BBN we’re rolling on with our 2023 opponent previews and today we’re on the Georgia Bulldogs. If you’ve missed our other previews, you can check them out here:
Series Outlook
Kentucky and Georgia first met in 1939 (a 13-6 Kentucky win) and have been consistent opponents since. Georgia leads the all-time series 62-12-2 including winning the last 13 meetings. Last year Georgia rolled into Lexington ranked number 1 in the country and won a tough defensive battle 16-6. Georgia didn’t score a TD until the 3rd quarter but truthfully the game was never really in doubt. The Kentucky offense took what the Georgia defense gave them but created very few explosive plays and in true 2022 Kentucky fashion missed an important FG. The best drive of the game (and maybe the season) came in the 4th quarter where a 9 play 99 yard drive was capped off by a Barion Brown TD. This was Brown’s coming out party as he proved he was a star finishing with 10 catches, 145 yards, and 1 TD.
The last time Kentucky beat Georgia was a 2009 game in Athens (only the 4th time Kentucky won in Athens and the first time since 1977) where Kentucky erased a 27-13 3rd quarter deficit led by Randall Cobb and a big play from Derrick Locke to win 34-27.
2022 Season
Georgia came into 2022 as the reigning national champion and having had a remarkable 15 players hearing their names called at the 2022 NFL Draft. Many assumed there would be an adjustment as they had to replace a ton of production (especially on defense), instead they opened the season blowing out preseason top 15 team Oregon 49-3. They did have a weird performances against Kent State and then a very real scare against Missouri in early October but weren’t really troubled again until the semi-final game against Ohio State where they survived a nail-biter in Atlanta. They followed that up by embarrassing TCU to repeat as National Champs.
Despite seemingly trying to replace him Georgia was led offensively by Stetson Bennett who threw for over 4000 yards and 27 TD. He gave Georgia exactly what they needed by being efficient and extending plays to get the ball to playmakers. On the ground they had two high-level RB in Kenny McIntosh and Daijun Edwards who combined for over 2200 yards and 19 TD from scrimmage last year. Bennett also had the luxury of having the best TE in CFB in Brock Bowers who gave Georgia 942 yards and 7 TD.
The strength however of the Georgia offense was the elite OL. They opened holes and kept Bennett clean consistently controlling games along the way.
Defensively Georgia was mostly dominant most of the year despite being in transition. They were stingy against the run and had an elite secondary led by Kelee Ringo. They did show some vulnerabilities against LSU and Ohio State later in the year on defense and their pass rush wasn’t exactly elite but they were able to make enough plays to win both games.
2023 Outlook
Georgia is going to be one of the best teams in the country again. They have stacked multiple elite recruiting classes and are reloading after having another 10 guys drafted this past April.
With Bennett finally using up all his eligibility Georgia had a full blown QB competition, and it appears RS sophomore Carson Beck has won the job. Beck was a 4-star recruit coming out of HS who decommitted from Alabama before committing to Georgia. This is his 3rd year in the program and has thrown for over 300 yards and 4 TD in mop-up duty (he did get some snaps in the National Championship game).
Beck will have plenty of weapons as Bowers is back as he still has one more year before he can enter the NFL Draft. WR Ladd McConkey (put 700 yards and 7 TD) is also back to go along with RB Daijun Edwards. Just to be safe Kirby Smart dipped into the portal and added the best WR from Mississippi State and Missouri in Rara Thomas and Dominic Lovett respectively.
As usual though the real strength of Georgia will again be the OL. They return 4 guys who have started on what was already an elite unit and have highly recruited guys in the wings (some folks believe they have 10 SEC level starters on the current roster). Georgia is going to be dominant up front again barring unforeseen injuries (and even then it might not matter).
2022 was supposed to be the rebuilding year for the Georgia defense (yikes) so they return a good portion of the DL that was one of the best units in the country at stopping the run. Their pass-rushing is still a question mark and while the secondary lost Kelee Ringo they do return Javon Bullard, the Defensive MVP in the Peach Bowl against Ohio State and in the National Championship against TCU.
Georgia also has the benefit of an easy schedule. Auburn might give them in a game in Jordan Hare but it’s unlikely they are ready in year 1 under Hugh Freeze. They do have to go to Knoxville but not until late November. At worst Georgia should be 11-1 and barring something unforeseen they should be back in the SEC Championship.
Who Wins
Georgia will win 24-13. For whatever reason Kentucky typically plays Georgia close (even before Stoops) and it appears that Kirby Smart really respects Mark Stoops and won’t run the score up on him. This one will be no different as Kentucky’s physicality really seems to match-up well with the Bulldogs. Georgia will still be able to control the game along the line of scrimmage and probably won’t have to open things up to keep Kentucky at arms length.
With that being Devin Leary is a style of QB that Stoops has never had before, and Kentucky has at least one high level playmaker that really shined in this game last season. I am predicting Kentucky to be 5-0 coming into this game and this will be billed as one of the few tough games on Georgia’s schedule. If there is any improvement on the OL (I am skeptical) then Kentucky could conceivably give themselves a chance to steal one if Georgia are not fully ready. This was how Missouri was able to give a Georgia a real scare last season before the Dawgs turned on the juice in the last 10 minutes and won anyway. There is a small window for a Kentucky victory, Georgia has a new QB and former OC Todd Monken is with the Ravens and there have been a lot of off the field issues that have led the program into a feud with at least one media outlet. If there are some bumps early in the season it’s possible the distractions become louder and Georgia becomes vulnerable. It’s unlikely but it feels like Georgia unraveling from the inside is the only way to slow this juggernaut down.
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