SEC Network analysts debate which team needed bye week the most following last weekend’s games
By Keith Farner
Published:
LSU and Kentucky are in similar situations as they enter the bye week following losses to Auburn and Georgia. But which one needs the off week more, and is it a case of rest versus rust?
SEC Network analysts Roman Harper and Matt Stinchcomb addressed those issues recently.
“I think it’s Kentucky,” Stinchcomb said. “And it’s not necessarily for them to get back to the physical nature of play, although that would come in handy, but they have kind of slept walked through their last two games. Both Missouri and Georgia, sleepy performances, the offense has completely disappeared on them. They need to get Terry Wilson health, I think. They need to get quarterback figured out. But more than anything else, they need to find their energy. Because to me, that’s what’s been lacking in their last two contests. Saw the Missouri game in person and you just wondered, where was the sense of urgency. It’s not panic, necessarily, but climbing back into a football game.”
It didn’t get better last week in the loss to Georgia.
“Maybe it was just the style of game, but watching Kentucky, it felt like a scrimmage, more than any other game that we’ve seen this season. I think they need an emotional reset this week.”
Harper pointed to LSU because of earlier history of playing exceedingly well against South Carolina.
“Everybody thought that South Carolina had a chance, we came out, we saw the best version of LSU,” Harper said. “They just got throttled against Auburn, 48-11, that is oh. How do you do? You give yourself some off time, let’s get away. Let’s really try and decompress our mind, we want to stay on campus, but we don’t want to think about that, how do we move forward as a team, as an offense, as a defense.”
Harper added that the return of QB Myles Brennan from injury could be a boost for the Tigers.
LSU returns to action next week against Alabama, while Kentucky will play Vanderbilt.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
