Stoops Kentucky

ATHENS — Mark Stoops knows he’ll have to overcome the Sanford Stadium crowd to score the biggest win of his career.

The Kentucky head coach brings a physical, No. 20-ranked Wildcats team into the 7 p.m. game against No. 1-ranked Georgia knowing fully well the challenge ahead.

“Definitely, handling the environment,” Stoops said on SEC Now, speaking on the SEC Network program broadcast from the UGA campus on Saturday.

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“We know it’s going to be an incredible environment, a night game playing the No. 1 team in the country.”

Georgia fans have affected games before, contributing to seven false start penalties in last year’s 27-13 win over No. 1 Tennessee on an afternoon that saw the Bulldogs also record seven sacks.

Sanford Stadium came to life under the lights in 2019 game against Notre Dame, triggering six false starts and three timeouts with the play clock winding down in a 23-17 win.

“So we have to be able to keep our composure,” Stoops said. “Handle the environment, not too many pre-snap penalties.”

The other obvious key, and SEC Network analyst Tim Tebow also discussed it, is Kentucky’s ability to beat Georgia physically.

“For Kentucky, they’ve been a physical team, but they’ve never matched Georgia when it has come to this similar style,” Tebow said.

“They have to neutralize the physicality of Georgia or have a very little chance, and I think this is the closest (Kentucky) team to actually being able to do that.”

Stoops said much of the same, and broke it down further into one-on-one matchups.

“With their physicality, we have to match it, that’s a very complete team,” Stoops said. “They’re physical up front. They have playmakers across the board on both sides of the ball.

“We have to match that intensity, match that physicality, and we’re going to have to win some one-on-ones.”

Stoops’ Kentucky teams have not scored any points in the first quarter of games against Georgia since 2017, and he’s counting on his quarterback Devin Leary to change that.

“I think with Devin, we’ve got to get him some time.” Stoops said. “We’ve got to get some things set up, get him off on a good start….

“I think some players around him need to step up …. some wide receivers, some tight ends, some people have got to step up and make some difficult 50-50 catches and help the quarterback out and get him going.”