The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bulldogs not surprised by Kentucky’s rise
ATHENS — On Saturday, No. 6 Georgia and No. 11 Kentucky will square off in Lexington, with the victor earning the SEC’s East Division title.
Wait, did you read that right? Yes, you did.
Kentucky. Playing for a title. In football.
While the general population might be somewhat surprised that the Wildcats (7-1, 5-1 SEC) — who haven’t won an outright conference championship in almost 70 years and have yet to claim SEC East Division honors — are one huge win away from playing in the SEC Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, no one connected with the Bulldogs is surprised.
Although the Bulldogs (7-1, 5-1) throttled the Wildcats 42-13 at Sanford Stadium last year, Georgia needed a 25-yard field goal from Rodrigo Blankenship in the waning moments of the 2016 game to escape Commonwealth Stadium with a 27-24 victory.
“They’ve gotten better every year we’ve played them,” tight end Isaac Nauta said. “Playing in Lexington was a tough place to play my freshman year . ... It’s going to be a big game this weekend.”
Seeing clearly: The 2016 Kentucky game was the night the Rodrigo Blankenship legend was born. The then-redshirt freshman placekicker insisted on wearing his glasses and helmet during a televised postgame interview. Since that time, Blankenship has done an exemplary job for the Bulldogs, but he’s still able to easily recall that fateful game.
“It was a special moment to go out and do that for that team,” said Blankenship, a preseason All-American who has 75 points this season. “It was an intense moment that gave me a lot more confidence the rest of that season. It gave me something to build off of the rest of the way, and it meant a lot that they trusted me in that situation to execute my job.”
Blankenship, who has yet to miss an extra point in 125 career attempts, has connected on 13 of 15 field-goal attempts, with a 53-yarder against Vanderbilt standing as his longest of the season. He said he was “flamed” on the Internet when he missed his first collegiate field-goal attempt, against Ole Miss in 2016, and assented that his glasses are still a topic of conversation among fans.
“After that (Kentucky) game, it went from people roasting me for being a kicker with glasses that still can’t see the uprights to make a field goal to ‘Oh, his glasses actually help him make field goals,’ ” he said. “The attention kind of changed to positive at that point.”
Coach Kirby Smart, who apparently tried on Blankenship’s glasses once, said he’s not sure about his kicker’s eyesight, but he’s got plenty of confidence in Blankenship’s vision. “I don’t understand eyesight, but I don’t see how those could help anybody see,” Smart said. “I guess the harder it is for me to see with them on, then maybe the (more) he needs them.
“But I know one thing, he sees that ball on the ground, and he gets his toe on the leather real well, so they must work for him.”
Injury report: While defensive end David Marshall is questionable for Saturday while he continues to recover from a foot injury, Smart said the oft-injured offensive line looks “pretty clean across the board.”
Smart said that right tackle Kendall Baker (undisclosed injury), left guard Solomon Kindley (knee) and left tackle Andrew Thomas (ankle) were expected to be present and accounted for at Monday’s practice. Thomas reinjured his ankle Saturday against Florida but returned to the game. “All of those guys are fine,” Smart said.
Right guard Ben Cleveland, who sustained a broken fibula against Missouri, dressed out Saturday but hasn’t played in weeks. He could be back on the field against Kentucky. “Ben is going to get some work this week,” Smart said. “We don’t know if he’ll be cleared yet or not ... but he’s going to try to go out and do some practice stuff.”