3 Georgia Players Who Could Give Kentucky Fits

The Georgia Bulldogs are good at the game of football. Okay, that’s an understatement. Kirby Smart has created an unstoppable monster in Athens.

Bret Bielema once opined that Nick Saban created an assembly line at Alabama. The players may have changed, but the Crimson Tide were always that same dominant team. That’s what Kirby Smart has done. It doesn’t matter who’s in the helmet with the big G, they’ll mow you down.

“I agree with him there. Georgia is much the same,” Mark Stoops said on Wednesday’s SEC Teleconference. “They always really have a well-coached football team across the board. I don’t think they get enough credit for how well-coached they always are and they have really good players.

“They have answers for things. They mix things up very well. I always mention the running backs, because Georgia always seems to have great running backs, but it’s behind an offensive line that is very cohesive, that always plays very well together.”

The team is great. Let’s take a moment to take a closer look at individual players who could pose big problems for Kentucky on Saturday.

QB Carson Beck

The former five-star beat out Brock Vandagriff last spring. He was a little shaky at the start of the 2023 season until he became a bonafide rock star against Kentucky, completing 28 of 35 passes for 389 yards and four touchdowns. Carson Beck is now considered by many as the top quarterback prospect in next year’s NFL Draft.

“He’s very comfortable,” said Stoops. “Obviously, the experience that he has, when the opportunities are there, you see the ball coming out in rhythm, on time, and very quickly. He also is exceptional at finding time and buying time, stepping up in the pocket, scrambling for tough yards when he has to. That’s a that’s a staple for their quarterbacks and I think Brock did that very well in our first game. He gets the tough yards when he has to as well, so a very complete player.”

In his first two starts of 2024, Beck has completed 70.5% of his passes for 520 yards, seven touchdowns, and zero interceptions.

RB Trevor Etienne

Georgia always seems to have great running backs. This offseason they went to the portal and took another from their biggest rival. Trevor Etienne had 925 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns for the Florida Gators in 2023. Suspended for the season-opener, in week two he only toted the rock five times but rattled off an explosive 45-yard run.

“He’s dynamic,” Stoops said Monday. “Georgia, they always have guys that are explosive, but Etienne, I think he’s just another added weapon for a very good football team.”

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S Malaki Starks

The Georgia defensive line stole headlines during its first two National Championship runs under Kirby Smart. This year their brightest star is in the secondary, safety Malaki Starks. A Consensus All-American as a sophomore, he showed us against Clemson why he’s one of the best defensive backs in all of college football.

“(He’s) one of the better players in the country,” Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said Tuesday.

“He’s a super instinctual player. They’ve used him at the nickel position at times when they’ve been down there. He’s just one of those guys. Good football players are good football players, it doesn’t matter what level you’re at. You watch the film and he has made plays at multiple positions on that defense over the course of the last two years. He’s a guy that when you’re talking about safeties in the back-end, 12 or 15 yards away from the ball, you better know where he is on every snap.”

MALAKI STARKS pic.twitter.com/4yLDSscDbe

— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) August 31, 2024