Boos cascaded through Tiger Stadium early in the third period from the crowd of 71,296. They weren't caused by an officiating decision or by a dirty play or showboating by a Ken­tucky Wildcat. No, the boos were directed at the LSU Tigers, who had just fallen behind the visitors 19-3. It would take multiple breaks for the Bengals to pull this one out.

Sometimes a pivotal play is a penalty on the opponent or a miscue by a kick returner or a fumble. The Tigers would benefit from all three situations.

At the half, LSU had only 91y total offense and five first downs compared to Kentucky's 229y and 11 first downs. The result was a 13-3 halftime lead for the Wildcats. Other than its field goal drive to open the game, the Tigers did not penetrate the Kentucky side of the field. Tiger Stadium had morphed from "Death Valley" to "Dead Valley."

Fans expecting a charged up LSU team to start the second half were disappointed. Run­ning Kentucky's veer offense to perfection, freshman QB Terry Henry led an 87y drive the first time UK got the ball. It culminated in a 7y pass to Chris Jones, who was uncovered on the sideline. For some reason, Coach Fran Curci called for a two-point conversion that failed. So the Cats led by 16 points rather than 17. "Their offensive line came off the ball real well," said DT Benjie Thibodeaux. "It was like a whole wall was moving forward. We made a lof mistakes on their veer options. We were kind of confused on our assignments."

The Tiger offense finally got into gear and turned the boos into cheers. QB Steve Ensmin­ger engineered a touchdown drive that took only four plays. The key one was a 32y penalty for interference against receiver Tracy Porter that put the ball on the UK 25. "I thought the ball might have hung up in the air because of the wind," said Porter. "The guy (Petty) was read­ing my eyes on the play. I went up, and he underut me." Although not operating at full speed, RB Hokie Gajan swept left for 16y before Lionel Wallis snagged a pass and dragged his feet inside the end zone for the Tigers' first touchdown of the eve­ning. Wallis "made a helluva catch on the play," said Ensminger. 19-10 Kentucky

Building on the momentum swing created by the offense, the Chinese Bandits did their part by forcing a punt that set up a 17-play 80y drive for another Tiger touchdown. RB Jesse Myles tight-roped down the sideline for an apparent 23y touchdown run. But a clipping penalty negated the score. A few plays later, facing 4th-and-four, the Tigers eschewed the field goal and got the first down on a 7y pass from Ensminger to Jerry Murphree to the 10. "No guts, no glory," said Steve on the decision. "He (Murphree) ran a curl and out route on the play. He cut his route short when he saw he had the first down." Gajan swept for 8y and Ensminger dove over from the two. 19-17 Kentucky with 9:07 left in the game.

With the crowd now fully engaged, the Tigers got two more breaks in quick succession. First, Tom Petty caught the kickoff with one foot out of bounds at the eight. Two plays later, RB Shawn Donigan fumbled, and junior DE Lyman White pounced on the ball at the 10. Donigan explained, "I didn't really have the ball. I don't know, it happened so fast. I don't know if I even had it. All I know is a helmet caught the ball, and it popped out." He blamed much of the Cats' problem on the noise. "We couldn't hear the calls on the line. On the fumble, I didn't even know the play had started. The backs couldn't hear anything."

A run by Ensminger and two by Myles put LSU on top. The two-point pass fell incom­plete. LSU 23 Kentucky 19 with 7:41 remaining.

With the crowd roaring, Henry directed a drive into LSU territory. But on 4th-and-seven from the 32 and trailing by four—Curci's decision to go for two earlier costing his club a chance to tie with a field goal, Terry couldn't find an open receiver and was stopped 2y short of the line to gain. The Wildcats would get no closer to scoring.

LSU Coach Charlie McClendon seemed more relieved than elated after beating his alma mater. "We had it all the way," he joked. As for the first half, "I have to compliment Ken­tucky. LSU didn't do anything wrong. It's what they were doing right." He added, "The fourth quarter was all ours. You're supposed to be physical, especially in the later portion of the game, and we were. It paid off for us. The mistakes they made gave us the adernalin, the momentum. I can't say enough about our team. I don't think our kids realized how far down we were, but we came back when we had to." Mac praised his defensive coaches for their halftime adjustments. "We went to a stack defense, and we hadn't worked on that defense in practice this week. I think that contained them in the second half."

"The boos really hurt," said LSU DT Benjy Thibodeaux. "We weren't trying to play bad. The fans can be upset, but it's not right for them to boo. The boos may have helped us because we decided to come back in the second half and prove to them we could do it." DE John Adams agreed with his teammate. "It's hard to take when the people start booing. In the second half, we decided to go out and play for ourselves."

Coach Curci moaned: "We just couldn't get a break. Everything was in good shape until the interference call. That changed the whole damn game."

QB Henry chanted, "The crowd, the crowd. The noise. I went up to the official and told him about it. He pulled me aside and said, 'There's nothing I can do about it. You've just got to go with it.' I was looking at the people in the backfield, and they were saying they couldn't hear me."