How to watch Kentucky vs. LSU: Game time, TV schedule, online streaming and more

With six games to go, could the best team in the SEC East be Kentucky? The Wildcats could take a huge step toward their first ever SEC Championship Game appearance Saturday against LSU. Kickoff from Death Valley is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.

Kentucky enters the second half of the season at 5-1 for the first time since 2007, and are a half-game back of Georgia in the SEC East race. The Wildcats are 15th nationally in scoring defense and ranked in the national top 30 in scoring offense, as well, with quarterback Patrick Towles averaging more than 250 yards per game through the air. While the Wildcats have won all five games at home, their lone road loss -- a triple-overtime thriller against Florida -- was hardly a bad performance.

Even if the Tigers aren’t as formidable as usual, night games in Baton Rouge are a completely different monster. LSU managed to win its own nail-biter at Florida last week, and highly-touted freshman running back Leonard Fournette has surpasses 120 yards rushing in two of the Bayou Bengals’ last three games.

Game time: Saturday, October 18, 7:30 p.m. ET

TV: SEC Network (Brent Musberger, Jesse Palmer, Maria Taylor)

Radio: LSU radio affiliates; Kentucky radio affiliates

Online streaming: WatchESPN

Rankings and records: Neither team is ranked entering Saturday’s game, though both sit just outside the top 25. This marks the first week that LSU (5-2, 1-2 SEC) is unranked since 2008. Kentucky (5-1, 2-1 SEC) has an outside chance of entering the polls for the first time since 2007 with a win.

Vegas: LSU is favored by 11 points, with an over/under set at 53 points.

Weather forecast: Partly cloudy, with a kickoff temperature in the low 70s.

As previously mentioned, any serious chance of Kentucky winning the SEC East rides on Saturday’s game. The Wildcats still have home games against top-ranked Mississippi State and Georgia and a road trip to Missouri, but that passes for an easy schedule in this year’s SEC.

LSU’s entire season could be on the line this week. The Tigers still have Ole Miss and Alabama on the slate, and figure to be a favorite just once more this season (at Arkansas). A 6-6 campaign becomes entirely plausible should the TIgers lose to Kentucky Saturday.

Kentucky rushing offense vs. LSU front seven: Mississippi State and Auburn racked up points against LSU’s usually-stout defense by sticking with the running game. The Bulldogs and Tigers each ran for more than 298 yards against the Bayou Bengals. Wisconsin also hammered LSU on the ground, but inexplicably went away from Melvin Gordon during a second-half collapse. Kentucky has relied primarily on the pass this year, throwing for 264 a game, but is increasingly finding its way on the ground. The Wildcats ran for 239 yards in a win over South Carolina. Throwing against the LSU defense, ranked seventh nationally in passing yards allowed, is not advised. If Kentucky is going to win, it will have to be on the ground.

And the Valley Shook handles the LSU Tigers, while A Sea of Blue covers Kentucky.