Division title on the line for ‘Cats, ‘Dogs
Finally, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops can talk about the race in the Southeastern Conference East Division and his team’s position in it.
Coming off a dramatic win at Missouri, Stoops’ ninth-ranked Wildcats (7-1, 5-1) will be playing No. 6 Georgia (7-1, 5-1) for the division title Saturday afternoon in Lexington.
A win would pin a second loss on Georgia and assure the Wildcats of no worse than a tie for first in the division with the Bulldogs and Florida, two teams they would hold tie-breaking wins over. Kentucky has only one more conference game after this weekend: at Tennessee on Nov. 10.
The Wildcats finish the regular season with nonconference games against Middle Tennessee (home) and Louisville (road).
“Saying that it’s just another game would be lying because it is playing for the championship, it’s playing for the East,” Stoops said of the Georgia outing. “That’s one of your goals at the beginning of the year so obviously it’s a big game.
“But once again, our approach can’t change. The situation changes. That’s what I always say.”
The game will feature two of the top four rushing teams in the conference.
Georgia ranks second in the SEC behind Mississippi State with an average of 221.63 yards per game. Kentucky is fourth behind Alabama with its average of 214 a game.
Individually, Wildcats running back Benny Snell is league leader with 935 yards. No other Wildcat has more than the 406 yards of quarterback Terry Wilson.
Georgia’s Elijah Holyfield and D’Andre Swift share the workload with 559 yards on 85 carries and 466 on 83, respectively, in taking over for Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.
“When you think of Georgia, you know they have talented running backs and certainly with Holyfield and Swift, they’re very good runners,” Stoops said. “Physical, run you over.
“Their line is really, really, good, really talented, physical. And their backs will run downhill and they can run around you. Swift is electric and Holyfield is so darn tough and gets tough yards, talented. They’re good. Just like you would expect when you’re playing these guys.”
The Bulldogs have a big advantage in the passing game, however, with quarterback Jake Fromm completing 67.4 percent of his attempts for just over 206 yards a game. Kentucky’s Wilson has completed 65.4 percent of his passes, but for only 123.5 yards a game.
But Wilson came through in the clutch last week in taking the Wildcats 81 yards for the final touchdown of their 15-14 victory. He completed his first five attempts and got new life when Mizzou was flagged for interference in the end zone on his sixth. He then completed a touchdown pass to tight end C.J. Conrad on the final, untimed play.
“Unlike a week ago where we talked about how we threw the ball for 19 yards and won, here in this game we had to throw the ball for just under 300 to win because the run game wasn’t working,” Stoops said. “So, that to me is a sign of progress, and we’ll continue to build on that.”