Nick Saban remembers 2002 LSU Bluegrass Miracle game vs. Kentucky
Alabama football head coach Nick Saban’s return to Kentucky’s Kroger Field on Saturday isn’t likely to be as memorable as his second time visiting as a head coach. Back in 2002, Saban was in his third season at LSU, and it appeared his No. 16 Tigers had lost the game.
Kentucky fans were rushing the field celebrating the victory, but LSU wasn’t done playing yet. On Monday, Saban chuckled and covered his face before he shared his memories of the game, now popularly known as the “Bluegrass Miracle.”
“I remember we didn’t play very well,” Saban said. “I remember they poured Gatorade on the coach already. I remember there was about a 30-mile-an-hour wind that we had at our back. The guy threw the ball and it just kept going and going and going.”
There were two seconds left with the Wildcats up 30-27 over Saban’s squad. Quarterback Jared Lorenzen had indeed helped soak then-UK coach Guy Morriss, thinking the game was in the bag.
Then, starting from his own 26-yard line, LSU quarterback Marcus Randall dropped back and surveyed his options. He flung the ball down the field, and a tip-drill later, the Tigers won, on a throw that would win an ESPY for
“Their guys misjudged the ball and tipped it,” Saban said .”Devery Henderson caught it, ran it for a touchdown so that’s basically what I remember.”
Unfortunately for UK fans in attendance at what was then known as Commonwealth Stadium, many of them didn’t realize Henderson had made the catch. Jefferson Pilot TV cameras caught several of them hanging from the goalposts, celebrating what they thought was a victory.
Even in the end zone where Henderson ended up at the bottom of an LSU dog-pile of celebration, he had to run through blue-clad fans who thought the pass had been incomplete.
As Saban headed off the field, he looked less than thrilled during the postgame interview.
“Sometimes you gotta be a little lucky and I think that was our luck right here,” Saban said.
Alabama and Kentucky are scheduled to face off Saturday at 11 a.m. CT. The game will be aired on ESPN.