary stays in front of him, they should be able to contain him, right?

Even if the Cats’ defense manages to account for Demps—which Wyndham said is much easier said than done—they still have to worry about 10 more players.

“He’s a fast guy. Oh, man. He’s quick,” Wyndham said. “But they’re all quick, that’s the thing.”