ATHENS – Early in the early summer, when people were still making decisions about season tickets, how many to get, how much to donate, etc., the complaint was how unattractive Georgia’s home schedule was going to be.
There were no home games against rivals such as Auburn or Tennessee and there’s never one against Florida. There certainly wasn’t a marquee Western Division opponent coming in such as Alabama, LSU or Texas A&M. Heck, there wasn’t even a home date against Georgia Tech to look forward to.
Yet here the Bulldogs are at the midway point of the season getting ready to play host to undefeated and No. 11-ranked Kentucky (6-0, 4-0 SEC). The Wildcats will represent the Bulldogs’ fourth game in seven against an opponent ranked 18th or better.
ESPN’s “College GameDay” is setting up before a Georgia game for the third time this season. This time, “SEC Nation” is coming to town, too. And CBS will feature the Bulldogs in its coveted 3:30 p.m. time slot for the “SEC Game of the Week” for the second time in what will be three consecutive contests for UGA. The Bulldogs also will play Florida on CBS on Oct. 30 in Jacksonville.
For what was supposed to be such a blah year scheduling-wise, there sure is a lot of rah-rah going on. Even coach Kirby Smart, Mr. Oblivious To Outside Noise, has taken notice.
“It seems like each week the last three, four, five weeks, we’ve had big games,” he said. “Now we have another opportunity. That’s why you come to the SEC, to play in big games like this.”
Indeed, but who would have guessed that Kentucky would be the only other undefeated SEC team besides No. 1 Georgia at this point?
Here are five other storylines surrounding Saturday’s game:
Quarterback uncertainty, Take 6
For the sixth time in seven weeks, the Bulldogs enter a contest with uncertainty surrounding the starter at quarterback. For the past three games, senior Stetson Bennett has been tabbed with that responsibility.
That likely will be the case again Saturday as JT Daniels, the designated starter coming into the season, has been limited in practice because of a strained latissimus dorsi muscle in his back. The “strained lat” has kept Daniels from playing in the past two games against No. 8 Arkansas and No. 18 Auburn. Bennett handled things swimmingly in Daniels’ absence, starting the 37-0 and 34-10 victories, respectively.
Daniels also was a surprise scratch in Week 2 against Alabama-Birmingham, a game in which Bennett started and shared time with redshirt freshman Carson Beck on the way to a 56-7 victory. Daniels missed that one because of a strained oblique muscle.
But Daniels has remained involved and engaged. Considered a Heisman Trophy candidate in the preseason, Daniels sent out a social-media message this week urging Georgia fans to “remain humble” amid the Bulldogs’ rise to the No. 1 ranking in the nation.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Daniels wrote to Bulldogs fans on his Facebook and Instagram accounts. “There is a lot of football left. We still have things that need to be corrected on our end.”
Getting Daniels back on the field would be a good start.
Speaking of Kentucky
Kentucky has been one of the best stories in the SEC this season. The Wildcats arrive at Sanford Stadium having vanquished Missouri (35-28), South Carolina on the road (16-10), No. 10 Florida (20-13) in Lexington for the first time since 1986, and LSU 42-21 last week at Kentucky’s Kroger Field. It has Kentucky off to its first 6-0 start since 1950, when Bear Bryant was its football coach.
The run has brought national attention to Mark Stoops, the Wildcats’ coach for the past nine years.
“I don’t get into the history of it all … other than knowing that we have been able to accomplish some things that haven’t been done here in a long time, if ever,” Stoops told ESPN. “The key to our success has been hard work, but also finding a new way to think about these big games. For too long it’s been about hoping to compete. Now it has to be about knowing you will compete in those games and then expecting to win those games.”
Las Vegas isn’t giving the Wildcats much hope. Georgia, which has won 11 in a row in the series and 60 of 74 all-time, with two ties, had grown into a 23-to-24-point favorite by midweek.
Wounded Wildcats
Both teams will enter Saturday’s game with considerable injury issues. While it seems that nobody could be more beat-up than the Bulldogs to this point in the season, the Wildcats have absorbed some pretty big blows recently.
Kentucky found out this week that it is going to be without defensive lineman Octavious Oxendine. The 6-foot-1, 302-pound sophomore tackle suffered a knee-cartilage tear against LSU and is out for the season. He has been the Wildcats’ most productive interior lineman, with 15 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.
Oxendine’s injury comes a week after senior nose guard Marquan McCall (6-3, 344) was sidelined with a “lower extremity” injury against Florida. Stoops said McCall won’t play this week either.
Starting split end Josh Ali also is listed as “doubtful” with a lower-leg injury. Ali, the team’s second-leading receiver, missed last week’s game, too.
Healing hounds
Simultaneous to Kentucky losing some key players, Georgia is getting back some important ones. The Bulldogs have played short-handed at the receiver position all season. That started with the loss of star split end George Pickens in the spring and has continued with wideouts Jermaine Burton, Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, Arian Smith and Dominick Blaylock being sidelined with leg injuries the past couple of weeks. With the possible exception of Blaylock (hamstring following back-to-back ACLs), all of them could return Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs already have gotten back star tight end Darnell Washington. He has played the past two weeks after breaking his foot the second week of preseason camp and had his first catch against Auburn on Saturday. Tykee Smith, a transfer nickel back who broke his foot on the same day, also has returned and is playing.
Smart said starting left tackle Jamaree Salyer, who missed the past three quarters vs. Auburn with a sprained ankle, may be able to play Saturday. It depends on whether he’s able to outperform in practice redshirt freshman Broderick Jones, who played well in his absence.
It’s not all good news. Senior cornerback Ameer Speed (ankle) is expected to miss a second consecutive game.
Stuff the run
To win Saturday’s game, the Bulldogs must stymie the Wildcats’ vaunted rushing attack.
Kentucky features the SEC’s leading rusher in junior tailback Chris Rodriguez (120-768-5), who hails from McDonough. Rodriguez shares time with junior Kavosiey Smoke. Together with quarterback Will Levis and slotback Wan’Dale Robinson, they give the Wildcats a zone-read, play-action offense that has some teeth.
Georgia will counter with the nation’s top rushing (66.5 ypg), scoring (5.5 ppg) and overall (203.5 ypg) defense. However, Smart said Kentucky has the best offensive line Georgia has played, by far.
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