ATHENS, Ga. --- The University of Georgia football team made final preparations for its upcoming Southeastern Conference Eastern Division clash with Kentucky by working out for 90-minutes at the Woodruff Practice Fields on Thursday.

Georgia started the dress rehearsal at approximately 6:40 p.m., which is a little over an hour and a half later than the Bulldogs' normal Thursday routine. Head coach Mark Richt explained that the practice schedule was altered to accommodate a Swahili class function in which several players were involved.

"We had probably up to as many as 20 players involved in the class," Richt stated. "They had an event this afternoon, and that's why we actually met with our players this morning at 6:20 and finished about 7:30 a.m. just in time for them to go to class or study hall. We waited until the event was over and gave them about an hour to make sure they could eat and get dressed."

Under the lights, Georgia (6-4, 4-3 SEC) finalized the game plan for its final SEC contest of the 2009 season against Kentucky (6-4, 2-4 SEC). With a win on Saturday, the Bulldogs can lock up second place in the Eastern Division. Both teams will enter the contest coming off of wins last week that made them bowl eligible. Georgia rallied past 25^th-ranked Auburn, 31-24, in Athens while Kentucky posted a 24-13 road win over Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs and Wildcats each erased halftime deficits in their respective victories as UGA trailed 14-7 and UK was behind 13-10.

Saturday's game will mark the 63^rd time Georgia and Kentucky have met dating back to 1939, and the Bulldogs hold a 49-11-2 advantage. Kickoff is slated for 7:45 p.m. ET on ESPN2 with Mark Jones calling the play-by-play and Bob Davie providing color analysis. All Georgia games are broadcast live on the Bulldog Radio Network on ISP Sports with Scott Howard calling the play-by-play and Eric Zeier providing color analysis. The radio audio can also be heard worldwide on both georgiadogs.com, the official website of UGA Athletics, on XM Satellite Radio channel 200 and on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 213.

Richt also expressed his sorrow for the loss of Georgia mascot Uga VII, who died unexpectedly Thursday morning in Savannah.  

"I was very shocked and sad to hear about Uga VII," Richt said. "I got a chance to talk to (Frank W.) Sonny (Seiler) today actually and hear a little bit about it. You never think something like that can happen that quickly, but it certainly did. I'm sad we won't have him on the sidelines anymore.

"I don't know if it's unprecedented or not," Richt added about not having a live mascot at Georgia's game on Saturday. "Ever since Uga I there's probably been a game or two where there hasn't been a mascot at all, but this ball game there won't be one which will be kind of different."