Lane Kiffin Points to Unfortunate LSU Setbacks After Kentucky Loss Puts Playoff Hopes in Jeopardy

LSU had no business losing to Kentucky, but Lane Kiffin’s team somehow managed to throw away a game the Wildcats practically handed them. Kentucky missed two fourth-quarter field goals, including a 26-yarder after Sam Leavitt fumbled and gave the Wildcats possession. Yet the Tigers still couldn’t get the job done, falling 35-34 in overtime. Now sitting at 4-2, LSU has turned a winnable game into a serious threat to its playoff hopes, and Kiffin has plenty to answer for.

Lane Kiffin didn’t sugarcoat LSU’s collapse when he addressed the Kentucky loss on his radio show during his first season in Baton Rouge.

“The result sucked. There’s no other way to put it,” he said, according to The Advocate’s Jon Blau.

That was the easy part. Explaining how LSU let a winnable game slip away was considerably harder. Still, he believes the circumstances surrounding his roster have mattered. Lane Kiffin pointed to missed opportunities across the board, while acknowledging another complication that has followed his team through the opening weeks of the season: injuries.

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“Sometimes you have years where you get the breaks & they go your way,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t. Unfortunately for our fans, it just happened in the first year in the game (vs. UK) and in some injury situations”

LSU has been without several contributors, including LB Whit Weeks, safety Dashawn Spears, LB Charles Ross II, WR Phillip Wright III, and TE Trey’Dez Green. Spears, Ross and Wright have been ruled out for the season, while Weeks and Green have faced extended absences.

Weeks’ absence has been particularly painful on defense. The linebacker had recorded 24 tackles through LSU’s first four games before suffering a broken right leg against Texas A&M. Lane Kiffin offered a telling description of the player’s influence, explaining that the LB personally texted every defensive player before the Kentucky game.

“That’s who he is,” he said. “You don’t replace that, you don’t replace when things aren’t going well in the game, that alpha.”

The numbers against Kentucky showed the problem. The Wildcats rushed for 155 yards on 4.8 yards per carry, with CJ Baxter finishing with 123 yards and two touchdowns. His overtime score helped put Kentucky in position to finish the job. But injuries cannot account for everything that went wrong.

LSU actually produced 410 total yards, edging Kentucky’s 401, and collected 26 first downs to the Wildcats’ 19. The Tigers had their moments, including a trick play that sent Zach Grace into the end zone on a 22-yard pass from Sam Leavitt. But even those flashes of creativity weren’t enough to overcome LSU’s costly mistakes down the stretch.

LSU surrendered a 77-yard run on Kentucky’s first offensive possession and later allowed a 55-yard punt-return touchdown. The Tigers also committed seven penalties to Kentucky’s two and turned the ball over twice without forcing a single takeaway.

Then came Lane Kiffin’s decision on fourth-and-1. With a late lead and an opportunity to keep the ball, he chose to punt rather than trust his offense to pick up the yard. Kentucky got the ball back and eventually kicked a 33-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining, forcing overtime.

Lane Kiffin later admitted the punt decision would haunt him. The Wildcats even missed two fourth-quarter field goals, including a 26-yarder after Leavitt fumbled. LSU caught break after break and still walked away with a loss.

LSU has slipped to 1-2 in SEC play and fallen from No. 10 to No. 22. The playoff dream is still alive, but after the previous Ole Miss road loss, the margin for error is thin. Former Tiger Tyrann Mathieu sounded doubtful about LSU’s title chances on his October 13 podcast.

“The chances of them representing in the championship game are probably slim at the moment. It’s tough, bro,” he said.

LSU now faces Mississippi State, followed by a demanding stretch that includes Alabama, Texas and Tennessee. There is little room left for another conference stumble.

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