Georgia football’s visits in recent years to Kentucky have been triumphant and left the Bulldogs with scar tissue.

The Bulldogs will look for their ninth straight win Saturday in Lexington, where they haven't lost since 2006 — when Matthew Stafford was a freshman.

Five of those wins came by margins of 4, 5, 3, 11 and 10 points. Georgia scored 14 and 16 points in its last two visits.

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart: 'It's never easy up there'

“I don’t think we’ve been up there that it wasn’t just a battle,” Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said. “I can’t think of a time I’ve ever been to that stadium and played in a game that was like, ‘Well, that was easy.’ It’s never easy up there. Never.”

South Carolina made it look pretty easy after taking control last Saturday and leaving with a 31-6 win over Kentucky.

Kentucky has lost six of its last seven SEC home games.

“I do expect our team to respond,” coach Mark Stoops said.

Why Georgia will beat Kentucky

Going on the road doesn’t seem to faze Georgia. It piped in crowd noise blaring near the end of its practice on Tuesday to prepare for the conditions. The Bulldogs are 30-4 under Smart in true road games with the last loss at Alabama in 2020.

It’s hard to see Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff, the Georgia transfer, having much success against a Bulldogs defense that has held its last three opponents to a field goal each. Vandagriff was 3 of 10 for 30 yards and a pick-six interception and Kentucky mustered just 183 yards of total offense against the Gamecocks.

Georgia’s defensive front has helped the Bulldogs limit opponents to 3.2 yards per play—10^th in the nation.

Defensive end Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins is seeing more snaps with Mykel Williams sidelined by an ankle injury. He has five tackles and had three tackles for loss against Tennessee Tech. Christen Miller has five tackles including two for loss and Nazir Stackhouse has three tackles.

“I’m excited about that group,” Smart said. “They've gotten a ton of work this fall camp in terms of the youth. Our older players …we're really pleased with where they are. The amount of work the young guys have gotten is probably more than we've ever gotten for a young group. …So we've got a lot of depth in that room.”

Why Kentucky will beat Georgia

If the Wildcats offense more closely resembles how it looked against Southern Miss, this could get interesting. Kentucky scored 31 points and Vandagriff threw three touchdown passes in a game called due to lightning midway through the third quarter.

The Wildcats looked like a different team against South Carolina. They ran the ball 18 straight times in one stretch.

“I felt I got not as aggressive as we should have been to keep them off balance,” Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan told reporters.

The Wildcats offensive line, which gave up five sacks last week, will have to win more one-on-one matchups. Left guard Jager Burton is listed as out due to injury.

“We've always said this has been the most physical game we've played in most years, especially when we've played up there,” Smart said. “Our kids have come out and said that. We're preparing for a super physical game with a really physical run game.”

Said defensive back Joenel Aguero: "Coach Smart's been preaching every day, it's going to be like a blow-by-blow. It's going to be a fight."

Kentucky has a future projected NFL first-round draft pick in 6-foot-6, 345-pound defensive tackle Deone Walker who has 8½ career sacks and three tackles this season.

“He’s an extremely physical, versatile player who can play inside-out,” Smart said. “He's a kid we recruited – highly-recruited kid, tremendous athlete, just like a wrecking ball.”

Prediction

Georgia 34, Kentucky 6

A night road game could mean a closer-than-expected game in the first half. Carson Beck and the passing game should create separation. He threw for 389 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Wildcats last season.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: A look at Georgia football vs.Kentucky: Scouting report, prediction