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SEC Nation visits quite a few historic spots each year on its tour since, well, SEC football is so steeped in tradition that the Saturday morning pregame show is inevitably going to hit traditional hot spot after traditional hot spot.
Except this Saturday, for its Week 13 show, it will travel to a tradition-rich college football location for the very first time. And that’s because this is Texas’s very first season in the SEC, so the pregame party will head to Austin for the key showdown between the No. 3 Longhorns and upset-minded Kentucky.
FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, SEC NATION IS HEADED TO TEXAS
See y’all Saturday @TexasFootball pic.twitter.com/GHBj1Vg5CR
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 17, 2024
Sure, the 9-1 Longhorns will be a heavy favorite against the 4-6 Wildcats, but this matchup sets up as 1 team having everything to lose (Texas) against another with nothing to lose (Kentucky), so there’s that. ESPN’s FPI matchup predictor is, well, predictable, giving the Longhorns a whopping 94.7% chance to escape any upset, get to 10-1 and close in on a College Football Playoff berth.
But if you want to know how pesky Kentucky can be, just ask Lane Kiffin. All the way back in Week 5, the Wildcats went to Oxford and knocked off then-No. 6 Ole Miss, 20-17, so you would think Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will remind his players this week of that game and how the Longhorns need to be on their toes with so much at stake.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
