LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDRB+WAVE) – Someone should put out an all-points report card for the old Kentucky football team.
He disappeared.
You remember this one. This could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This could turn a failed mission into a wasted Saturday. It might take a really good soccer game and make you want to spend the afternoon cleaning out the garage.
This team had several excellent opportunities to make an appearance on Saturday night.
Kentucky missed two field goals. He wasted a fumble recovery deep in LSU territory. That allowed the nation’s No. 10 team to hang around long enough to take the lead in overtime.
And then the Wildcats did something completely different from Kentucky.
They won.
Kentucky 35, LSU 34.
It’s fair to say that the Stein era is off to a good start.
Will Stein is 36 years old. He was Kentucky’s head football coach for six games. At an age when some coaches are still trying to be on the right committee, Stein beat two top-10 teams and won three straight Southeastern Conference games.
Four weeks ago, Kentucky went to Texas A&M and won. Last week, the Wildcats overcame a 17-point deficit at South Carolina and won in overtime. On Saturday, they beat LSU in a game they could have won in regulation, almost lost in overtime and ultimately settled with a two-point conversion that was almost embarrassingly easy.
Las Vegas thought Kentucky would win four and a half games this season. Stein has already won five, with six left to play. This is what we call fast cash.
Saturday’s final play was a little masterpiece of recognition.
LSU scored first in overtime on a 15-yard run by Sam Leavitt. Kentucky responded with a 1-yard touchdown run by CJ Baxter.
That makes LSU 34, Kentucky 33.
A conventional coach, at home, would have scored the extra point and prepared for another overtime. Stein, who had won the game against South Carolina by scoring two points, saw no reason to change a successful arrangement.
Kentucky lined up, tried to put LSU offside and called a timeout.
It was time to reconsider. It’s time to imagine the consequences of failure. It’s time to think about what the podcasts would say if the play didn’t work.
Stein returned his attack.
Five receivers. Empty backfield. Kenny Minchey alone waits for the photo.
LSU spread its defense to cover receivers. Minchey saw a light box, meaning only four four defenders between the tackles in position to stop the run, and checked a quarterback draw.
He took the picture, looked in the middle and found no one.
He ran. He trotted. He practically danced. Three meters, intact. He could have carried a cup of coffee through that opening without spilling it.
Stein missed everything.
“I didn’t see what happened,” he said. “I was monitoring the routes, and then people started storming the field.”
The coach had decided to aim for victory. His quarterback had figured out how to get it.
And with that, Kentucky earned its second straight overtime victory 35-34, both decided by two-point conversions. They are the first team to win a one-point overtime in consecutive weeks since the university overtime format was established.
“It was a little more chaotic than last week,” Stein said.
But there was much more to do on Saturday than the last three meters. For most of the night, Kentucky did things against LSU’s defense that teams weren’t supposed to do.
The Tigers ranked second nationally in total defense and fourth against the run, allowing just 58.4 rushing yards per game.
Baxter exceeded that total on Kentucky’s first play, breaking free for 77 yards before being caught at the LSU 3. He carried it in on the next snap. Two plays, 80 yards, touchdown.
It was not an encouraging introduction for the LSU defense.
Brock Coffman then returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown. And just before halftime, Minchey led Kentucky on a 15-play, 75-yard drive, finishing it himself on the final play of the half by fighting off a pile of LSU defenders from a yard out.
There was no trick to this touchdown. No open field. No intelligent training that fooled no one. Just a quarterback determined to get one more yard than the defense intended to allow.
Kentucky led 21-17 at halftime.
And for much of the second half, the Wildcats seemed determined to find out how many chances a team could waste and still win a football game.
They led 24-20 before LSU receiver Jackson Harris threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Roman Mothershed on a trap play to put the Tigers ahead 27-24.
Kentucky got back into scoring position, but Adam Zouagui missed a 42-yard field goal.
Then Jamarrion Harkless sacked Leavitt and forced a fumble that Tavion Gadson recovered at the LSU 13.
This was Kentucky’s opportunity to put old history aside. Instead, the Wildcats reached the 8, fumbled on third down and sent Zouagui in for a 26-yard attempt.
He missed that one too.
The old Kentucky football team appeared to be warming up on the sidelines.
There was plenty of time left for LSU to finish the job. The Tigers couldn’t. Kentucky got the ball back and Minchey went back to work.
It has become something of a specialty for him. This is not a quarterback who seems terribly impressed by the circumstances. He can throw a bad pass, take a sack, see a lead disappear and return to the huddle as if someone had simply interrupted his evening.
He completed five of his final six passes in regulation and put Kentucky within field goal range again.
With 12 seconds left, Zouagui lined up for a 33-yard field goal.
This time he succeeded.
“A kicker’s life,” Stein said.
The same kicker who missed twice saved the game. There were no bad guys here. Kentucky had made many mistakes as a team. His offense had failed to finish drives. His kicker had missed opportunities. His defense made some big plays. What’s remarkable is that none of this proved fatal.
LSU had every chance of leaving Lexington with a victory. Instead, the Tigers found themselves in overtime against a Kentucky team that had no intention of going away.
Leavitt scored. Baxter scored. Stein opted for two. Minchey found an empty middle.
And suddenly the field was covered with people in blue.
There’s something worth examining over the final four weeks of Kentucky football beyond the scores.
Minchey beat No. 9 Texas A&M on the road, staged the greatest road comeback in South Carolina school history and has now helped knock off No. 10 LSU. He made Kentucky football history on consecutive Saturdays.
Some players spend four years hoping for one of these moments. Minchey collects them like frequent flyer miles.
And Stein changed the conversation around Kentucky football.
There will be comparisons to Curt Cignetti at Indiana. There should be some. Cignetti came to a school accustomed to losing football games and behaved as if his history had nothing to do with his future. Ultimately, Indiana won a national championship.
Stein is far from having achieved this goal. Six games don’t make a dynasty. Kentucky still has a long way to go.
But this attitude is familiar. Stein doesn’t seem particularly interested in what Kentucky is traditionally incapable of doing.
He’s more interested in what he can do next. And his players are starting to think the same way.
That’s not to say Kentucky has everything solved. Saturday’s missed opportunities were real. Against another opponent, another night, they could have been decisive.
But that’s precisely what makes this victory so telling. Kentucky didn’t win because everything went well. He won when a lot of things went wrong.
The old Kentucky football team could have pulled away after the second missed field goal. He might have viewed LSU’s overtime touchdown as the final insult to a familiar story.
This Kentucky team responded with a touchdown of their own, then went in search of two more points.
For Stein, this celebration meant much more than a new entry in the rankings.
“It was for Big Blue Nation. For the state of Kentucky,” he said. “It’s for anyone who grew up like me, a Wildcats fan, and is really excited for these people.”
From the heights of Kroger Field, the view was extraordinary. Thousands of fans covered the pitch. The stands were emptying, but the field was filling up.
For this game, Stein brought back the old Power K, a piece of Kentucky football past.
And for much of Saturday night, the Wildcats threatened to bring back something else from that past: the missed opportunities, the heartbreak, the game that got away.
But not this time.
The old Power K is back. This was not the case with the old Kentucky end.
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