Eli Drinkwitz doesn’t believe No. 24 Kentucky is 38 points worse than defending national champion and No. 1 Georgia.

“You can tell they have a lot of pride in their performance. They’re going to be really fired up to say that that was not who they are, which I don’t believe that it was,” Drinkwitz said of Kentucky during the SEC media teleconference on Wednesday. “We’re going to have our hands full. I don’t anticipate it being a similar style of play at all to that one. … I don’t know that it’s personal but I do think it’s physical.”

While Kentucky comes in off of a big loss, Missouri needs to regroup after a 49-39 loss to LSU. Missouri faces a Wildcats team that has held opponents to 17 points or fewer in 3 of the previous 4 games before the Georgia blowout. Offensively, Kentucky can pound the ball on the ground with a rushing average of 5.8 yards per run.

“I think Coach [Mark] Stoops prides his teams on being a physical brand of football and they play with big, physical offensive and defensive line,” Drinkwitz said. They play with multiple tight ends, they rely on the run game and play-action shots over the top. The only way to win a game is to be more physical than your opponent, right. You’re going to have to match their physicality and so that’s what we’ve tried to do here. … It’s going to be a tight, physical game and we’ll see how it goes.”

Missouri hasn’t enjoyed much success against Kentucky, 4-7 overall, since joining the SEC in 2012. That rivalry has left a bad taste in Missouri’s mouth much of the past decade.

“I don’t know, I haven’t heard that they dislike Kentucky, I’ve heard that they respect them and they know it’s going to be a physical game and I think anytime you play in a physical game, you have to play with a little bit of a chip and an edge to you,” Drinkwitz said. “I think as competitors, we all have to get ourselves into a frame of mind where we can play the most physical game that we can.”

“We respect all of our opponents and I think we understand that they’ve gotten us in the last 2 games that we’ve played them. And there’s an excitement to go to Kroger Field,” Drinkwitz added. “But I haven’t heard that we dislike those guys at all. I think we respect our opponents.”