While many were touting the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party as the game that would decide the SEC East, the real showdown for the division will be played in Lexington on Saturday, as both Kentucky and Georgia have beaten Florida on the field this season.

Aside from beating the Gators, both programs also have 5-1 SEC records with only two league games remaining on their schedules, meaning the winner on Saturday will punch their ticket to Atlanta for the 2018 SEC Championship Game.

Here’s everything Kirby Smart had to say regarding the upcoming matchup against Kentucky during his Monday morning press conference:

On what Kentucky does well defensively … 

“They play complementary defense. They’re on the same page at all times. You don’t see busts. They understand where each guy is. They leverage the ball well. They tackle well. They’re extremely long in the secondary. They’ve got 6’2, 6’3 corners that are good tacklers. They have good safeties. They have big men up front, which is built for the kind of defense they play, and they’ve obviously got one of the best pass rushers in the country. So, they do a tremendous job of playing team defense.

“They’re very organized, disciplined. They know the game plan; they know what they’re going to take away and they do it. It’s a credit to what they’ve built, because when you build on the long-term and you have this many seniors in a group, any defense I’ve coached or any team that I’ve been involved in coaching that has this many seniors is usually pretty successful, because they’ve played in our conference. Everybody wants to talk, how many stars do they have, how many great recruits do they have. How many games have these guys played? Pretty successful when you play that many games.”

On Kentucky LB Josh Allen … 

“He’s faster. He’s bigger. He can strike, play the run. He can drop, play and coverage. They move him around. They do a great job using him. He’s the total package. He’s not one-dimensional. He can do a lot of things. He’s very disruptive. You gotta know where he is at all times. He’s what you want when you design a three-four defense. He’s your prototype guy, and he has been disruptive to everyone in this conference, and everybody you talk to talk about how good a player he is.”

On playing a team with resiliency like Kentucky has shown this season…

“(Kentucky is a) very senior-laden team. They believe. They have a good coaching staff. They have a good group of young men that fight. I mean when you have a defense that plays like they do, they’re in every game. And their offense matches it perfect because they grind you to a nub. They’re just extremely physical. They play a lot of offensive linemen. They have a quarterback that can run as good as most receivers in our conference. They’re hard to defend. And they’re very talented when you look at it across the board, and you see why they’ve been successful.”

On the complication of the run defense when facing a quarterback like Terry Wilson that can run with the addition of Benny Snell…

“It makes you have to tackle people. You have to tackle people in space. You have to be good tacklers. You have to get a lot of people to the ball. And you have to strike and get off blocks, because you don’t unblock people. You don’t just all of a sudden say, well, we’re going to call this and he’s not going to be blocked. Everybody’s going to have a blocker on them. Somebody has to get off a block. And this is not for the faint of heart. This is not going to be for the lack of physicality. This is going to be for people that want to hit people and people that want to strike people because that’s the kind of team they have.”