How Kentucky football responds to blowout loss at Georgia could define 2023 season
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Game day: No. 1 Georgia 51, No. 20 Kentucky 13
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Georgia football game at Athens, Georgia.
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Kentucky football fell to 5-1 on the 2023 season with a 51-13 loss at No. 1 Georgia. The loss does not eliminate the Wildcats from having a special season, but the manner of the loss means a quick fix is needed to keep those dreams alive.
Here’s a closer look at what the loss means beyond the scoreboard.
Test of resolve coming
Losing to the two-time defending national champions would have hardly been a strike against Kentucky, but getting blown out by the end of the first quarter was embarrassing given all the pregame hope that the Wildcats might actually have a chance in this game. Now, while it’s still possible for the Wildcats to contend for a New Year’s Six bowl berth or remain a factor in the SEC East race in the event Georgia stumbles down the stretch, a quick response is needed.
In 2018 and 2021, Kentucky faced Georgia with a chance to take control of the SEC East race. The Wildcats lost both those games then failed to overcome the emotional letdown, posting one of their worst performances of the season in the next game (at Tennessee in 2018 and at Mississippi State in 2021). The 2021 loss to Georgia was the start of a three-game losing streak that essentially knocked the Wildcats out of New Year’s Six bowl contention.
Kentucky can ill afford an emotional letdown if it wants to beat Missouri next week. The Tigers were ranked this week after a 5-0 start. While they lost a heartbreaker to LSU on Saturday, Missouri’s offense looked strong again with 39 points and 527 yards.
Uneven play from most of the Southeastern Conference this season means Kentucky should be competitive in all its remaining games, but it also means none can be considered a surefire victory. How Kentucky responds to the Georgia loss could define what happens in the second half.
A missed opportunity to make history
Since the SEC split into two divisions in 1992, only Kentucky and Vanderbilt have failed to win the SEC East. Kentucky had a chance to remove its name from that list in the final season of the two-division format, but losing to Georgia makes it difficult to imagine that can still happen.
Now, Kentucky would need to run the table in its SEC games and have Georgia lose twice to win the final SEC East title. With home games against Missouri, Tennessee and Alabama remaining as well as trips to Mississippi State and South Carolina, that is a big ask. Georgia has looked vulnerable at times this year, but on Saturday the Bulldogs appeared to find their groove, making it hard to find two losses on Georgia’s remaining schedule.
Almost certainly Kentucky will now end the SEC’s two-division era without a trip to the league’s title game. The schedule is going to get harder moving forward with Oklahoma and Texas joining the league and the Wildcats more regularly playing the current West powers.
Nights like Saturday when Kentucky has a chance to make a statement in front of a national audience and fails so spectacularly make it easy to worry UK’s recent success will be hard to sustain in the new-look SEC.
This story was originally published October 7, 2023 at 10:30 PM.
