Give Kentucky All The Credit

Wildcats show some toughness in upset of No. 1 LSU

College Football Recap: Week 7

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Top 25 Game Recaps ----- THURSDAY ----- Wake Forest 24, No. 21 Florida St. 21 ----- FRIDAY ----- No. 16 Hawai'i 42, San Jose State 35 ----- SATURDAY ----- No. 17 Kentucky 43, No. 1 LSU 37 Oregon State 31, No. 2 Cal 28 No. 3 Ohio State 48, Kent State 3 No. 4 Boston College 27, Notre Dame 14 No. 5 South Florida 64, UCF 12 No. 6 Oklahoma 41, No. 11 Missouri 31 No. 7 South Carolina 21, North Carolina 15 No. 9 Oregon 53, Washington State 7 No. 10 USC 20, Arizona 13 No. 12 Virginia Tech 43, Duke 14 Louisville 28, No. 15 Cincinnati 24 No. 14 Arizona St. 44, Washington 20 Iowa 10, No. 18 Illinois 6 Penn State 38, No. 19 Wisconsin 7 No. 20 Kansas 58, Baylor 10 No. 22 Auburn 9, Arkansas 7 No. 23 Texas 56, Iowa State 3 No. 24 Georgia 20, Vanderbilt 17 No. 25 Tennessee 33, Mississippi State 21  Team Capsules  ---------- Air Force Akron Alabama Arizona Arizona St Arkansas Arkansas St Army Auburn BYU Ball St Baylor Boise St Boston College Bowling Green Buffalo California Central Mich Cincinnati Clemson Colorado Colorado St Connecticut Duke East Carolina Eastern Mich Florida Florida St Fresno St Georgia Georgia Tech Hawaii Houston Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Iowa St Kansas Kansas St Kent State Kentucky LSU La Tech Louisville Marshall Maryland Memphis Miami Fla Miami Ohio Michigan Michigan St Middle Tenn Minnesota Mississippi Mississippi St Missouri NC State Navy Nebraska Nevada New Mexico New Mexico St North Carolina North Texas Northern Ill Northwestern Notre Dame Ohio Ohio State Oklahoma Oklahoma St Oregon Oregon St Penn St Pittsburgh Purdue Rice Rutgers SMU San Diego St San Jose St South Carolina South Florida Southern Miss Stanford Syracuse TCU Temple Texas Texas A&M Texas Tech Toledo Troy St Tulane Tulsa UAB UCF UCLA UL-Lafayette UL-Monroe UNLV USC UTEP Utah Utah St Vanderbilt Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest Washington Washington St West Virginia Western Mich Wisconsin Wyoming ----------

Oct. 13, 2007

By Trev Alberts

Special to CSTV.com

	TREV ALBERTS Trev Alberts is a football analyst for CSTV and CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- TREV's MAILBAG 2/20: Show Some Patience 1/23: Cutcliffe Can Be Successful At Duke 1/16: To Each His Own 1/10: Watching Different Games 1/2: Brennan's Sugar Performance Won't Hurt Him 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 12/19: Rodriguez Licking His Chops 12/12: Buckeyes Have A Chip 12/05: Missouri Got Hosed 11/28: Some Coaching Changes Ludicrous 11/21: Love Woodson's Poise 11/14: Dixon Can Be Contained, But Not Stopped 11/7: Pac-10 Far From Overrated 10/31: Appalachian State Loss An Afterthought 10/24: No Halves Off In College Football 10/17: Nebraska In Good Hands With The Doctor 10/10: Trojans Still A Player 10/03: Don't Hate On South Florida 09/26: Hangovers Part of The Game 09/19: Nebraska's Performance Disappointing 09/12: DeSean As Explosive As It Gets 09/05: Tebow Impressive In First Start 08/29: ACC QBs Better Than Advertised 08/24: McFadden Not Quite In Bush's Class 08/17: From Overrated To Underrated 08/10: Florida's Overrated 08/03: Spurrier's Got That Twinkle 07/27: Big East Deserves More Credit 07/20: Badgers Playing For Second, At Best 07/13: Gators Repeat? Not So Fast 07/06: Pac-10 Still Owned By USC 06/29: One Big's Better Than The Other 06/22: WAC Ain't All That 06/15: Text Messaging Ban Excessive 06/08: Fifth Year of Eligibility A Good Idea 05/25: Hot Seat Warming Up For Some Coaches 05/18: Big Ten Falling Behind SEC 05/11: 'Canes, Seminoles Have Ways To Go 05/07: Sleeping Dawgs 04/20: Look Out For South Florida 04/13: Boise's Johnson Has No Shot At '07 Heisman 03/30: The Best Atmosphere In College Football Belongs To... 03/23: Tough To Compare QBs With Different Styles 03/16: Top Coaches Need To Be Appreciated 03/9: Woodson Nation's Most Indispensable QB 03/2: Things Just Not The Same At Nebraska 02/23: Rodriguez Does Well With His Chips 02/16: Believe It Or Not, I Don't Have An FSU Agenda 02/09: Yes, I Do Know College Football 02/02: Of Course Huskers Make Adjustments 01/26: Coach Alberts In Lincoln? No Chance 01/19: Can't Begrudge Kids For Leaving Early 01/03: Saban Heads to Alabama 12/29: Some Coaching Changes Come As Surprise 12/22: Too Many Bowl Games Way of Life 12/15: Who Has The Best Talent In The Nation? 12/7: Who's The More Deserving National Title Participant? 12/1: Irish Don't Deserve BCS Bid 11/16: Ohio State the Better Team 11/9: Give the Big East Its Due 11/2: What's Wrong With D at USC? 10/26: Where Will Bowden Be in '07? 10/20: Who Belongs in the Top 20? FOOTBALL 1/8: In Surprise, Ohio State Beats Itself 1/6: Good Start Vital For Buckeyes 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 11/23: LSU Loss A Microcosm Of The Season 11/19: Give It Some Time 10/13: Give Kentucky All The Credit 10/7: USC Loss Sends Shockwaves 9/1: Michigan's Loss Nothing Short of Stunning 6/19: Hoeppner Did Things His Way 4/27: Unexpected Reigned In 1994 02/22: Combine Experience Can Be Eye Opening 02/08: Signing Day Observations 02/07: Walk Down Recruiting Memory Lane 11/17: Remebering Schembechler 9/5: One Week Is Just One Week 8/25: The Return Of Trev

