Kentucky vs. Georgia point spread: Picking Wildcats vs. Bulldogs

No. 20 Kentucky heads to Athens this weekend to face No. 1 Georgia in a battle of two unbeaten SEC East programs. Mark Stoops’ Wildcats will be a 14.5-point underdog on the road on Saturday.

Ahead of the exciting Week 6 matchup, former NFL player Geoff Schwartz joined On3’s Andy Staples in revealing their picks for the ranked contest between Kentucky and the Bulldogs.

“We’ve seen a little bit of regression at Georgia. They’ve lost some talent, but also the quarterback isn’t as good,” Schwartz told Staples. “We’ve been waiting for this moment where they become Georgia again — but we’re five games in. This feels like who Georgia is going to be. They’ll try to beat you up in the trenches, throw the ball to [Brock Bowers] and hope he makes a couple plays for you.

“This Kentucky team wants to match that style. They want to run the football — we saw that last weekend. 14 feels like way too many points to me, but I will say that if Kentucky comes out early, can’t run the ball and Georgia scores quickly on them — and Kentucky gets out of their game plan — then Georgia can have a lot of success.”

The duo agreed that the best game plan for Georgia coming into Saturday is to have quarterback Devin Leary beat the Bulldogs with his arm. The transfer QB completed 9-of-19 passes for 69 yards and a touchdown against Florida last week, but his poor performance was masked by Ray Davis‘ 280 rushing yards and four touchdown outing.

At the same time — Staples believes that Georgia is simply an improved version of what Kentucky is right now.

“This is going to be the last time I do this — unless it happens, then I’m doing it again,” Staples said. “I’m going to say that Georgia finally has a fast start, comes out of the gates smoking an plays four quarters the same way. I’ll take Georgia to cover, and I’ll never do it again if they don’t.”

If Staples’ prediction comes true, the Bulldogs will have earned bragging rights over Kentucky for the 14th consecutive season. The last time UK pulled off the upset? In 2009 between the hedges during the Mark Richt era.

Last season, Georgia — who most would agree is a stronger team than the one in Athens this season — won in Lexington 16-6 despite the Wildcats being 22.5-point underdogs. Kentucky’s defense stayed tough and forced Georgia to its lowest-scoring performance of the season.

A similar defensive performance will be needed if Kentucky has a shot at stocking the nation’s top team on Saturday. Though, covering the spread will be a whole lot easier.