Tate Ratledge leaves game with injury vs. Kentucky
The Georgia Bulldogs were in a battle with the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night, trailing 3-0 in the second quarter. Things got worse, when one of their best offensive linemen, Tate Ratledge, went down with an injury.
Ratledge limped off the field with what appeared to be a left leg injury. He was helped off the field by trainers with less than nine minutes left in the second quarter.
He was eventually carted off and the television broadcast updated his status.
Ratledge reportedly has a pair of injuries, to the left knee and ankle, respectively, according to ESPN sideline reporter Molly McGrath. Ratledge apparently had his shoe off as he rode on the cart.
“I’m told he has a left ankle and a left knee injury and he is ruled out for the rest of the game,” McGrath said. “So they’re going to have to play without one of their most consistent offensive linemen.”
In the second half, Ratledge wasn’t dressed on the sidelines and was in street clothes. He also had a boot on his left foot and a knee brace on his left knee. This offseason, Pro Football Focus ranked him as the second-best returning interior offensive lineman. “His 87.4 pass-blocking grade in 2023 ranked third among Power Five guards,” wrote PFF’s Max Chadwick. His status will obviously be significant to monitor moving forward for the Bulldogs’ 2024 campaign.
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Smart reflected on his team’s respect for the challenge at hand after a 13-12 win
Following a 13-12 win against Kentucky, an offensive crawl through the mud that turned with a decisive Georgia touchdown in the second half, Smart reflect on if his messaging got home. Speaking with ESPN’s Molly McGrath postgame, he wasn’t certain that it had — but after the game, his players likely understood what he was saying.
“When you’re playing on the road in the SEC, people don’t respect that, and I’m not sure our guys listened to the message all week because this is a good football team,” Smart said. “You don’t judge SEC teams on one week. That’s a good football team. We did what we had to do, but we did not play real well at all.”
Smart shared that his main takeaway from the win was that this Georgia team has some backbone in a tough situation.
“We’re resilient,” Smart said. “Two years ago we go to Missouri, and we almost lose that game at night, on the road. Played at Auburn last year, first game of the year, on the road, almost lost that game. So you’ve gotta find ways to win these and that’s what we did, we found a way to win. The best news is, we can wake these guys up and go get better. Because the No. 1 thing we’ve got to do, is get better.”
On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this article.