No. 24 Kentucky travels to Columbia this weekend looking to build on a road win at then-ninth-ranked Texas A&M in its first conference road game. The Wildcats are 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the SEC, while South Carolina enters after back-to-back SEC losses to Mississippi State and Alabama.
For Kentucky, the trip offers another chance to show that its early road success can hold up in a tougher atmosphere. Will Stein said the Wildcats have leaned on their weekly work to handle those moments, pointing back to the team’s preparation and practice as the foundation for its success away from home.
What Stein said about road preparation
Stein said Kentucky tries to keep road games from becoming bigger than they need to be. His message has been simple: it is still a football game, and if a team lets the crowd or the atmosphere control how it plays, that is when things can unravel. In his view, players can become distracted and lose focus if they do not stay locked in on the task at hand.
That approach clearly mattered two weeks ago at Texas A&M, where Kentucky earned a win in its first conference road outing. It also fits the way the Wildcats responded last week, when they had three backs rush for 100 yards or more in a win over South Alabama.
A series with a long history
Saturday’s game also comes with plenty of history behind it. Kentucky and South Carolina first met in 1937, played again after a long gap in 1978, and began playing annually in 1992 when Carolina joined the SEC. The matchup has been competitive for stretches, but South Carolina has won the last four meetings.
Kentucky’s last on-field win in Columbia came in 2021, when it won 16-10. That result was later vacated by the NCAA. Before South Carolina’s current four-game series winning streak, Kentucky had won seven of eight from 2014 to 2021.
South Carolina won last season’s meeting in Columbia by a 35-13 score, so Kentucky will have to improve on both recent history and the challenge of playing away from home. Still, the Wildcats have already shown they can handle one difficult road environment, and this weekend gives them another chance to prove that performance was not a one-off.
