Friday marks the 10th anniversary of the “Bluegrass Miracle,” when LSU beat Kentucky with a 74-yard touchdown pass on the last play.
Alabama’s Nick Saban coached that LSU team, which won 33-30. Marcus Randall threw the winning pass to Devery Henderson, who caught a deflection off at least one Kentucky player and ran into the end zone for the touchdown.
While Henderson was running into the end zone at one end of Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, fans had stormed the field on the other end to tear down the goal posts.
“I remember. I remember it all,” Saban said on the SEC coaches teleconference this morning. “I remember we played poorly all game.”
Kentucky kicked a field goal with 11 seconds left for a 30-27 lead. Randall then completed a short pass to Michael Clayton at the Kentucky 26, which left two seconds on the clock and time for one more play.
“Wind carried the ball about 70 yards. Their guy tipped the ball,” Saban said. “It’s a little bit of luck when you hit one like that.”
The story goes that on the trip home, Saban complained to his wife, Terry, about how poorly his team played. She responded by saying, “Shut up, Nick, and enjoy it.”
For some reason, he can’t remember that part: “She says ‘Shut up and enjoy it’ and shut up and a lot of other things every other day,” Saban said.
But Saban does rememeber what happened the next week.
“The next week, we got beat as bad as we ever got beat,” he said.
Alabama fans probably remember that one, too. The Crimson Tide, then coached by Dennis Franchione, beat LSU 31-0 in Tiger Stadium at night. That was LSU’s last home loss on a Saturday night until falling to Tim Tebow and Florida in 2009.
If you don’t remember the play, we’ve got video for you:
