ATHENS — A reporter in the postgame press conference kept asking if Georgia coach Kirby Smart cared about making a statement as a football team. If his Bulldogs should be the No. 1 ranked team.

And much like Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive, Smart did not care.

“I don’t care. I don’t care. I want to be the No. 1 team at the end of the year,” Smart said. “The goal to get there is to get better. I could care less where anyone ranks us.”

Georgia put forth its best performance of the season on Saturday, beating Kentucky 51-13. Georgia had anticipated a physical contest, as is usually the case against the Wildcats. After having only 35 first-place votes last week, Georgia picked up 50 first-place votes this week.

But Georgia scored touchdowns on its first three drives to start the game, racing out to a 21-0 lead. Kentucky had to abandon the running game and quarterback Devin Leary struggled to match the pace set by Carson Beck.

The Georgia quarterback threw for 389 yards and 4 touchdowns in the win.

“I attribute the success starting to execution. Carson was really in a rhythm early, and when you run the ball, you have play action and your offense line protects, you have good throwers and catchers, you’re going to do well,” Smart said. “They did well on us. When you have good pass protectors, good throwers and you’ve got the ability to run the ball, it makes it hard to defend as a defensive team. You stand back there, have all day and are protected, you can’t cover that long.”

Behind Georgia in this week’s polls are Michigan at No. 2, Ohio State at No. 3. Florida State at No. 4 and Oklahoma is No. 5. Texas dropped following its last-second loss to Oklahoma.

The Bulldogs continue with their SEC slate, taking on Vanderbilt next week. Georgia will then have an off week to rest up for the back part of the schedule that sees Georgia take on No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 19 Tennessee.

The game against Vanderbilt is set for a 12 p.m. ET start on CBS.

You can see the full AP Poll Top 25 rankings for Week 7 below. Georgia is also ranked No. 1 in the Coaches Poll Top 25 rankings for Week 7.

AP Poll Top 25 rankings for Week 7