First Scouting Report: Can Kentucky be Georgia’s ‘head-scratching loss’ for 2020?
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Game day: Missouri 20, Kentucky 10
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Missouri football game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:
The opponent
Kentucky (2-3 SEC) will face No. 4 Georiga (3-1 SEC) on Saturday (Oct. 31) at Kroger Field.
The game will kick off at noon and be telecast by the SEC Network.
After starting the year with victories at Arkansas (37-10), over Auburn (27-6) and Tennessee (44-21), Coach Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs were blitzed 41-24 by No. 2 Alabama on Oct. 17 in Tuscaloosa.
Originally scheduled to play Kentucky at Kroger Field on Oct. 24, Georgia was instead off this weekend after schedules had to be reshuffled by the Southeastern Conference due to COVID-19 outbreaks impacting the football programs at Florida and Vanderbilt.
Series history
Georgia leads the series 59-12-2 and has beaten Kentucky 10 games in a row.
Most recent meeting
In a game played in a driving rain storm, the Georgia defense pitched a shutout as the Bulldogs blanked Kentucky 21-0 at Sanford Stadium on Oct, 19, 2019.
Know your foe
1. Through last weekend’s games, Georgia boasted the best defense in the SEC. The Bulldogs were surrendering the fewest average points a game (19.5) in the conference, the second-fewest yards a contest (318.5) and led the league in sacks (13).
2. Before things went south at Alabama, Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett IV had been one of college football’s most compelling stories in 2020.
A smallish (5-foot-11, 190-pounds) former walk-on, Bennett was expected to be No. 4 on the Bulldogs QB depth chart this season behind Wake Forest graduate transfer Jamie Newman, Southern California transfer JT Daniels and redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis.
However, Newman opted out, Daniels has had lingering knee problems and Mathis was ineffective as the opening starter. Bennett came off the bench to spark the Dawgs in their season-opening win at Arkansas and claimed the starting job.
However, Bennett had a rough go in the loss at Alabama, completing only 18 of 40 passes and throwing three interceptions. With Georgia coming to Lexington after an off week, it will be interesting to see how firm Bennett’s hold is on the Dawgs’ starting QB job.
3. For all the immense success Kirby Smart has enjoyed since being hired as Georgia head man in 2016 — he is 47-13 as top Dawg — his teams have had a consistent knack for suffering one head-scratching loss each year.
In 2016, Georgia lost 17-16 to Vanderbilt in Athens; in 2017, an undefeated Georgia was rocked at Auburn 40-17; in 2018, an unbeaten Georgia was dominated, 36-16, at LSU; last year, the Dawgs were stunned at home, 20-17 in double overtime, by a South Carolina team that went on to finish 4-8.
Though this contest appeared to “set up” more favorably for UK before the SEC altered the schedule, could the trip to Kentucky become “the head-scratching loss” in 2020 to which Smart’s Georgia teams have been consistently susceptible?
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 7:13 PM.
