Kentucky is 6-0 for the first time since 1950. Next up: Undefeated Georgia.
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Game day: Kentucky 42, LSU 21
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-LSU football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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Kentucky remained unbeaten with a 42-21 victory over LSU on Saturday. The No. 14 Wildcats, 6-0 for the first time since 1950, will travel next week to Athens, Ga., to battle the undefeated Georgia Bulldogs.
Let’s examine the impact of Saturday’s result beyond the scoreboard.
Bowl implications
Kentucky will officially be going to a bowl game for a record sixth straight year. It also has set itself up, barring a disastrous finish, to do something it hasn’t done in an incredibly long time.
Defeating LSU gives UK some wiggle room to drop a game to a “lesser” opponent — particularly on the road, at Mississippi State or Louisville — and still be in the conversation for 10 wins. Whether it needs that wiggle room or not to do it, Kentucky probably needs to finish with at least nine victories to be in the conversation for the Sugar Bowl — in which it hasn’t played since 1950. Ten wins would all but guarantee it as long as the College Football Playoff committee puts both Alabama and Georgia into its field of four (the Sugar Bowl takes the highest-ranked team in the CFP rankings that isn’t in that field).
Nine would be dicier depending on how other teams in the league finish in the CFP rankings. Auburn (2017) is the only eight-win team to have been invited to the Sugar Bowl this century, so if Kentucky were to drop to that it can wave goodbye to the SEC’s signature bowl. The Wildcats are in control of their own destiny as far as making a New Year’s Day game, and in the driver’s seat to make the best one it possibly could.
Dogs, then slog
Georgia is a behemoth that Kentucky’s yet to crack the code against under Mark Stoops; his teams are 0-8 in their meetings. That it’s a road game makes it all the more harrowing, but the Wildcats are playing with house money at this point. Throw the whole playbook at the Bulldogs and see what happens.
The likeliest outcome, of course, is that UK leaves Athens with a 6-1 record. A first loss couldn’t come at a better time, though: UK’s bye is after that, giving it a couple of weeks to heal up and prepare for a road trip at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs have been shaky this season, and the Wildcats last year became one of just two teams (Alabama) that’s kept Mike Leach’s offense from scoring over his entire career. That trip’s far away from a “sure thing,” though; Kentucky hasn’t won in Starkville, Miss., since 2008, and has lost its last three games there by double-digit totals.
That trips kicks off the “slog” portion of UK’s schedule, which features no ranked teams and three opponents who didn’t play in bowl games last season. A feisty Tennessee team comes to Lexington after State; UK’s better established as a program but the Volunteers have been potent on offense (40.8 points per game coming into Saturday), and will be hungry for revenge after the Cats embarrassed them in Knoxville. That one’s certainly no gimme, either.
At worst, the LSU win has given Kentucky a buffer against what could become a three-game losing before it travels to Vanderbilt on Nov. 13. It’ll handle the Commodores and New Mexico State the next week before meeting rival Louisville on the road. That game could prove to be the difference-maker in UK winning nine or 10 games, and in Louisville possibly qualifying for the postseason.
Momentum relief
With a trip to Georgia looming and Big Blue Madness scheduled for next Friday, a loss to LSU would have been unwell for the Cats’ fan and media attention.
Like it or not, Kentucky fans care more about their basketball team to a much-greater degree than any other fan base in the Southeastern Conference. The problem with that is, unless the football team is killing it, it often takes a backseat to the round ball once it starts bouncing. Having only two games left on the home schedule as colder weather sets in isn’t exactly helpful in terms of rekindling a flame that could be on its way to ashes, barring a huge upset in Athens.
The Cats aren’t impervious to it, still; if they drop their next three games — the latter two in which they’ll be favorites — that would be more than enough encouragement for talk-radio hosts to turn their dial over to basketball chatter. If they can come away from a loss at Georgia with a focus level that propels them to 10 or 11 wins before a great bowl trip? Then it’s another story.
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 10:53 PM.
