UK Embracing Challenge at Georgia
Emotions ran high last Saturday night.
Mired in a three-game losing streak and down to a quarterback who hadn’t played the position in years, Kentucky pulled together as a team. The comeback win over Arkansas touched off a locker room celebration with plenty of dancing and eventually with Mark Stoops being lifted off the ground by his team.
“It’s just to have fun,” Stoops said. “Those guys, they’ve invested a lot. They need to have a little fun, enjoy it. That’s really meant for us in that locker room just to have some fun.”
Georgia, by contrast, felt emotions on the other end of the spectrum after falling from the ranks of the unbeaten in double overtime against South Carolina. On Saturday at 6 p.m., the two squads will meet.
The Wildcats want to carry momentum from their win into Athens, Georgia, but they haven’t been able to let that postgame celebration last past Saturday night considering the task at hand.
“Knowing Georgia, the way they’re coached, the coaches that they have and the leadership they have on that team, the winning attitude, it will be a very difficult time going in there this week,” Stoops said. “We have to make sure we elevate our game because I’m quite sure that Georgia is going to bounce back in a strong way and be ready to play.”
Even after that loss, the Bulldogs still rank No. 10 in both polls and have a clear path to the College Football Playoff. Add in what Georgia, undisputedly one of the most talented teams in college football, looks like on film and there’s no mystery about the challenge UK will face between the hedges.
“We look forward to playing a top team in the country,” running back A.J. Rose said. “They’re coming off a loss and we’re coming off a win. I feel like we got a little momentum coming into this game. We just want to go in and play all four quarters, give it all we got. We know what that team’s capable of and we know what we’re capable of.”
Georgia, in short, is capable of imposing its will on anyone on both sides of the football. The Bulldogs know what they do well and usually do it.
On offense, Georgia is led by a talented and experienced quarterback in Jake Fromm and a group of running backs that once again is as good as any. D’Andre Swift (581 yards and five touchdowns) gets the most carries, but Brian Herrien (252 yards and four touchdowns) and Zamir White (242 yards and two touchdowns) are each also averaging at least 6.3 yards per carry. And they might not get the same headlines perennially, but Georgia’s massive offensive linemen have a little something to do with those gaudy numbers.
Against them is where the battle will begin for Kentucky’s defense.
“The way you match physicality is you practice physically,” defensive coordinator Brad White said. “We’ve tried to preach to the guys all week that you can’t just show up on game day and match them physically. You’ve gotta train your body how to strain and you’ve gotta train your body how to make violent contact and strike with your hands and your pads.”
Things won’t be much different for UK on offense.
“Kirby (Smart) and their whole staff, they do a great job,” offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said. “You watch them, they don’t give you anything easy. They’ve got a great front seven and their secondary is really good. You gotta work for every single yard.”
The stats back that up.
Georgia is allowing a paltry 73.3 rushing yards per game, sixth best in the country. The Bulldogs also rarely allow big plays in the running game, yielding only two runs over 20 yards all season. Contrast that with last week when a Lynn Bowden Jr.-led Kentucky rushing attack hit six such plays in the second half alone.
Duplicating that feat against the Bulldogs is unlikely, but UK will bring a new wrinkle on Saturday. A week after the Cats relied solely on Bowden at QB, Sawyer Smith will be available after a bye week and sitting against Arkansas allowed him to heal.
“I thought he came out and practiced well and his reads were good and he threw the ball well,” Gran said. “You could see some zip on the ball for the first time, so the time off has really helped.”
So, what does that mean for Saturday? UK’s coaches aren’t going into detail on that, understandably.
“We’ve got both quarterbacks ready now at full speed, so both are available,” Gran said. “It’s really a good situation for us.”
That’s the general feeling around the Joe Craft Football Training Facility this week. The Cats have a pep in their step after an important win, but also an awareness that they must take each step with focus.
“We gotta be detailed in everything we do,” linebacker DeAndre Square said. “Everything we do is important. Every step we take, every fit we take, every motion has to be important and fast and physical.”
