Georgia emphasized the run game against Kentucky, and it worked.
The Bulldogs’ run-heavy offense resembled last season’s when they rushed for a season-high of 331 yards and three touchdowns in their 34-17 win over the Wildcats on Saturday.
Georgia (8-1, 6-1 SEC) ran the ball 50 times — two rushes less than their season-high of 52 runs at South Carolina — while recording the season’s lowest passing yardage total (113 yards off 20 passing plays) in the win.
After winning the SEC East and a spot in the SEC Championship game, Georgia turns to face visiting Auburn (7 p.m., ESPN, News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB), a team they struggled to run the ball against one year ago at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart credited the Bulldogs’ bye week in helping the team transform the power of its run game.
“We've had a lot of young players that are trying to grow up, and they still need to grow up, and we got some guys out there that have played a lot of football that they have to continue to play better,” Smart said. “But there was no magic potion. The off week, we just (worked), and we tried to work on points of emphasis for each unit.”
Before Saturday’s game at Kentucky, Georgia averaged 3.7 yards per carry in conference games. Against the Wildcats, the Bulldogs averaged 6.6 yards per rush behind the efforts of D’Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield.
Swift totaled a team-high of 156 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries in the win while Holyfield had 18 carries for 115 rushing yards and a touchdown.
“I think a lot of people over the bye week go back and rest and kind of lay back, but we went to work and we worked on some of the things we thought we should be good at and we knew we could be good at, and I think it’s starting to pay off right now,” Holyfield said Monday.
Despite the success of the powerful run game, one of the areas the Bulldogs came up short again Saturday was in third-and-short situations. Georgia improved drastically on third-and-short this week, going 3-of-5 when the Bulldogs had two or less yards to convert and 7-of-12 total, but fell short at the goal line again. One of the two short situations the Bulldogs failed to convert Saturday was in the fourth quarter when Georgia failed to convert on the 1-yard line on second and third down and were forced to settle for 23 yard field goal, prompting a sideline explosion from Smart into his headset.
The struggle on the 1-yard line resembled the Bulldogs' struggle on third and short against Florida one week prior as they failed to punch the ball in the end zone from the Florida 1-yard line on six-consecutive attempts.
“I think we worked really hard on (third-and-short) last week and that's probably the most frustrating thing is that we didn't overcome the obstacles we had previously and it has nothing to really do with play calling,” Smart said. “It's not the maddest I've ever been. I was more disappointed in some of the organizational things, not necessarily what we did. Just the way we went about it, and we'll continue to work on it and get better at it.”
The Bulldogs totaled 46 rushing yards in a 40-17 loss against Auburn last November, with former running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel recording a combined 48 yards and the team averaging 1.4 yards per carry.
Georgia avenged the loss and poor run game less than one month later in the 2017 SEC Championship game when it totaled 238 rushing yards, averaging 5.8 yards per carry, and Swift led the Bulldogs with 88 yards and one touchdown in the 28-7 win.
Statistically, Auburn (6-3, 3-3) is almost exactly where they were last season against defending the run. This season, Auburn’s opponents average 134.1 rushing yards per game, 3.5 per attempt, and conference opponents average 168.5 rushing yards with a high of 349 rushing yards coming from the Tigers 23-9 loss to Mississippi State. At the end of last season, Auburn allowed opponents an average of 137 yards on the ground.
Even though the Tigers are now ranked No. 24 and have three losses, Holyfield said Georgia’s offensive line and running backs are expecting a challenge worthy of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
“They’re one of the most talented defenses that we’ve played against, and I look forward to the challenge, and I know the offensive line is looking forward to the challenge as well,” Holyfield said.
