David Pollack reveals key for Kentucky to upset Georgia

Nine years into his tenure as Kentucky’s head football coach, Mark Stoops and the Wildcats will face their biggest test to-date, as the No. 11 Kentucky Wildcats travel to Athens to face the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs.

It sure took a while for Stoops to get the wheels turning on the Kentucky Wildcats football program. But now, in his ninth year, they won’t stop moving. Things got off to a shaky start, as the Wildcats finished just 2-10 in 2013, but back-to-back 5-7 seasons, followed by back-to-back 7-6 seasons proved that Stoops had them heading in the right direction. Fast forward to 2021 and Stoops has led Kentucky to an undefeated, 6-0 record, the first time the Wildcats have achieved such a feat through the first six games of a season since Bear Bryant was the head coach in 1950.

But regardless of what the Wildcats have accomplished, Stoops will enter Athens as a heavy underdog Saturday, with Georgia favored by 21.5 points. In order for Kentucky to pull off what many would consider impossible, ESPN college football analyst David Pollack said they’ll have to find success throwing the ball.

“They’ve got to be able to throw the football [if they want to beat Georgia],” Pollack said. “Kentucky is not a throwing team. They have a quarterback in Will Levis that’s a big, strong sucker that’s athletic and can make big plays. Wan’Dale Robinson is one of the best playmakers in the country out wide. They’ve got to make plays in the passing game consistently. What Kentucky is, is a brand of physicality. Kentucky is run-first, run-first, run-first, get third-and-short and just continue to just pop you in the face and wear you out. That ain’t going to work.”

Georgia’s defense, as Pollack noted, is excellent. Smart’s unit ranks first in just about every major category through six games. It has allowed just three touchdowns all season, and just north of 201 opposing yards per game. If Georgia can keep limiting opponents to mediocre offensive performances, it might not even need the offense production that has seen the Bulldogs score 34 or more points in five of its six contests.

So, according to Pollack, in order for Kentucky to beat Georgia on the road, it will have to find success in the passing game, led by Levis. A transfer from Penn State, Levis played in eight games and started just one last season. He completed 33-of-55 passes for the Nittany Lions, throwing for 421 yards and a touchdown, while displaying a bit of athleticism on the ground with 82 rushes for 260 yards and three touchdowns. He’s off to a hot start in his first season in Lexington, and last week in a win over LSU he completed 14 of his 17 passing attempts for 145 passing yards and three touchdowns, while adding 75 rushing yards and two more rushing touchdowns.

Levis was wildly efficient against LSU, but he hardly threw the ball, going for just 17 attempts. Pollack believes that strategy must change against Georgia, as the ground-and-pound, rushing offense of Kentucky’s first few games simply won’t work against the Bulldogs’ front.

“That’s like driving to the paint against three seven-footers, and then trying to finish over them all day. It ain’t going to work,” Pollack said of Kentucky, should it rely on the run against Georgia. “So, they’re going to have to shoot threes, they’re going to have to make plays in the passing game, they’re going to have to create some explosive plays somehow, someway. I don’t know how you do it because my God, this defense is starting to chase greatness now. Now, it’s starting to chase 2011 Alabama for all-time great. 33 points in six games. Bama gave up 30-plus to A&M last week. This is an all-time great defense that we’re watching.”