Lane Kiffin said he expected Kentucky to hit its game-winning 2-point conversion in the Wildcats’ 35-34 overtime win over No. 10 LSU.

Lane Kiffin was ready for Kentucky to play for victory in overtime of the Wildcats’ 35-34 win over the No. 10 Tigers.

After Kentucky tied the game on a field goal with seconds remaining, LSU got the ball to start overtime. The Tigers immediately scored on a TD run by Sam Leavitt. LSU scored the extra point to go up by seven.

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Kiffin said he told defensive coordinator Blake Baker the game wasn’t going to go to a second overtime.

“I said once we scored, I told Blake, I said ‘Blake, obviously I’d like you to stop (Kentucky) but if you don’t, you better have the best 2-point call ready because they’re going to make two like they did the week before.'”

Sure enough, that’s exactly what Kentucky did. The Wildcats scored, then went for 2, where quarterback Kenny Minchey ran untouched up the middle for the game-winning conversion after LSU defenders left midfield.

Minchey said after the game that he was “very surprised” to have so much room to run in the end zone.

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“Not necessarily a planned run, but obviously we have an opportunity to do it, especially in the bottom of the red zone for the 2-point conversion,” Minchey told reporters of the play. “The defense can play their role based on what they want to take away and obviously the gap, or the thing you can attack on offense is the QB run. So that opened up and we ran it.”

It was Kentucky’s second straight 35-34 overtime victory after the Wildcats scored a game-winning 2-point conversion against South Carolina in Week 5.

The game went into overtime after Kentucky kicker Adam Zouagui missed two field goals in the fourth quarter. Those misses, Kiffin said, played into LSU’s decision to punt the ball back to the Wildcats with less than two minutes remaining. LSU had a fourth-and-1 at its own 43-yard line with 1:46 left after a Kentucky timeout. Instead of going for the winning first down, Kiffin opted to punt.

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“Obviously when things go the other way, you look at yourself first and you know, I thought about going for a fourth and one and then talking myself out of it, you know, the way their kicker had already missed two field goals and we would throw them deep and play defense,” Kiffin said.

“And obviously, worst case scenario, even if they came in and made it, we went to overtime and that’s what happened.”