ATHENS — When Georgia and Kentucky meet on Saturday, it will pit the two longest-tenured coaches in the SEC against one another.
Mark Stoops is in his 12th season at Kentucky. This is year nine for Kirby Smart at Georgia. And even though Stoops has yet to beat Smart, there’s a very real respect for what Stoops has been able to build in Lexington, Ky.
“A lot of things that go into sustaining a good program, and Mark’s done an incredible job at a place which, you know, it’s tough at Kentucky,” Smart said. “It’s got a great basketball program. They don’t have the recruiting base we have. He’s gone out and done it. He’s gone into other areas to do it. It has a lot more to do, to me, with recruiting and size and the line of scrimmages than it does just physical nature.”
Stoops is 64-66 in his time at Kentucky, but most of those losses were accumulated in the early part of his tenure at Kentucky. He’s won at least seven games in every non-COVID season dating back to 2016, twice hitting 10 wins.
The Wildcats have been able to carve out an identity that makes things difficult for even a behemoth like Georgia.
“They have a – you know, Mark has a workman-like, blue-collar toughness, physicalness, win-the-line-of-scrimmage mentality, and that carries over into his offense,” Smart said. “So, you know, we’ve always said this has been the physical game – the most physical game we’ve played in most years, especially when we played up there. Our kids have come out and said that, so we’re preparing for a super physical game with a really physical run game.”
While Georgia has become a program of stability, Kentucky has had to constantly deal with change. Its offensive coordinator position is akin to the defense against dark arts teaching position in Harry Potter, as the Wildcats have had a different offensive coordinator every year dating back to 2020. Kentucky has also relied on transfers to start at quarterback, as every quarterback to start for the Wildcats since 2016 has been a transfer.
The most recent example is Brock Vandagriff who came from Georgia.
Yet despite all that turnover on offense, Kentucky has always leaned on its rushing attack. The Wildcats have produced a number of great running backs over the years — Benny Snell, Chris Rodriguez to name a few — and relied on their ground game. At one point against South Carolina, the Wildcats ran the ball 18 straight times.
Georgia expects a once-again physical rushing attack, especially as the Kentucky offense tries to find itself after just 44 yards passing against South Carolina.
Even though Stoops and the Wildcats are still searching for their first win against Smart and Georgia since 2009, they’ve never made it easy on Georgia when the Bulldogs visit. Georgia hasn’t scored more than 20 points at Kentucky since 2018.
Georgia knows what to expect on Saturday against the Wildcats. They’ve seen it before in their annual matchups with Stoops and company.
“You know, it’s always hard to go on the road in the SEC. The fans are always going to be there,” outside linebacker Chaz Chambliss said. “Everybody’s going to give us their best shot. We talked about it last week, and we want to give everybody our best shot. You know, that’s what is required whenever you go on the road because you’re in their elements. You’re not at home. You don’t have that advantage, and the only thing you have is the way you play on the field.”
