Georgia and Kentucky will tee it up on Saturday night Between The Hedges in a battle of SEC unbeatens with the winner having a very strong upper hand toward the SEC Championship game.

After Kentucky ran roughshod over Florida last week and Georgia unexpectedly had issues stopping the run against Auburn, the Bluegrass Cats are a trendy pick to take down the Dawgs.

It’s far from the first time that Kentucky has needed a glass-ceiling-breaking win with Georgia standing in the way.

In fact, one such occasion happened only a few years ago.

In 2018, the SEC East was on the line between Georgia and Kentucky.

Since coming to Kentucky, Mark Stoops has become known as more than just Bob Stoops’ brother. Despite not having five-star talent for the most part, the Wildcats have taken a point of pride in making the most of their talent, especially on offense and a physical brand of football. That was the case going into the 2018 game with Kentucky’s bruising run game led by Benny Snell and a defense that had that season only allowed one rusher to go past 75 yards in a single game.

It’d be fair to see that all of that chatter was a 2010s version of the late Pat Dye’s famous 2002 “Man Enough” comment.

Georgia was up to the challenge in 2018, showing that a SEC East crown still had to go through Athens. To say that D’Andre Swift had a big day would be an understatement. His then-career high 156 yards and two touchdowns could not be matched by Kentucky, the dagger being an 83-yard run in the second half to put Georgia up 28-3.

Sure, the game was close, but Georgia winning the physical aspects blew open a close game on the same day that Elijah Holyfield ran for 115 yards. The Dawgs had a 14-3 lead that got extended to that mark on a 20-yard run by Swift in the second quarter, an advantage that grew to 21-3 early in the third quarter when Holyfield scored to cap off a 78-yard drive.

That November afternoon was a ‘not on our watch’ type of performance for Georgia, and it’ll look for another one on Saturday in Athens.

Go Dawgs!