Georgia vs Kentucky Preview: SEC Showdown in Athens
by Chito Chibuye
Dawgs OTL Writer/ UGA Alumnus
“C-A-T-S, Cats, Cats, Cats!” Imagine screaming this before you go into battle and thinking your opponent will be intimidated. That’s what will be coming to Athens, GA this weekend as the Bulldogs host Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats for a noon kickoff. Both teams will be looking to bounce back from losses last week. UK lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia 35-13, meanwhile the Dawgs were beaten (again) by Alabama at home 24-21. Both teams will look to get the bad taste out of their mouth and pick up an SEC win on their record.
Georgia vs Kentucky Matchup History
This SEC East matchup has been dominated by the Georgia Bulldogs over its history to the tune of 64-12-2. Don’t let that lop-sided record fool you though, because this team always plays UGA extremely tough every year that Stoops has been at the helm. Georgia beat Kentucky 13-12 (2024), 16-6 (2022), and 14-3 (2020). Luckily for us, all of those games happened to be in Lexington and it’s normally much later (and colder) in the year. While I do expect this team to come out swinging on Saturday, the truth is, this is not as good of a team as Kentucky normally fields, even by their standards, and the Dawgs are looking to hunt after last week's let down.
Players to Watch: Kentucky Wildcats
As the saying goes in football, “if you’ve got two quarterbacks, you’ve really got zero.” Well Kentucky’s got two QBs, they’re both just really, really bad. Zach Calzada was brought in to pick up this offense but was supplanted by Cutter Boley a couple weeks ago. While it may be wise to prepare for both players, neither of these QBs pose much of a vertical threat (159 pass ypg (122nd)) compared to what UGA saw in Joey Aguilar and Ty Simpson. On top of that they have started to turn the ball over in recent weeks (4 turnovers @ South Carolina) which obviously won’t help matters. They also have RBs Seth McGowan and Dante Dowdell who will be the main focus of Kentucky’s offense (188 rush ypg (44th)) if things go their way.
Keys for Georgia Bulldogs
It feels like Georgia fans are growing tired of asking for the same things every week. “Fast start, use weapons, be aggressive downfield, get a pass rush.” The more games that we don’t see it makes me question if we’re capable of doing it. The run game has been an absolute revelation in 2025, but I don’t think anyone expected so many other parts of this team to be substituted for the success in this one area. I expect the Dawgs to run effectively against this Wildcat front, but can they be creative in doing so? Because Kentucky’s is stingy in the middle. Gunner is going to see a lot more zone coverage as the season continues starting with this game. Can we protect him long enough to allow him to dissect and go through his progressions, plant his feet and make good throws on time, or escape can create plays with his legs? A pass rush would be great to see in this game, but to be honest it won’t really be necessary for these QBs, so I digress. Lastly, can someone please make sure that Noah Thomas is still on the team? I’m old enough to remember when guys who did everything the coaches asked all season got rewarded* with opportunities in games! I think that time is now because Thomas will be a weapon when we face Auburn, Ole Miss, and Texas down the road.
Georgia’s Path to SEC Success
A win over Kentucky won’t fix all of our problems, but it can be a major step in the right direction as our focus now is to stack SEC wins. As Georgia fans our mindset needs to be focusing on going 3-0 from now into the bye, get a week of rest and roll into November 6-1 as we head to Florida with our early season struggles faded into history. All of our goals are still attainable, and there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Score Prediction: Georgia wins 33-20
Go Dawgs.
