First Scouting Report: Can Kentucky take down another old-line SEC power in LSU?
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Game day: Kentucky 20, Florida 13
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:
The opponent
Kentucky (5-0, 3-0 SEC) will play LSU (3-2, 1-1 SEC) Saturday (Oct. 9) at Kroger Field in Lexington.
The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and be telecast by the SEC Network.
Coach Ed Orgeron’s Tigers lost to Auburn 24-19 in Baton Rouge on Saturday.
Series history
LSU leads 40-16-1 and has won six of the seven meetings in the 21st century.
Most recent meeting
Terrence Magee rushed for 127 yards and two touchdowns and LSU put a 41-3 beat down on Kentucky on Oct. 18, 2014, at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
A sputtering UK offense was held to 217 total yards and the Wildcats’ only points came on a 33-yard field goal by Austin MacGinnis with 1:15 left in the first half.
Know your foe
1. Because Ed Orgeron is the type of head coach who is heavily reliant on his coordinators, there is ample focus with LSU on the assistants running the offense and defense, respectively.
Like Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, Orgeron has looked to the NFL for his top assistants.
Former Carolina Panthers assistant Jake Peetz is calling the offense for LSU. Peetz was suggested to Orgeron by Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady, the offensive wunderkind who directed the Joe Burrow-led Tigers attack when LSU won the national championship for the 2019 season.
Going into the Auburn game, LSU stood 80th in the FBS in total offense, averaging 377.8 yards. The Tigers had really struggled in the running game, averaging only 80 yards a game rushing.
Daronte Jones, a former defensive backs coach with the Dolphins, Bengals and Vikings, is the LSU DC.
Before meeting Auburn, the Tigers “D” was 61st in the FBS in total defense, surrendering 345.5 yards a game, but first in the SEC in sacks with 18.
2. Quarterback Max Johnson was expected to battle Myles Brennan in the preseason to be the LSU starter. Brennan, however, suffered a broken arm that required surgery shortly before training camp began.
Secure in the starting spot, Johnson has performed well.
Going into the matchup with Auburn, the 6-5, 219-pound sophomore had thrown 15 touchdown passes vs. only three interceptions while completing 64.4 percent of his passes.
3. The last two times LSU has played football in Lexington has produced epic games.
In 2002, the Tigers beat Kentucky 33-30 on a final-play, Hail Mary, 70-yard pass from Marcus Randall to Devery Henderson. The play is known in LSU lore as “The Bluegrass Miracle.”
Five years later, UK got a memorable revenge. The Wildcats upset No. 1 LSU 43-37 in three overtimes. Kentucky’s winning score came on a 7-yard TD pass from Andre Wodson to Steve Johnson.
Kentucky linebacker Braxton Kelley subsequently secured what was UK’s third all-time victory over a No. 1-ranked team when he stoned LSU running back Charles Scott 1 yard short of the first-down marker on a fourth-and-2 play.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 9:37 PM.
