Dogs expect Cats will put up a four-quarter fight
ATHENS, Ga. — Perhaps it’s fitting that the biggest home game in Kentucky football history is taking place on the heels of Halloween.
After all, this year’s Wildcats keep coming back after being left for dead, resembling Michael Myers in the “Halloween” horror movie series.
Kentucky is 7-1 overall and 5-1 in Southeastern Conference play entering Saturday afternoon’s showdown against Georgia (7-1, 5-1) in a winner-take-all clash for the Eastern Division title and an early December date in Atlanta. The Bulldogs have reached this point via seven double-digit cruises and a lone stumble at LSU, while the Wildcats have defeated Florida and Mississippi State as double-digit underdogs and climbed out of the grave last Saturday at Missouri to erase an 11-point deficit and pull out a 15-14 triumph with no time remaining.
The Wildcats have been college football’s definition of resilience.
“I am proud of that,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said this week. “I’m proud of this team and the way they fight. They play with a passion, and they play for each other. They find a way to win at all costs, and you have to love that about this team. It says a lot about who we are and the culture within our locker room.
“It’s a relentless day-to-day fight and process, and we’re starting to see and experience the culmination of a lot of years of hard work by a lot of people.”
Stoops is in his sixth season of proving doubters wrong, having inherited a 2-10 program from predecessor Joker Phillips and endured a 2-10 debut year of his own in 2013. The Wildcats then spent two seasons at 5-7 and hearing of their failures to attain bowl eligibility, and that was followed by 7-6 records the past two years, with each ending in bowl losses and some offseason grumbling.
Kentucky’s success this season is largely due to 13 senior starters, including eight on the nation’s top-ranked scoring defense that has allowed an average of 13.0 points per game. It is a recipe quite familiar to the Bulldogs, who won last season’s league crown with nine senior starters — a tally that doesn’t include former backup tailback Sony Michel or former Butkus Award-winning linebacker Roquan Smith, who bypassed his senior year to become a top-10 NFL pick.
“They are a very senior-laden team, and they believe,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “They have a good coaching staff, and they have a good group of young men who fight. When you have a defense that plays like they do, they’re in every game, and their offense matches it perfectly because they grind you to a nub.
“They’re just extremely physical. They play a lot of offensive linemen, and they have a quarterback (Terry Wilson) who can run as good as most receivers in our conference. They’re just very talented when you look at it across the board.”
Saturday’s matchup is an absolute mismatch from a recruiting standpoint, with Georgia’s past four signing classes ranking among the top six nationally and with Kentucky never finishing higher than 30th. That didn’t seem to matter when the Wildcats whipped Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi State, or when they took Texas A&M into overtime in College Station, which ultimately resulted in their lone loss.
Kentucky has trailed in five of its six SEC games and is often far from aesthetically pleasing offensively, but the Wildcats have matched Georgia’s standing to this point and have the attention of the Bulldogs.
“It’s going to be a four-quarter game because that is the kind of team they are,” junior tight end Isaac Nauta said. “If we get them down, we’ve got to finish them. The good thing for us is we’ve been a good second-half team, so I think that’s an advantage for us, but they’re a great team, and they’re going to keep fighting. They have a chance to go to Atlanta as well, so they are going to be pumped up and ready to go.”
Said junior cornerback Tyrique McGhee: “A team that has a belief in itself is a very dangerous team, and I think that starts with their head coach. He has those guys believing in what those guys have going on, and it shows in their record and how they’ve played, even pulling out that win last Saturday at Mizzou.”
Despite Kentucky owning the more veteran roster, Georgia has an obvious advantage in games of this magnitude, with a majority of the Bulldogs having either experienced or contributed to a 2017 season that included a win at Notre Dame, an SEC championship game victory and a Rose Bowl triumph over Oklahoma.
Nauta even mentioned “it’s not usual” to see Kentucky in a football game of this magnitude, and it’s an aspect Stoops is addressing as well.
“It’s something I talked to the team about first thing Monday, and it’s something I’ve touched on throughout the week,” Stoops said. “The situation changes every week, whether you’re going into a hostile environment or at home in a big game. Obviously, this is a situation we have to be prepared for.
“Our players have to handle this, and I’m confident that we will, because we’ve played in a few big games now, and we have an experienced football team.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.