Kentucky vs. Georgia predictions: The keys to the Wildcats upsetting the No. 1 Bulldogs
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Preview: No. 20 Kentucky at No. 1 Georgia
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Georgia football game at 7 p.m. in Athens, Ga.
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It’s almost football time in the Bluegrass! Here are some final thoughts and predictions about how No. 20 Kentucky’s game against No. 1 Georgia might play out at Sanford Stadium on Saturday.
Practice makes perfect
UK coach Mark Stoops has never been shy about letting reporters and his players know he believes the work put in during the week is essential to the outcome on Saturday, so it was worth notice when he opened his appearance on the SEC coaches teleconference Wednesday by calling out his team for a poor Tuesday practice.
“The only way you’re going to have confidence and truly believe is have a great week of practice,” Stoops said. “In my opinion, we’ve got to pick it up. I thought we had a decent Monday, but weren’t up to par on Tuesday to go play the No. 1 team on the road.”
By the time Stoops addressed reporters Thursday, he was pleased with the way players had responded to his challenge, but the fact players needed that challenge before such a big game is troubling.
Of course, Stoops could have just not mentioned his opinion of Tuesday’s practice publicly at all. The fact he did so without being asked about it suggests he had a clear motive for making the public declaration.
“I believe our guys are ready to play,” Stoops said Thursday. “They addressed some things I wasn’t real pleased with early in the week and have been pretty focused towards the later part of the week. So, hopefully that will carry over.”
Road warriors
Kentucky is technically 1-0 on the road, but the environment it faced at Vanderbilt will look nothing like the one in Athens.
Kentucky fans accounted for the majority of the small crowd at Vanderbilt’s renovated stadium. Meanwhile, Sanford Stadium is expected to be close to capacity for its first home SEC night game in two years.
“It’s going to be tough,” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said. “Nothing that we can do here will truly simulate Saturday night. Especially those guys, with some of the move calls they make.
“… They do it specifically at home where they make move calls and they get you to move, they shift and they stunt. They get you to do those things at home because it’s a competitive advantage there. Why not do it? Those are the things we’re practicing. Those are the things we’ll have to be on the screws. Will it show up? Hopefully not, but we can’t simulate it fully.”
South Carolina was flagged for five false starts when it played at Georgia earlier this season. Kentucky will need to make sure not to repeat those mistakes.
Injury report
Kentucky’s pregame warmups should be appointment viewing with the status of at least four starters up in the air and Stoops unwilling to provide any new information Thursday.
“I don’t really have any updates on injuries, unless Kirby (Smart) wants to give me his,” Stoops said. “… Honestly, there are things that are still up in the air. We’re still a couple days away. We’ll see where things go.”
Left guard Kenneth Horsey has missed the last four games with a leg injury but is believed to be nearing a return. Defensive end Tre’vonn Rybka did not play against Florida, either. Wide receivers Barion Brown and Tayvion Robinson both left the Florida game early due to apparent injuries.
While Stoops did not provide specifics on any of the known injuries, he did open his Thursday news conference by noting the team had gotten healthier over the course of the week.
PREGAME UPDATE: Brown, Robinson and Rybka are on the field participating in warmups at Sanford Stadium. Horsey is not and will miss his fifth straight game.
FINAL PREDICTIONS
Georgia 21, Kentucky 17: This feels like Kentucky’s best chance to beat Georgia in more than a decade, but the fact that the game is being played on the road after the Bulldogs have already been delivered two wake-up calls in closer-than-expected wins over South Carolina and Auburn makes it unlikely they will overlook Kentucky. At their best, the Wildcats might be good enough to win even with Georgia’s full attention, but the offense has been too inconsistent to predict everything finally clicks against a team that has won 22 consecutive games in Athens.
MVP—Brock Bowers: Sometimes the easy answer is the obvious one. Kentucky did a good job limiting Georgia’s star tight end to two catches for 10 yards a year ago, but doing that two seasons in a row against one of the best players in the country is a tall task.
THE LAST WORD
Coen on where the offense needs to improve:
“Honestly, we’re really just focusing on playing a full game. Executing a full game plan. Well, we executed really well in the run game (against Florida), but we didn’t execute worth a bit in the pass game and on third down. So, we’re just really focusing on the situational football, every single phase of the offense, every single phase of the game plan. If we can execute those a little bit better, that’s what we have to do in order to beat Georgia.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2023 at 7:35 AM.
