College GameDay is unfortunately not heading to Athens this week. They instead went to Columbia to see the South Carolina Gamecocks play the LSU Tigers. However, that didn’t mean the matchup between Georgia and Kentucky wouldn’t be brought up, as Kirk Herbstreit and former Alabama coach Nick Saban had several things to say about the matchup and the Georgia Bulldogs.
Herbstreit, on what he expects from the matchup:
“One of the big things Nick Saban talked about earlier was playing to a standard…Steve Sarkisian showed some video about the Notre Dame loss to remind his team ‘Hey, don’t look past your opponent’… I think some of these games are that kind of game…its a real test, to me, of the maturity of how teams handle these kind of games.”
Nick Saban answered with confidence on UGA:
“I think that’s what Georgia really has. Georgia has established an identity as a team. They’re physical up front on both sides of the ball. They can make explosive plays. They have a good quarterback. They were concerned about the running back situation. Well, Nate Frazier solved that as a freshman…they play the same kind of defense they’ve always played. If you’ve ever seen them play in the past, they’ve created that same kind of identity now. That’s what Kentucky has not been able to do. They couldn’t run the ball, the quarterback struggled, they struggled in protection, and they couldn’t stop the run. I think Georgia, right now, to me, is the team that has the best identity of any team in the country.”
It’s strange to see Saban be so optimistic about Georgia after years of tormenting them as Alabama’s head coach, but Georgia looks dominant on both sides of the ball this season, outscoring their opponents 82-6 so far.
The two teams will duke it out at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.