LSU walked into Lexington with a game it was supposed to win and walked out with a 35-34 overtime loss to Kentucky, a result that keeps the Tigers spinning on the road and makes the path back into the SEC title conversation look awfully steep. The defeat also extends LSU’s road losing streak against SEC opponents back to October 2024.
Two losses do not automatically knock a team out of the playoff picture, but LSU’s remaining schedule leaves little room for the kind of sloppiness that showed up Saturday. With more road tests ahead, including a ranked opponent and historic rivalry games, the Tigers have to be sharper away from the Pelican State.
The first issue is the one that keeps surfacing: LSU keeps beating itself. Through the first half of the season, discipline has been a problem, and the Tigers entered Week 5 averaging 7 penalties per game, which ranked 79th in the 138-team Football Bowl Subdivision.
The breakdowns have gone beyond flags, too. Earlier in the season, LSU’s defense had a play unravel against Trinidad Chambliss when an overcommitted defensive back left a receiver free for a desperation flip pass, turning what could have been a tackle for loss into a big gain for Ole Miss.
That kind of execution issue matters even more on the road, where mistakes tend to snowball. In Lexington, LSU controlled the ball for more than 20 minutes in the first half and outgained Kentucky 162 to 40, but still went to halftime trailing.
The Wildcats stayed alive because LSU gave away key moments. A punt coverage bust turned into a 55-yard touchdown return by Brock Coffman, and several Tigers failed to close space or take the right angle to finish the play, flipping the score to 14-10 Kentucky.
Quarterback Sam Leavitt also gave Kentucky openings it could use. He threw an interception, which keeps him as the only FBS quarterback to throw a pick in every game this season, and later added a fumble that let Kentucky control the tempo down the stretch. That second turnover came as Leavitt tried to make a play himself.
The penalties piled up along with the mistakes. LSU’s offense drew multiple pre-snap and illegal procedure penalties, a sign that the motion-heavy structure Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. are using is still too much for the players executing it cleanly. By the end of the game, LSU had been penalized for 50 yards, 30 more than Kentucky.
In a game that was tight throughout, those self-inflicted issues were enough to let Kentucky hang around when LSU should have pushed the Wildcats away.
There’s also the matter of how LSU is handling its own bodies. Injuries have been a major part of the first six games, and Kiffin does not seem interested in dialing back the physical toll on his key players.
Leavitt, who hurt his hamstring in LSU’s Week 4 win over Texas A&M, had a longer leash than expected in the Week 5 win over McNeese, throwing 23 passes and staying in deep into that game even though he didn’t show much with his legs. Kiffin said there was no preset plan for starter usage in Week 5, and the approach was similar for much of the starting group.
Against Kentucky, Leavitt was again left exposed to hits both as a runner and in the pocket. He made some excellent throws, but some of those decisions also put receivers in harm’s way.
Winston Watkins Jr. and Jackson Harris both absorbed big shots and had to leave briefly for evaluation before returning. Harris later threw a touchdown that gave LSU a 27-24 lead.
Kiffin also kept leaning into his unusual personnel choices, including alignments that put Leavitt and backup quarterback Landen Clark out wide at times. Taken together, the quarterback decisions and the broader usage pattern made it clear LSU is not approaching these games with much concern for avoiding contact.
Then there’s the problem that may have been the most costly of all on Saturday: LSU’s work inside the 20-yard line still isn’t where it needs to be. This is a familiar sore spot in Baton Rouge, dating back to the late Brian Kelly and Joe Sloan era, and the new setup has not fully cleaned it up. Leavitt and, at times, Clark can create with their legs when plays break down, but LSU still gets stuck on bad reads in scoring range.
The Tigers reached the red zone three times in regulation and scored on all three trips, but only one of those drives ended in a touchdown. That came on the 10-yard pass from Leavitt to Harris. On another sequence, Kiffin chose to punt on a fourth-and-short that would have ended the game had LSU converted.
The bigger warning sign is the scoring rate itself. LSU scored one red-zone touchdown on Saturday, well below the 63.64% rate Kiffin and Weis posted in their final season at Ole Miss.
LSU had come into the game converting 62.5% of its red-zone chances against FBS opponents, but that standard slipped badly in Lexington. Two drives died inside the 10-yard line, leaving eight points out there - points that would have made Kentucky’s late drive irrelevant before the game ever reached overtime.
Against Ole Miss, LSU went 2-for-4 on red-zone touchdowns in a road game where cleaner finishing might have changed the outcome. Now, with more ranked opponents ahead, the Tigers can’t afford to leave points on the field the way they did against Kentucky.
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Ed Orgeron Just Took A Big Step In His LSU Return
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Lane Kiffin confirmed Orgeron is back around the program and spoke about both his health and his presence with the Tigers. Even so, Orgeron is not expected to be on the sideline for the Kentucky game, leaving his return in a sort of middle ground for now: close enough to matter, not quite complete enough to answer every question about how this comeback will look moving forward. [Read more 🡒]