For Kentucky to pull through like they did I thought was pretty remarkable. Especially the way it transpired in the triple overtime and the epic battle that we saw with both teams having to go for two, Kentucky failing and the Wildcats defense so tired, having given up 260 yards on the ground.

But you have to be proud of the Kentucky defense and I think Matt Flynn missed more than a few receivers and the Tigers had their fair share of drops. They didn't complete the kind of passes they needed to. It has to be frustrating because LSU has talent and the defense wasn't quite as dominating as we thought they'd be.

You can obviously make the argument that LSU made a mistake by running four straight times in the third overtime. But it's like anything else. Les Miles is praised when he goes for it on fourth down five times against Florida and converts each time, but this time he fails, challenging his offensive line who couldn't come through. The obvious question is why didn't he throw the ball?

Rather than point to LSU's ineffectiveness at key moments, I choose to lift up Kentucky's defense because, let's face it, Kentucky had made progress over the years offensively while the defense was always their Achilles heal. They were playing without Rafael Little and were coming off of last week's loss, allowing them every opportunity to say we're not quite ready to run with the big boys.

I thought it was a courageous effort out of the Wildcats, but I thought the emotional games that LSU has played may have caught up with them. And that's what makes the SEC so difficult. It used to be you at least had Vanderbilt, Kentucky and South Carolina as guaranteed wins and now you literally don't get a break. Some toughness had to come out today and Kentucky showed that toughness.

What a terrific, terrific win and performance by coach Rich Brooks and his staff. In an age when there are too many quick triggers on hirings and firings of college coaches, Kentucky sticks with a guy and gets a hugely important win. But the Wildcats now have Florida next week and the question is how does Brooks transition his team off of this win, then all of a sudden turn around and try to defeat an Urban Meyer team hungry for a win?

As this race unfolds for the national championship and the number of teams who are going to have two or maybe even three losses piles up, there are going to be some pretty good SEC teams in the mix who will have beat up on each other. And it's unfortunate for them that they're so good as a conference that it's hurting them nationally to knock each other off. You may not have any SEC team ranked in the Top 5 when the polls come out Sunday.

I think what's going to be interesting for LSU is what the poll voters choose to do. Remember, USC played horribly against Washington and got beat at home by Stanford and dropped to No. 10.  I don't think the Tigers are out of the race. They still have great teams ahead on their schedule and potentially the SEC Championship game. They still essentially control their own destiny in the West and that's all that really matters because if they take care of business, they'll get a chance to win the SEC.

With what's happened in college football this year, they're not out of this thing. Jacob Hester has to get healthy. Miles can talk about Kentucky and how they had an emotional game the week before against South Carolina and rebounded to get a very important win. You lose the game they have against Auburn next week and the SEC West is all of a sudden out of question.

So next week we'll find out about the Tigers' resiliency and ability to overcome adversity. They have some questions at quarterback that I think they need to settle. They have to get healthy and address some holes in their defense. Bo Pelini and crew will go back and try and correct those things with his great players, but sometimes you're told for so long how great you are and then you turn on the film and realize you just lost to Kentucky. I think LSU will be motivated next week. They'll be back and they'll be strong.