Kentucky finds itself in a fairly unfamiliar position, armed with a national ranking and the betting favorite against the road LSU Tigers.

Will Kentucky remain undefeated or will Ed Orgeron's Tigers bounce back from three early season losses to spoil the fun?

Cats Illustrated's Justin Rowland and Jeff Drummond offer their predictions on what will happen.

What are you most interested to see on Saturday night?

Jeff Drummond: I'm interested to see whether LSU comes to town licking its wounds or looking to fight like a Tiger backed into a corner. My hunch is that the latter will be true, that LSU will play hard for Ed Orgeron with rumors swirling that his job may be on the line. And how will Kentucky respond coming off a huge, emotional win over No. 10 Florida? In the past, this scenario hasn't always worked out well for the Cats. It reminds me somewhat of knocking off No. 1 LSU in 2007, then experiencing the big letdown the following week against a lesser Florida squad. But the UK program has changed a lot since then, and I think this team is equipped to show it can get up for back-to-back showdowns with traditional SEC powers. Kentucky needs Will Levis to be better this week and bring balance to the offense or this one could be another nail-biter.

Justin Rowland: This game is all about the intangibles for me. If it was just about the football that each team has played to date then you'd have to go with the team that finds all different kinds of ways to win versus the one that has dropped three games already, including both road contests.

However, the bottom just tends to not fall out for Ed Orgeron teams. At least so far. You can't sleep on the Tigers or any team with as much talent as the one UK will see this weekend. There's a chance LSU comes out angry and wanting to make a statement. I wouldn't be concerned about UK's motivation level. It's an older team.

And is Will Levis ready to have another big game? Maybe he won't need to. Maybe UK can just run right over and through the Tigers. But I keep waiting for the passing game to start to round into form and think this could be an opportunity.

Who is your MVP pick for UK?

Drummond: Yusuf Corker, Kentucky -- It sounds like LSU is going to chuck it around quite a bit on Saturday, so the UK safety is going to have some opportunities to come up with big plays. I say he's involved with a couple of big forced turnovers for the Cats.

Rowland: Wan'Dale Robinson. The SEC's leading receiver has been excellent all season long and UK will want to get him plenty of touches against a defense some leaks on the back end, which will also be missing a couple of guys in the secondary. LSU mans up and there will be plenty of opportunities for 1-on-1s and open field plays.

What's your prediction for the game's outcome?

Drummond: Kentucky 26, LSU 20. This figures to be yet another close one for the Cats, who have recently mastered the tight game. In the end, the Tigers will struggle to slow down the UK rushing attack and won't be able to get much going on the ground themselves against the UK defensive front.

Rowland: Kentucky 27, LSU 21. Kentucky is 5-0 but the last four have all been one possession games. On the one hand that's not much margin for error. On the other hand, that was with a really bad turnover margin, and these are just the kinds of games Mark Stoops feels comfortable managing. Even though the LSU-Oregon "bounce-back" factor is tough to quantify but a real possibility, Kentucky just seems like the more mature and well-rounded team with more to play for. Home crowd gives the advantage.