The Kentucky Wildcats volleyball team swept the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday, and completed a sweep of the SEC in the process. The Cats won their 19th straight match 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-12) and finished the regular season with a 22-2 record and 15-0 in the conference. The win gives Kentucky their 9th consecutive SEC championship, edging out the Texas A&M Aggies.

Kentucky jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the first set, then extended the lead with a four-point run that put them up 19-12. Brooklyn DeLeye had six kills and the Cats closed it out 25-16.

The second set was a closer one. Arkansas actually took a 9-8 lead early one, but the Wildcats scored four straight points. They’d lead 19-12 at one point, but the Razorbacks fought back valiantly, cutting into the lead, but ultimately fell 25-20.

Set three wasn’t competitive. Kentucky got out to an 18-12 lead, then scored the final seven points of the set to take the set 25-12, and the match 3-0.

Of all the LSU football games I’ve seen in my life, that was certainly one of them but the Tigers (6-4, 3-4) won its first game in five weeks, clinched bowl eligibility, and held off Arkansas by the slimmest of margins Saturday morning in Tiger Stadium.

Frank Wilson got his first win as interim head coach of the Tigers, while Michael Van Buren, making his first start as quarterback for LSU in place of an injured Garrett Nussmeier, made enough plays with his arms and legs to win. Did he perform well enough to be the clear-cut, unquestioned QB1 for the Tigers heading into 2026? Well…let’s revisit that later.

Maybe it was the early start, but LSU looked completely disinterested in the first quarter of today’s game. Arkansas moved right down the field on the game’s opening drive, but fumbled a toss dive on 3rd and 1 deep in LSU territory to squander that early opportunity.

The Hogs wouldn’t have to mourn the missed chance however, as Arkansas forced an LSU three and out on its opening possession, blocked a Grant Chadwick punt, and recovered it for a touchdown to go up 7-0.

LSU went three and out its second time possessing the ball, and Arkansas’ offense marched methodically down the field to go up 14-0.

To LSU’s credit, the Tiger offense responded with three straight scoring drives, using a touchdown and two field goals to chip away and make it a 14-13 game. Get this, the Tigers were able to do that largely by “running” the ball, which is a foreign concept but something that maybe ought to have been explored more earlier this season. The tandem of Harlem Berry and Caden Durham carried the ball 23 times for 117 yards, and as a team LSU finished with 155 yards rushing.

While the LSU offense chipped away and away and eventually gained the lead, the only reason they were able to do so was because the Tiger defense made some great adjustments after the first quarter. They got some help from Arkansas (two interceptions, a failed fourth and goal from the 1 and a missed 48-yard field goal that would have given the Razorbacks a late lead) but only allowed one scoring drive over Arkansas’ final eight possessions. LSU may be a bad team, but Arkansas is an all caps B A D team and that showed up today.

Stop me when you’ve heard this one before: Harold Perkins terrorized Arkansas’ offense. Perkins had his best game of the season with four tackles, a sack, 2.5 TFLs, and also intercepted a pass, that LSU was able to turn into three points.

Did Michael Van Buren do enough to earn the starting job for next season? Maybe, maybe not. The numbers look a lot better than the eye test would tell you (21 of 31 for 221 yards, one touchdown and no picks) but the bulk of those completions were at or near the line of scrimmage. Van Buren was an okayish 6 of 12 on passes beyond 10 yards, and was also sacked four times. But the whole offensive operation is so rotten (the scheme, the offensive line) that I think Van Buren probably did as well as he possibly could given the circumstances; and, if nothing else, it was nice watching a healthy quarterback. Would LSU still be a 6-4 team if the change at quarterback were made sooner? We’ll never know for sure, because the offensive line and play calling is just so bad, but I think things would look a little better. Maybe not “CFP Contender” better, but not…wherever we are now.

The LSU and Arkansas game almost always plays out like today (derogatory) and in this year’s edition LSU made just enough plays to keep The Boot in The Boot.

FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas men’s cross country Coach Chris Bucknam was not in the mood to be sentimental Friday morning. That can wait for another day.

Bucknam was instead prideful on his final home race day after his Razorbacks clinched a trip to the NCAA Championships next week. With 46 points, Arkansas finished second to Tulane (44) at the NCAA South Central Regional at Agri Park.

“It feels great,” said Bucknam, who announced his retirement last week, effective Dec. 31 after 18 seasons as the team’s head coach.

“We’re going to do our best to be a top-20 team in the country; I think that’s a realistic goal with how many guys we lost last year. I’m just pleased with the team. They’re a lot of fun to coach and I’m having a blast with them.”

