Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s blowout loss to the Georgia Bulldogs
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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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Three takeaways from No. 20-ranked Kentucky football’s 51-13 loss to No. 1-ranked Georgia at Sanford Stadium on Saturday night:
1. In a big game, Kentucky comes up small
Given an opportunity to show it could finally go toe-to-toe with powerhouse Georgia, the two-time defending national champions, Kentucky showed it remains far from being up to the task. And it showed right from the start.
After the Cats won the opening coin toss and deferred, Georgia marched 75 yards in seven plays for a 7-0 lead. And that was just the start. The Bulldogs scored touchdowns on each of their first three possessions for a 21-0 lead with 11:03 left in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Mark Stoops’ team was busy shooting itself in the foot. A holding penalty stopped the Cats’ first drive. An unnecessary roughness penalty derailed UK’s second possession. On defense, after Kentucky had stopped Georgia on a third-and-7, UK’s Deone Walker inexplicably drilled a Bulldog away from the play. The deadball personal foul penalty gave Georgia a first down at its own 35. And the Bulldogs took it from there.
“The first two drives we’re in scoring range and we get back-to-back penalties,” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said. “Unfortunately, those things aren’t going to help you.”
Blame it on the 7 p.m. start or the raucous Georgia crowd. Blame it on the Cats possibly being too full of themselves after last week’s dismantling of Florida. Either way, Kentucky showed very little poise through what was a nightmare of a start.
“They beat us in every area,” Stoops said. “I’ll put this one on me. We weren’t prepared in any area. We didn’t play very good in any area. They beat us from the start to the finish.”
2. Carson Beck thoroughly outplayed Devin Leary
Coming into the season, Georgia was unsure about who would replace folk hero Stetson Bennett at quarterback. Carson Beck, a junior from Jacksonville, started the first game, but he didn’t really win the starting job until the third game. And the Bulldogs had to rally to beat both South Carolina and Auburn in their first two conference games.
Meanwhile, there was never a doubt as to Kentucky’s starting quarterback. From the day Devin Leary announced he was transferring from North Carolina State to Lexington, he was the Wildcats’ starting quarterback. And the addition was considered a coup for the Cats.
Saturday night, Beck was the better quarterback by far, however. The Georgia QB was 21 of 26 for 307 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone as the Bulldogs built a 34-7 halftime lead.
It was UK’s largest halftime deficit since Nov. 3, 2012, when Joker Phillips’ Wildcats trailed Vanderbilt 27-0 at then Commonwealth Stadium. Kentucky lost 40-0 that afternoon. Phillips was fired soon after.
At Georgia on Saturday, Leary was just 9 of 20 for 102 yards and a touchdown in the first half. On UK’s first possession, he overthrew a wide-open Tayvion Robinson. That set the tone.
“The (first) possession we miss the sail throw to Tayvion,” Coen said. “That’s one that we’ve got to hit. Feel good about putting yourself in scoring position there. And then it just gets away from you.”
Beck finished 28 of 35 for 389 yards and four touchdowns with one interception — Maxwell Hairston’s fourth of the season — after three quarters. Beck did not play in the fourth, giving way to backup Brock Vandagriff.
Leary finished the night 10 of 26 for 128 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He completed just 38% of his passes. On the season, Leary has completed 92 of 168 passes for 54.8%.
3. Kentucky has to rebuild its reputation
Mark Stoops is now 0-11 versus the Bulldogs. Georgia is the only SEC East team he has been unable to beat. His teams have played the Bulldogs respectably a couple of times. But Saturday was a definite step back for a Kentucky program that aspires to greater things.
Now 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC, the Cats will undoubtedly disappear from the AP Top 25 as quickly as they appeared after whipping Florida 33-14 last week. There are six games left in the regular season. The task now is for Kentucky to rebuild an image that took a beating on Saturday.
True, Georgia is really good. And Kentucky picked a bad night to watch the 2023 Bulldogs finally put it all together.
Still, Kentucky has some reputation rehab to do, starting next Saturday against Missouri at Kroger Field. There remains much to play for in this season. And the old saying is that you can’t let one loss turn into two. Especially a loss as lopsided and as humbling as this one.
“It’s not our standard and we know that,” defensive coordinator Brad White said. “We understand the task we have ahead of us, a really good Missouri offense. So we better get things fixed and play back to our standard and our level.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2023 at 12:01 AM.
