Kentucky secures historic road win by playing Mark Stoops football

College football — there is truly nothing else like it. In Week 2, Kentucky looked like the worst team in the SEC. One week later, the Wildcats had No. 1 Georgia on the ropes zg Kroger Field. However, many were unsure who this team truly was.

They showed who they are on Saturday before a sold-out crowd at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Cats 20, No. 6 Ole Miss 17. Kentucky’s highest-ranked SEC road win in program history was secured by playing Mark Stoops football. The Wildcats beat what has been billed as the best Ole Miss squad of all time with ball control offense, stout defense, and good situational football.

KSR is recapping the historic win live from the press box in Oxford, where thunderous “Go Big Blue” chants could be heard immediately after the 48-yard attempt by Ole Miss kicker Caden Davis went wide left in front of the student section.

Kentucky’s offense finds the explosive play button

There is no denying that the South Carolina game was an absolute train wreck on offense. That game was an important data point, but some data was telling us that performance was an aberation. Kentucky moved the football consistently against a good Georgia offense while effectively running the football and finding explosive passing plays against Southern Miss and Ohio. Even with that, there was an element of prove it with this passing game.

Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan, quarterback Brock Vandagriff, and the Kentucky wideouts went out and proved it on Saturday.

Vandagriff finished the game 18-of-28 (64.3%) for 243 yards on 8.7 yards per attempt. The redshirt junior logged a rocky passing success rate (36.4%), but the Wildcats made up for the inefficiency and the lack of bite in the traditional run game (18 carries for 70 yards from the tailbacks) with explosive completions.

The long go-ball to Barion Brown for 63 yards will be remembered for a very long time, but the other plays allowed Kentucky to move the football and score points. Kentucky had seven pass plays gain 15-plus yards with two completions to Dane Key of 20-plus yards. True freshman tight end Willie Rodriguez added a 20-plus yard completion to help Kentucky flip field position early in the fourth quarter. Jamarion Wilcox recorded a 17-yard rush in the third quarter to create a scoring opportunity that led to a field goal.

Kentucky does not win this game without explosive plays. The overall offensive efficiency disappeared in the first half, but the team is leaving Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with a historic upset victory as a 15.5-point road underdog due to the chunk plays.

A defensive masterpiece

We don’t need to go over the video numbers the Ole Miss offense was putting up this season, but let’s do it anyway. The Rebels ranked inside the top five nationally in points per drive, yards per play, success rate, and EPA/play. When you add in track record, there was every reason to believe that this Lane Kiffin offense led by three-year starting quarterback Jaxson Dart was a wagon.

Now it’s time to recognize that Kentucky has a legitimate top-10 defense, and they have just gotten out the clamps to shut down two NFL quarterbacks in the last two SEC matchups.

Ole Miss produced only 70 yards in the traditional ground game on 16 snaps. Lane Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. made it known early that they were worried about the Kentucky front. The Rebels went to a pass-heavy attack and found some success targeting star receiver Tre Harris (11 receptions for 176 yards on 15 targets) but struggled to get any traction anywhere else.

Dart had thrown for at least 370 yards in each game this season but needed a fourth down heave late in the fourth quarter to get to 261 yards. The senior quarterback took four sacks and posted a season-low 41.9 percent success rate. Ole Miss found explosives thanks to Harris, but there was sputtering due to the lack of balance. That ultimately led to some bogged-down scoring opportunities that kept points from being scored.

Kentucky’s front made Ole Miss one-dimensional, and the pass rush was good enough to get Dart off-platform and force some key incompletions.

The Wildcats just held a top-five offense to 17 points on 11 possessions. That will not happen for the rest of the season.

Kentucky has its winning identity back

When Kentucky had it rolling under Mark Stoops, the Wildcats won games with a ball control offense that could dictate the terms of the game. At their best, UK had a defense that could play at a top-15 level. Add those two factors together, and it ultimately led to two double-digit wins seasons and ranked finishes in four years, along with a 19-9 one-possession game record from 2016-21.

Unfortunately, we saw some of that identity dissolve as the offensive line took a big step back, and the program tried to ramp up the passing game. That transition led to a 2-5 one-possession record from 2022-23. Throughout the offseason, we heard Stoops and coaches talk about the need to run the ball efficiently. They wanted that to occur so Kentucky could control games and outlast opponents by forcing them to play on their terms.

Kentucky’s ball control offense and stingy defense forced Ole Miss to play on the road team’s terms. The Wildcats got Lane Kiffin’s spread-tempo team into the mud and in a fistfight. Kentucky knows how to win football games when they turn into fistfights.

Mark Stoops is at his best with a team like this Kentucky one is built. After a shock to the system in Week 2, Kentucky showed resolve and showed that style of play against Georgia. We were shown that philosophy on Saturday. The result was not a fluke.

The Wildcats have one of the best rosters in program history and a true winning identity. That showed itself on Saturday. Mark Stoops football is back in full force, and that philosophy gives Kentucky a great chance to win games weekly in the SEC.