The Razorbacks finished 1-4-5-6-31, led by Timothy Chesondin’s winning 10,000-meter time of 28 minutes, 44.4 seconds. Tulane went 2-3-11-12-16, led by runner-up Bernard Cheruiyot in 28:51.3.

Texas A&M’s sixth runner crossed the finish line before Arkansas’ fifth — Jack Williams at 31st in 31:08.2 — but the Razorbacks were carried by the top-heavy finish, well ahead of the Aggies in third place with 83 points. Arkansas’ James Sankei finished fourth in 29:16.7, Brian Masai fifth in 29:21.5 and Ben Shearer sixth in 29:26.1.

“Our top four guys are elite and they showed up today and did what I asked them to do,” Bucknam said. “We’re a little bit not as deep when we get to the fifth, sixth and seventh runners. My hat is off to Jack Williams, though, a Fayetteville kid who hung in there and had his best race of the season. He knew there was a lot on the line for him and for our team to qualify. It was a good effort.”

Masai paced the first half of the race. He was just ahead of Cheruiyot and Chesondin at 5,400 meters.

Chesondin and Cheruiyot were neck and neck at the 8,500-meter mark, but Chesondin pulled away in the final 1,500. It was his second win this year on the course. He also won the 8,000-meter race at the Chile Pepper Festival in October.

“It feels good to run on my course and winning it, taking the title as an individual,” Chesondin said.

The race time was moved up by 90 minutes on a windy, unseasonably warm day that made for a firm course. Bucknam said it was important to adjust the time to take care of the runners.

“This team has to turn around and race in eight days (NCAA meet on Nov. 22 in Columbia, Mo.) along with everybody else in the country, so why take a chance and get overheated?” Bucknam said. “The coaches pushed to start the meet an hour and a half earlier on both sides, and I think that worked out.”

Bucknam said he kept the same race-day routine going to the Agri Park just off campus.

“This sport is hard enough as it is,” Bucknam said. “These guys don’t need to see an emotional wreck. I’m coaching this like it’s my first meet I’ve ever coached, and that’s how I’ll do it all the way to the end.”

VAUGHT ADVANCES

First-year Arkansas women’s cross country Coach Marc Burns was proud of his team’s performance Friday at the NCAA South Central Regional, but said it fell short of the program’s standard.

A 2-10-13-28-80 finish gave the Razorbacks a fourth-place finish at their home course with 127 points, behind regional champion Texas A&M (71 points), second-place qualifier LSU (86) and third-place Tulane (108).

Arkansas is expected to miss the NCAA Championships at Missouri next week for the first time since 2010. The 32-team field will be announced Saturday.

“The standard here is to be top two at this meet,” Burns said. “It’s going to take me a second to just get past that.

“I think a lot of people after our performance two weeks ago (a 14th-place finish at the SEC meet) didn’t think we had a shot, and we never stopped believing we could do it. One through four we made it happen. We just came up one person short today, and that’s going to sting because I know (others) are capable of being in the top 40 and that’s all we needed to get out.”

Redshirt senior Sydney Vaught (formerly Thorvaldson) finished the 6,000-meter race second in 19 minutes, 42.4 seconds behind Texas A&M Corpus-Christi’s Elizabeth Khatevi in 19:33.6. Vaught advanced to the NCAA meet next week to compete for the individual title.

“I’m very excited to be heading to my last nationals,” Vaught said. “I’m really looking forward to it. I really wish the team could be there as well, but now I’m running for my than just myself, because all of those girls really deserve to be there. I think I’m really looking forward to it, to run for them as well.”

Vaught led Khatevi by 5.5 seconds at the 4,500-meter mark, but Khatevi ran the final 1,500 in 4:22.5 to pass Vaught before the finish line. Vaught, who led the entire race until the end, ran the final 1,500 in 4:36.8.

“Going down that final stretch she got me,” Vaught said. “It’s kind of one of those decisions to make: Do you give everything and go, or finish in a good position and (be) feeling good for next week?”

Arkansas’ Josphine Mwaura finished 10th in 10:16.0 after she failed to finish the SEC race with an injury. Olivia Pielemeier was 13th in 20:24.6 and Bradley Weimer was 28th in 21:16.7.

Arkansas’ fifth scorer, Madeleine Gear, finished 80th in 22:24.6. The Razorbacks’ depth was tested this year when Paityn Noe, the seventh-place finisher at the NCAA meet last year, suffered a preseason injury.