First Scouting Report: At No. 1 Georgia, Kentucky will seek to shock the world
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Game day: Kentucky 33, No. 22 Florida 14
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Kroger Field.
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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:
The opponent
Kentucky (5-0, 2-0 SEC) will travel to Athens, Georgia, on Saturday, Oct. 7, to face No. 1 Georgia (5-0, 2-0 SEC) at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium (seating capacity 92,746):
The game will kick off at 7 p.m. (EDT) and be telecast by ESPN.
Coach Kirby Smart’s two-time defending national champion Bulldogs extended their winning streak to 22-straight with a 27-20 victory at Auburn Saturday.
Series history
Georgia leads the all-time series with Kentucky 62-12-2 and has beaten the Wildcats in 13 straight meetings.
UK coach Mark Stoops is 0-10 vs. Georgia.
Bulldogs head man Kirby Smart is 7-0 vs. Kentucky.
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Most recent meeting
Kenny McIntosh ran for 143 yards and a touchdown and Jack Podlesny booted three field goals as No. 1 Georgia survived a determined Kentucky defensive effort and won 16-6 on Nov. 19, 2022, at Kroger Field.
UK’s chance to pull a monumental upset was sabotaged by offensive inefficiency. The Wildcats drove the ball into Georgia territory four times and into the Bulldogs’ red zone three times, but produced only one score.
Then a freshman, Kentucky wide receiver Barion Brown had a monster showing against the No. 1 Bulldogs, catching 10 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown.
Know your foe
1. Since falling to Georgia 27-24 on a last-second, 25-yard field by Rodrigo Blankenship in Kirby Smart’s first season as Bulldogs head man in 2016, Kentucky has not played the Dawgs within single digits since.
Since the 2016 near miss, the Wildcats’ losing margins vs. Georgia have been 29, 17, 21, 11, 17 and 10 points, respectively.
The 2016 contest was also the last time UK scored more than two touchdowns in a game against Georgia.
2. Two-time national championship-winning quarterback Stetson Bennett’s replacement at Georgia is Jacksonville, Florida, product Carson Beck. A 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior, Beck is off to a solid start.
Entering Saturday’s game at Auburn, Beck was completing a robust 72.66% of his passes and had thrown for 1,184 yards and six touchdowns with only one interception. Against the Tigers, Beck completed 23-of-33 passes for 313 yards and one touchdown pass with one interception.
3. Georgia junior tight end Brock Bowers might be the most-talented player in college football. The 6-4, 240-pound product of Napa, California, entered the Auburn game with 22 catches for 252 yards and two TDs.
Bowers caught eight passes for 157 yards vs. the Tigers and scored the game-winning TD on a 40-yard pass from Carson Beck with 2:52 left in the game.
In the past against Kentucky, Bowers produced one big game and one surprisingly quiet one.
Two seasons ago, when Georgia and Kentucky met in Athens with both teams unbeaten and playing for the SEC East lead, Bowers caught five passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns.
Last season, as the Dawgs survived 16-6 on a blustery, cold day in Lexington, Bowers caught only two passes for 10 yards.
This story was originally published September 30, 2023 at 3:14 PM.
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