ATHENS — Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm said weather conditions had everything to do with the Bulldogs run-heavy offensive attack against Kentucky on Saturday night.
The No. 10-ranked Bulldogs beat the Wildcats, 21-0. Fromm was 9-of-12 passing for a career-low 35 yards amid rain and winds gusting between 14 and 20 mph.
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“It was definitely a big part of the game not being able to throw it as well as we wanted to,” said Fromm, who attempted just one pass in the second half. “It was tough, the ball was super slippery out there tonight. So we said ‘Hey it’s going to be a ground and pound game.’
“It’s really frustrating to pick up a ball, and (say) I’m going to throw it in that direction, but I have no idea where it’s going. Sometimes it was like that.”
So Georgia coach Kirby Smart, knowing he had the SEC’s top scoring defense matched up with a Kentucky receiver operating as a quarterback because of injuries, stuck with a conservative game plan.
“I could have told you two days ago we weren’t going to go out there and throw it for 200 yards in those conditions,” Smart said. “We had to put a plan together to give us the best chance to be successful. I thought we did a good job.”
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The Wildcats weren’t taking chances with the ball either. Lynn Bowden didn’t complete a pass until there was 4 1/2 minutes left in the game. UK finished 2-of-16 passing for 17 yards amid the wind and rain at Sanford Stadium.
“It was wet, a little muddy and a little cold,” Bowden said. “It was hard to throw the ball. I had to find the right grip on the ball.”
Fromm, 30-6 as UGA’s quarterback, said the mentality was to execute and emphasize ball control.
“It’s really who makes the mistake first, and we just didn’t want to make a mistake,” said Fromm, who tucked the ball and ran himself a few times. “You take a three-stop drop, and you’re like, man, it’s not feeling right in my hands, and guys aren’t as open as you want them to be. You try to make up any kind of yards you can with your legs.”
Fromm said the Bulldogs discussed their plan of attack on the sideline throughout the night. There just weren’t opportunities to get the pass game going, so at one point UGA had 25 straight run plays.
“Yeah, many times during the night there would be sometimes where (it was), ‘Hey coach, the ball is feeling super slick right now,’ and sometimes it wasn’t, and you were feeling good,” Fromm said.
“You want to do the things you had worked on and prepared during the week, and you get out and see the conditions the way they are, and you say, ‘hey these are the things we feel comfortable doing.’
“A lot of times during it just didn’t feel comfortable throwing the football, the rain just never stopped. We put a new ball in there and it would sit there for 15 seconds, and man it would water up.”
Fromm said he didn’t take note of some of the Georgia fans who were booing, and that it can’t be a concern for the Bulldogs as they enter the bye week.
“For us, man, let’s go out and be us, don’t worry about any outside noise, don’t worry about anything you can’t control,” Fromm said. “It’s about us in that locker room and those coaches. It’s ,how we go out and play, that’s what we’re worried about.
“Tonight we came out and played physical football, we knew that’s what it was going to be. It wasn’t going to be a beauty contest.”
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