Dawgs Preparing For Kentucky

FOOTBALL

After improving their winning streak to eight with a 45-7 victory over Auburn, the No. 14 Dawgs (8-2, 6-1) are looking to continue the streak when they take on Kentucky (4-6, 1-5) on Saturday at Sanford Stadium.

As the team begins to look ahead to Kentucky, coach Mark Richt does not expect the method of preparation to change.

"I go into every game respecting our opponent and we go through the same process as coaches on our preparation, and we go through the exact same practices," Richt said on Sunday. "Our schedules don't change that much; it's pretty much etched in stone. We do make some changes here and there once and a while, but we're just going to keep grinding. We want to get the best plan possible and we want to get after these guys like we've been doing lately. We just want to keep playing hard, keep playing disciplined and keep winning that turnover ratio."

With Isaiah Crowell and Carlton Thomas both notching over 100 yards rushing against Auburn, Coach Richt attributed their success to an overall effort by the offense.

""It was a great day for the running backs. I think an awful lot had to do with their determination and their effort. This is one of those games where you absolutely have to give credit to the line up front, the tight ends and the fullbacks; they really did create a lot of space. There were a few times where there wasn't much there, but for the most part they had room to run opportunities to make it to safeties or corners that were not blocked in the scheme. It was a really good effort by the backs, no doubt, but they were provided a lot of room to run."

Georgia's defense looks to continue to improve, after holding Auburn to 195 yards of total offense.

"We're doing things that good defenses do; we're stopping the run most of the time, we're big up front, we're very physical, we play hard and we've been causing a lot of fumbles. We've caused 29 fumbles and the majority has been the defense, but there are probably some special teams fumbles thrown in there. We need to recover some more, we only recovered 10 out of 29, but when you're knocking the ball, you're going to get a chance for turnovers. We've had a lot of picks, but we've dropped a lot of picks too. We're getting sacks, we're getting quarterbacks to hurry their throws and we're getting interceptions. We're just believing right now. It's just been good. I hope we keep it up."

Georgia holds a 50-12-2 all-time lead against the Wildcats, including last year's 44-31 win in Lexington. Kickoff against Kentucky is set for 12:21 p.m. and will be televised on the SEC Network.