Hopes and fears for Kentucky football fans about the Cats’ game vs. No. 1 Georgia
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Preview: No. 1 Georgia at Kentucky
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 Kroger Field.
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What Kentucky football backers should hope for and what they need to fear as the Wildcats prepare to play No. 1 Georgia in a Southeastern Conference contest.
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at Kroger Field in Lexington.
The game will be telecast by ABC (WTVQ-TV, Channel 36, in Lexington).
Hopes
▪ Kentucky has nowhere to go but up after the Wildcats’ dismal showing in last week’s 31-6 loss to South Carolina in the SEC opener.
▪ Georgia Bulldogs turned Kentucky Wildcats Brock Vandagriff and Jamon Dumas-Johnson are not intimidated by their old team and inspire their new teammates to play fearlessly as UK seeks to snap a 14-game losing streak vs. the Dawgs.
▪ Two years ago, Kentucky entered the Georgia game off a horrid loss to Vanderbilt at Kroger Field that snapped a 26-game SEC losing streak for the Commodores — and the Wildcats actually played the Bulldogs tough.
In that 2022 game, Kentucky drove the ball into Georgia territory four times and three times entered the Bulldogs’ red zone — but only scored once in what became a 16-6 loss.
Coming off the embarrassing defeat vs. South Carolina, maybe the Wildcats again rise up and give Georgia more of a battle than anyone expects.
Fears
▪ If you thought South Carolina’s defense was fierce — and the Gamecocks decimated Kentucky with 11 tackles for loss and five quarterback sacks — wait till you see what the Georgia “D” might do to Kentucky’s shaky offensive line.
▪ Georgia quarterback Carson Beck diced the UK defense last season in the Bulldogs’ 51-13 demolition of the Wildcats to the tune of 28-of-35 passing for 389 yards and four touchdowns with only one interception.
There’s no reason to think the senior quarterback won’t be better this year with additional game experience.
▪ Not only has Kentucky not beaten Georgia since 2009, the Wildcats have not even played the Bulldogs within single digits since UK took a 27-24 loss on Rodrigo Blankenship’s 25-yard field goal as time expired in Kirby Smart’s first season as top Dawg in 2016.
The margin of defeat for Kentucky vs. Georgia in the past seven games has been 29 points, 17, 21, 11, 17, 10 and 38.
Off what UK showed last week, it’s hard to envision UK snapping its streak of double-digit defeats to the Dawgs in 2024.
This story was originally published September 13, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
