Lightning ends game early as Kentucky beats Southern Miss 31-0

Kentucky football fans were forced to wait an extra 2 hours and 10 minutes for the 2024 season to kick off. Big Blue Nation was treated to an exceptional performance as the Cats shutout Southern Miss 31-0 in a game that was canceled early in the third quarter due to lightning in the area.

“By mutual agreement of the participating institutions as permitted by NCAA rules, tonight’s game between Kentucky and Southern Mississippi has been terminated and is considered a complete game with a final score of 31-0 in favor of Kentucky,” UK said in a press release. “All statistics in the game are considered final and complete.”

Severe weather typically discourages fans from packing the stands. On Saturday night, most of the rain stayed away, but lightning lingered throughout the night. The fans were fired up from the jump, but it took Mark Stoops’ team some time to get back into a rhythm during the time they did have on the field.

The first Kentucky offensive drive stalled near the goal line when a pass was tipped and intercepted. Jamon Dumas-Johnson, a former All-American who transferred from Georgia, quickly returned the favor by tipping a pass into his own hands to put the Cats back on the right track.

Brock Vandagriff responded to the early adversity, finding Barion Brown open in the back of the end zone. Brown opened his junior campaign by catching four passes for 28 yards and two touchdowns. Vandagriff finished his first night under center for the Wildcats by passing for 169 yards (12-18) and three touchdowns.

Kentucky Defense Creates Turnovers, Havoc

Dumas-Johnson’s interception was an eye-opening, “this guy can play on Sundays,” type of play. He made a difficult play look easy. Not everything looked easy all night for the Kentucky defense.

On the second Southern Miss series, the Golden Eagles did what so many others did to Kentucky in 2023, convert on third and long. Kentucky failed to get off the field on 3rd and 18 and 3rd and 8. Their fortunes changed in the red zone. D’Eryk Jackson tipped a pass that was picked off by JQ Hardaway in the end zone. From that point forward, the Golden Eagles got nowhere fast against the Kentucky defense.

A Gift from Southern Miss

There were some After Dark™ vibes in this game, and not just the tipped-pass interceptions. Southern Miss trailed 17-0 at the 2-minute warning. Rather than punting on fourth and four from their own 31, Southern Miss head coach Will Hall elected to run a fake. The reverse never stood a chance and was gobbled up immediately by freshman Cam Dooley.

The Cats had plenty of time to turn that mistake into a touchdown. A penalty nearly knocked them out of field goal range until Vandagriff made arguably his most impressive throw of the day. Facing pressure, he delivered a dart down the seam to Dane Key for a 21-yard gain. Vandgriff dusted himself off, then made a simple pitch pass to Brown for his second score to give Kentucky a 24-0 lead at halftime.

Mother Nature Ends Things Early

Just as we thought the weather was going to behave long enough to finish this game before 2:00 a.m., Mother Nature got the last laugh around midnight. With 9:56 left in the third quarter, lightning was spotted in the area, pushing us into another delay.

Unfortunately, there would be no restart. The game was later called by officials after a roughly 30-minute wait with Kentucky deemed the winner in a 31-0 shutout.