LEXINGTON, Ky. — South Carolina football walked into Kroger Field surrounded by few Gamecocks jerseys, and in a sea of blue and white shirts. But edge rusher Kyle Kennard was overheard telling his teammate how much he loved away games.

Kennard and his teammates didn't back down to the challenge of the Gamecocks' first conference game of the season, and instead, suffocated the Wildcats' offense on nearly every level.

Quarterback Brock Vandagriff finished with minus-29 rushing yards and sacked five times. Vandagriff, who was also making his first SEC start, finished 3 of 10 passing a week after he completed 12 of 18 passes for 169 yards and threw three touchdowns. But against the Gamecocks (2-0, 1-0 SEC), he had just a 35.2 passer rating.

Defensive back Nick Emmanwori returned an interception for a 24-yard touchdown, quieting the Kentucky fans to start the fourth quarter.

South Carolina was led on defense by Debo Williams, who had five solo tackles and two sacks for loss.

Linebacker Bangally Kamara, who was listed questionable on the injury report on Wednesday, had an explosive game against the Wildcats (1-1, 0-1) on Saturday. That included a stretch of three tackles to kill Kentucky's momentum after it ran the ball on 11 consecutive plays in the second quarter to get into scoring territory.

Kentucky garnered 139 rushing yards and 44 passing yards against South Carolina's defense.

"I honestly feel like we didn't even play as good as we could," South Carolina defensive tackle T.J. Sanders said.

Sanders said most of what he saw in the game from his teammates, was practiced all week, with great communication and execution while preparing for Kentucky, and the goal was to continue that into the game.

Looking ahead to LSU on Saturday, which will be featured on ESPN's "College GameDay."

LSU's offensive line was rated the third best in college football by Pro Football Focus, posing the largest threat to the Gamecocks' defense so far this season. Offensive tackles Emery Jones and Will Campbell is one of the best offensive duos in college football this season, and will meet one of the strongest edge rushing duo this season, in Kennard and Dylan Stewart. Stewart and Kennard have four tackles each, six combined sacks, and four combined forced fumbles through two games this season.

The last time South Carolina beat LSU was exactly 30 years ago, and the two teams have played each other just eight times since 1994.

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Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina football's defense swamped Kentucky, what it means for LSU