Georgia beats Kentucky 19-10, wins SEC East

Georgia’s defense made up for a day of struggles on offense as the No. 13 Bulldogs beat Kentucky 19-10 on Saturday to win the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division. Georgia will return to the SEC title game on Dec. 3 for the fourth time in Richt’s 11 years as coach—but the first time since 2005. The six-year absence left Richt a little rusty on his postgame celebration technique, as he found out when he tried to slide across the plastic which covered Georgia’s water-soaked locker room.

“I thought it would be great to run across and slide like back in the day,” Richt said. “What I didn’t realize was the other side of the plastic was dry, and I stuck.”

Richt said he couldn’t breathe and then players jumped on top of him.

“It was a bad idea,” he said with a painful smile. “It hurt.”

The Bulldogs (9-2 overall, 7-1 SEC) have won nine straight following an 0-2 start that included a home loss to South Carolina. Aaron Murray threw a touchdown pass to Marlon Brown on the first play of the fourth quarter and Blair Walsh kicked four field goals, including three from 39 yards. Kentucky was held to 23 yards rushing on 21 carries and 165 total yards. Punter Drew Butler said the postgame celebration “was a lot of fun, especially after the locker-room atmosphere of the first two games.” Georgia has its longest single-season winning streak since an 11-0 regular season in 1982 under Vince Dooley. The Bulldogs will close their regular season at Georgia Tech next week.