Blue Preview: Your one-click guide to No. 16 Kentucky’s SEC game vs. LSU
LSU at No. 16 Kentucky
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Kroger Field (capacity 61,000).
TV: SEC Network (play-by-play, Tom Hart; analysis, Jordan Rodgers; sideline, Cole Cubelic).
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1.
Satellite Radio: XM Channel 192, Sirius Channel 135, Internet Channel 963.
Records: Kentucky (5-0, 3-0 SEC); LSU (3-2, 1-1 SEC).
Series history: LSU leads 40-16-1 and has won six of the seven meetings in the 21st century.
Last meeting: LSU routed Kentucky 41-3 on Oct. 18, 2014, at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
Line: Kentucky is favored by four points.
The story line
Coming off an emotional 20-13 upset of then-No. 10 Florida, Kentucky guns for a second straight victory over an old-line SEC football power and tries to run its record to 6-0 for the first time since Bear Bryant’s 1950 Wildcats started 10-0.
The number to watch
Kentucky’s passing yards. After throwing for 419 yards in the season opener against overmatched Louisiana Monroe, Kentucky has averaged only 155.5 yards a game through the air since — and only 94.5 yards a game in the past two contests. The LSU secondary has struggled. The Tigers are allowing 248 passing yards a game, 93rd in the FBS. UK needs to take advantage and get its passing attack untracked.
The big threat
Max Johnson. With LSU having difficulty running the ball (averaging only 70.6 yards a game on the ground), the Tigers quarterback has become the clear focus of the offense. The 6-foot-5, 219-pound sophomore from Athens, Ga., is throwing for 293.6 yards a game and has 16 touchdown passes vs. only four interceptions.
On the spot
Will Levis. As defenses have begun to play their safeties deep to take away the long ball from the Kentucky quarterback, the Penn State transfer has struggled to find an effective plan B. After throwing for seven touchdowns in UK’s first three games, Levis has had only one TD throw in the past two contests. For Kentucky, the game is going to come — and it may be this week — where the Cats will have to produce through the air to win.
The mood
Is giddy. Kentucky’s first home win over Florida in 35 years is a victory for which the Big Blue Nation fervently yearned. Now the challenge for Mark Stoops and troops — and the Kroger Field crowd whose gamelong intensity created one of UK’s best football environments ever — is to bring the juice again this week against a desperate LSU team.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 10:19 AM.
