Kentucky Football Has An Interesting History with LSU (BTI's Rants and Ramblings)

When it comes to the modern history of Kentucky football, there are some things that you can almost always depend on, at least until the past few seasons. Georgia, Florida, Tennessee being a thorn in our side. Being better than Vanderbilt. Not winning much on the road. Little brother in the SEC. Now, Mark Stoops is slowly but surely trying to bust most of those trends and histories but one thing that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough is the weird history of football games between Kentucky and LSU. There isn’t a rivalry there as the teams don’t meet very often but damn, when they do, something memorable is gonna happen.

1992: Kentucky 27, LSU 25 (Baton Rouge)

Up to that point, Kentucky has not won an SEC road in EIGHT YEARS! That includes games against Vanderbilt. But the Cats went down and slipped past the Tigers in one of the more surprising Kentucky wins that goes unmentioned. Now, that LSU turned out to be quite bad, finishing 2-9 on the year. But with a football history of limited road victories in league play, this one was important. EIGHT YEARS without a road win.

1993: Kentucky 35, LSU 17 (Lexington)

If Kentucky hadn’t blown the Chris Doering game a month earlier, this win would have made them 4-0 in league play. What conference record are the Cats going for this weekend? 4-0. And the margin of victory is significant too. How many SEC wins (non-Vanderbilt) have the Cats won by more than 18 points since that win? The answer would be SIX (1999-South Carolina (20), 1999-LSU (26), 2002-Miss State (21), 2003-Miss State (35), 2018-Miss State (21), 2019-Missouri (22).

1994: LSU 17, Kentucky 13 (Baton Rouge)

I’ll grant that I couldn’t find much about this game. So just quickly move along from here.

1995: Kentucky 24, LSU 16 (Lexington)

LSU wasn’t bad that season, going 7-4-1. And Kentucky wasn’t very good and the fans were leaving quick. Interesting note from that game. The announced attendance for the LSU game was 51,500. UK’s next home game, 3 weeks later, only drew 25,231. Point being, another surprising win in this weird “rivalry.”

1996: LSU 41, Kentucky 14 (Baton Rouge)

The fact Kentucky even got 14 points should be an embarrassment for LSU. In the previous 6 games that season, Kentucky had scored 14, 3, 3, 0, 7, and 14. That Bill Curry offense was really humming at this point in his tenure. Nonetheless, several of these Baton Rouge beatdowns are included here.

1997: LSU 63, Kentucky 28 (Lexington)

Even in our lowest years, Kentucky has not taken too many 35 point thrashings on our home field. LSU manhandled the Cats and the Hal Mumme defense, even surpassing the 55 points that No. 1 Florida scored earlier in the year on the same field. Kentucky would get some payback the next season though.

1998: Kentucky 39, LSU 36 (Baton Rouge)

This was the win that likely got the Cats the Outback Bowl. Beating a ranked LSU squad in a NIGHT GAME in Tiger Stadium has to go down as one of the more surprising wins in UK history.

1999: Kentucky 31, LSU 5 (Lexington)

One of the weirder final scores you’ll ever see but Kentucky basically sent Gerry Dinardo out the door at LSU with this dominating performance. Kentucky’s defense, yes defense, under Hal Mumme put together probably its best performance of his tenure.

2000: LSU 34, Kentucky 0 (Baton Rouge)

The only time a Hal Mumme team was shut out was this thrashing by Nick Saban’s first-year Tiger squad. In fact, it was the only time they were even held under 10 points. Maybe we should have seen what a good coach Saban was based on these results.

2001: LSU 29, Kentucky 25 (Lexington)

This was Guy Morris’ first shot at Saban and they nearly pulled off the upset. That LSU team would go on to win the SEC title and then the national title just two years later. But this is just another in a long line of home games in that era that Kentucky could have taken down a better opponent and failed. See the next year’s game as well. Kentucky finished 2-9 that season.

2002: LSU 33, Kentucky 30 (Lexington)

2006: LSU 49, Kentucky 0 (Baton Rouge)

This game was significant for two reasons. First, the worst loss of the Rich Brooks era. Truly a low point in his tenure and I think following this game most fans thought that would be his last season. But second, for what followed. Kentucky would rip off five wins in their last six games that year, win a bowl game and proceed to go to three more before Brooks retired.

2007: Kentucky 43, LSU 37 (Lexington)

Probably still the greatest win in Kentucky football history, at least since the 1950s. Amazing game, amazing plays. And for that LSU team to go on to win the national title and UK to hang a loss on them will be a top moment for everybody alive to witness it.

2011: LSU 35, Kentucky 7 (Baton Rouge)

This moved the last three-game series in Baton Rouge to a combined LSU 118, Kentucky 7. That LSU team was amazing and could have likely picked whatever score they wanted over the Cats. They mercifully just chose a 28-point thrashing.

2014: LSU 41, Kentucky 3

This moved the last four-game series in Baton Rouge to a combined LSU 159, Kentucky 10. That LSU team was not as amazing, going just 8-5 but they could still just pick whatever score they wanted over the Cats.