The Georgia Bulldogs were favored by a lot going into their matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats, but as ESPN legend Chris Berman always says, “That’s why they play the games.”
The matchup resulted in an ugly 13-12 win by the Bulldogs, with the offense gaining no traction, and the defense allowed 22 more total yards and 11 more first downs than Georgia’s offense got. Georgia suffered a key injury to All-SEC guard Tate Ratledge.
Georgia head Kirby Smart emphasized that beating Kentucky would not be easy in his post-game press conference. Georgia will work to improve in their bye week ahead of the Sept. 28 game at Alabama.
Opening statement after the game:
“You know, I think I’ll open with (the) an immense amount of respect for Coach Stoops and the atmosphere and the culture he’s created here. I tried to tell everybody all week, but nobody would listen to me. I know what this team’s made out of. I know how tough he coaches. I know several of his coaches on the staff. I’ve known him for a long time.”
“I have tremendous respect, and when they get disrespected like they did last week and they (have to) listen to it for a week, they come out ready to play. I think our kids listened to that. I think they understood it, but I also think it’s a tough environment to play in.”
“I’m so proud of the resiliency our kids showed. They never flinched. We thought this would be a blow-by-blow game, and we talked all week about blow-by-blow, delivering more blows than them. We said the first chop of the tree doesn’t chop the tree down. It takes sometimes 272 ax chops, and it took every single one tonight to get the job done.”
“What I will say is I’m proud of our team. I’m proud of our leadership. I, honestly, believe we won this game with culture, and the culture of our team never panicked. I saw more leadership tonight than I’ve seen all season, and you guys have asked me a thousand questions about this team, this, what about this team, this.”
“I don’t know much about this team, but I found out more tonight than I’ve known up to this point, and that makes me extremely proud of how they responded and how they handled some difficult situations.”
Kirby Smart, on the difficulty of winning the SEC and facing adversity to win:
“Well, I’d rather have not faced it. I mean, I didn’t prefer it to be that way. But I also tell people all week, I knew it. We played on the road at Missouri two years ago? Three years ago? I don’t know when it was, and then we played on the road at Auburn. I get it.”
“When you go on the road for the first time in the SEC, at night, and you keep a team in the game, you don’t start fast, it’s going to be a challenge. And we responded to the challenge. And the best thing is we’ve got a lot of things that we can work on now.”
On if there’s something that Kentucky does to makes them a hard matchup for UGA:
“I don’t know that. I mean, stylistically, they’re physical, and that’s always a tough style. They play really well, I feel like, against us. I’ve got a lot of respect for Mark. His defense does a great job. They do a really good job. They’re good football coaches. There’s not like a weakness. You don’t look out there and go, ‘Oh, they got this in special teams. They got this.’
“I think people looked a lot at last year’s game, and a lot of things happened bad for them early in last year’s game, and it kind of snowballed and got away from them. I know playing up here that that can happen to you. Like, there were moments that it was starting to slide for us right, penalties, things happening.
“But we were resilient, man. We responded to them. That’s the true sign of a great fighter is not how hard you punch, but what punches can you take?”
On reuniting with Brock Vandagriff and Jamon Dumas-Johnson:
“I love those kids. Those kids were tremendous for our program. I mean, we don’t probably win two national championships, back-to-back, without those two guys. I mean, Brock (Vandagriff) did all kinds of things to help our team, scout team. He was a competitor. I mean, the guy cried in my office when he told me he had to leave. It ate away at him, and I’m really happy for him.
And Pop (linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson) as well. Pop and I had a great relationship, and we were fiery with each other at times, but he was also a tremendous leader, and I just respect Pop.”
On whether Georgia will use the bye week to recover from injuries:
“Yeah, I don’t know that we can rest and recover. I mean, that’s what people think bye weeks mean. We’ve got to find a way to improve and get better.”
You know, we were really beat up coming into this game, specifically at one position, and it was a really tough week for us. I’ve got a lot of respect for the guys that stepped up and played.”
Georgia’s road trip to Alabama will be a massive challenge for the Bulldogs.
On the explanation that Kirby Smart got for the Jalon Walker penalty:
“I think they said he drove him into the ground. Jalon didn’t feel like he did. I mean, Jalon’s not a violent person in regards to that, but they said he kind of finished him and drove him into the ground. I actually never saw it. I don’t know.”
On Georgia quarterback Carson Beck:
“Well, Carson (Beck) is a great leader. He didn’t panic. He made plays when he had to. Let’s look, the last drive of the game, he had to go play and make throws. He did. He ran the ball. He put us in the right plays. He’s a really good football player that we put a lot on and ask to do a lot. We’ve got to do a better job of protecting him, and we’ve got to put him in better situations.”
On Branson Robinson’s touchdown run:
“Well, it was a rotation. I mean, Trevor (Etienne) was tired. Trevor had driven down there, and I don’t remember exactly the situation, but I think Trevor was gassed and we stuck Branson in there. He had a little juice, he made some people miss, and it was (a) really physical run that I was really proud of.”
“I mean, Etienne played dinged up tonight, and just proud of the way he stuck it in there and played. And the other backs supported him because they can’t all be in there at the same time. This is a big win for our program. I’m proud of our university, and we’re going to keep chopping and get better. That’s the next step. Thanks.”
On what he learned the most from the game against Kentucky:
“Toughness, resiliency, response, leadership.”
Regardless of the ugly win, Georgia’s still No. 1 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, but they can’t play like this and expect to win against Alabama, who they play in two weeks.