By Annie Dunbar

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UK football will face its biggest challenge come Saturday, playing SEC foe LSU on the road in the rowdy Tiger Stadium.

“I love the atmosphere,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said. “I’ve been down there before. They are passionate fans, and it’s a hostile environment, and that’s why we play. That’s why we coach. We want to continue to win games to put ourselves in position to play in big games. So this will be a great challenge.”

LSU (5-2) is coming off a close 30-27 victory over Florida in the Swamp; a game where head coach Les Miles’ team faced adversity.

“It was a very exciting game,” Miles said. “It’s one that I think certainly took twists and turns. The last six minutes, certainly, our football team needed to figure out exactly how to win that one, and it did. I have to tell you that I am very proud of the way they overcame some adversity there.”

Throughout the Tigers’ matchup with the Gators, Miles saw improvement across numerous areas of the game. Most notable was his front seven and running back Leonard Fournette.

“Felt like the offensive line keeps getting better,” Miles said. “I think it was a dominant day for them, rushed for just under 200 yards. Protected the passer fairly well, and again, this team’s improving. Leonard for net rushes for 140 yards, two touchdowns, really runs the football like we’re used to having it run around here.”

Fournette, in addition to running backs Kenny Hilliard and Terrence Magee, will be a handful for the Cats, according to Stoops.

“(LSU) run the ball extremely well,” Stoops said. “They’re extremely physical. You know, with the emergence of their freshman tailback, Fournette, he’s a physical guy, and. of course, Kenny Hilliard, their senior. They got some good backs, very big, very physical. Their whole line does a great job, so we’ll have our hands full this week.”

Another weapon for the Tigers is sophomore wide receiver Travin Dural. Dural is averaging 26.1 receiving yards a catch, totaling 626 yards on the season. The sophomore has also scored six touchdowns on the year.

Facing off against Dural and the Tigers’ offense will be a much-improved UK defense, which LSU will have to be mindful of.

“Defensively, they’re allowing 18 points and it’s, again, a quality SEC defense,” Miles said. “They turn the ball, they have taken the ball away from the opponent, they have got 11 pass interceptions, and their turnover margin is second in the conference … Very capable defense and we’ll have to play well.”

For UK, finding a flow on offense will be another challenging task against a disruptive LSU defense. The Cats’ started out slow offensively against ULM, which Stoops attributed to a variety of things but pinpointed to being flat during the lead up to the game.

“It was a breakdown here or there, and those are things that we got to get fixed,” Stoops said. “… but you can talk until you’re blue in the face. You can put all kind of examples in front of them. We try to prepare them the best we can, and hopefully they learn something from it. It’s not just emotion either. You don’t just turn emotion on, on Saturday. It’s about the week, and I know I talk about that all the time, but it’s so true. They’ve got to walk in our building today with a great attitude about them and a strong mindset to have a great week of preparation to put ourselves in position to win a game.”

Stoops said setting the tone early and establishing that offensive flow will fall on the shoulders of quarterback Patrick Towles.

“I know he’s going to have to throw the ball well for us to win some games,” Stoops said. “And this week it’s not going to be easy, and he has to be more than a manager in this game. His talent has to show and he’s got to play confident and he’s got to throw the ball and he’s got to play aggressive.”