The Georgia Bulldogs (9-1) return to Athens to host the Kentucky Wildcats (7-3) after suffering their first loss of the season at Auburn. The game on Saturday against Kentucky will be Georgia’s final home game of the 2017. A win over the Wildcats would give this year’s Georgia team a victory over all SEC Eastern Division teams for the first time ever in school history. Currently, this year’s Bulldog seniors have 37 career victories and are in pursuit of their fourth consecutive postseason victory. This senior class has bowl victories over Louisville (Belk Bowl), Penn State (TaxSlayer Bowl) and TCU (Liberty Bowl).
Georgia leads the all-time series over the Wildcats 56-12-2, including a 27-4-2 record in Athens. Georgia has a seven-game winning streak in the series with Kentucky’s last victory coming in 2009 in Athens (34-27). Last year the Bulldogs defeated the Wildcats 27-24 in Lexington on a Rodrigo Blankenship 25 yard field goal as time expired. The game winning field goal was setup by a 69 yard drive in the last 3 minutes led by freshman quarterback Jacob Eason.
The University of Kentucky is located in Lexington, KY, and has an approximate enrollment of 30,000 students. The Wildcats are coached by fifth year head coach Mark Stoops (26-33). Kentucky returns 17 starters from a team that finished (7-6) including a 33-18 loss to Georgia Tech in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
Kentucky has been in several close games this season having played six games this season that were decided by a touchdown or less (winning four of them). The two losses came to Ole Miss and Florida as both scored go-ahead touchdowns in the final minute of the games.
Kentucky enters the game on Saturday after scoring a season-high 44 points in a victory over Vanderbilt in Nashville. In the victory, the Wildcats rushed for 232 yards, the defense registered five sacks and special teams play was highlighted by a 93-yard kickoff return.
The Kentucky offense is led by sophomore running back Benny Snell, Jr., who is second in the SEC in rushing yards (1,113) and was on the watch lists for the Maxwell and Doak Walker awards. He is the third player in SEC history to have at least 1,000 rushing yards and at least 13 rushing touchdowns in his freshman and sophomore seasons, joining Georgia’s Herschel Walker and Knowshon Moreno.
Kentucky’s pass rush is led by the duo of Josh Allen and Denzil Ware. Dating back to last season these two have combined to be one of the SEC’s top rushing pairs. Additionally, junior safety Mike Edwards is having an outstanding season. Edwards leads the Wildcats with 80 tackles, four interceptions and five pass breakups. Edwards has made double-digits tackles in four of the past six games and ranks eighth in the SEC in tackles per game.
Currently, Vegas has the Bulldogs as a 21.5 point favorite with a total of 51 for the game. DawgWalk is scheduled for 1:15 PM. Kickoff time is scheduled for 3:39 PM from Sanford Stadium and the game can be seen CBS.
