Georgia football fans are invited to know your opponent each week with DawgNation and get a preview of UGA’s keys to victory each week with Know Your Opponent — presented by The Piedmont Bank. Host Brandon Adams examines the key storylines involving Coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs as they attempt to navigate an unprecedented schedule in pursuit of an SEC championship and a berth into the College Football Playoff. This week’s edition of Know Your Opponent  focuses on how the Bulldogs can improve during the off week and what’s next for UGA when the season resumes at Kentucky next Saturday.

Know Your Opponent: UGA great says Bulldogs can still achieve their goals if they ‘play Georgia football’

Georgia’s 2020 schedule underwent a number of changes ahead of the season’s kickoff. Among them was an unprecedented move to a 10-game SEC only schedule. However, that unique change has recently been altered once again.

The Bulldogs were supposed to have been off Oct. 31 ahead of a matchup with Florida in Jacksonville on Nov. 7 that is expected to decide the SEC East. Yet a coronavirus outbreak among Gators players required cancellations to Florida’s last two games, and therefore, UGA moved its off date to this past Saturday to accommodate the necessary changes.

Some UGA fans were frustrated that the Bulldogs might be cooperating too much with the Gators by changing the off week, but another perspective suggests that a day off this past Saturday might also eventually benefit UGA too.

If UGA had played Kentucky this past Saturday as the schedule originally dictated, it could’ve been a tough spot for the Bulldogs. There’s a history of teams performing poorly the week after playing Alabama, and UGA’s game against the Wildcats — had it been played — would’ve been the Bulldogs’ fifth-consecutive game against an SEC opponent.

UGA has only played SEC opponents in five-straight weeks once since Kirby Smart became coach. It was during Smart’s first season in 2016. The Bulldogs went 2-3 over that stretch including a 17-16 loss to Vanderbilt in the fifth of those five games.

UGA will now have to play six-straight games against conference foes to close out the season, but delaying that for now might work to the Bulldogs’ advantage.

This is especially true if UGA takes time this week to work towards improvement in the areas exposed in the Bulldogs’ loss to Alabama.

Former UGA great Terrence Edwards joined DawgNation Daily Thursday to discuss how that improvement can take place and to explain why all of UGA’s lofty goals — including potentially winning the national championship — are still in place.

For more on what Edwards had to say, check out the latest edition of Know Your Opponent for a preview of the Bulldogs’ remaining schedule, linked above.