Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 20-17 upset of No. 6 Ole Miss

Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 20-17 win against No. 6 Mississippi:

1. Mark Stoops’ epic fourth-down gamble. Many Kentucky backers were distraught when Kentucky, trailing No. 1 Georgia three weeks ago, punted on fourth-and-8 from the Bulldogs 47-yard line with 2:58 left in the game.

When the Bulldogs offense proceeded to run off all but the final nine seconds of what became an agonizing UK near miss, the general feeling — whether fair or not — was the Stoops’ lack of aggression on that fourth down denied the Wildcats a shot at something special.

Well, boy did the Kentucky head man make it up to the Big Blue Nation on Saturday.

With the Wildcats trailing No. 6 Ole Miss 17-13 with 4:02 left in the game and facing a fourth-and-7 from their own 20-yard line, Stoops channeled his inner Hal Mumme and rolled the dice on a make-or-break fourth-down attempt.

What happened next will long live in UK football lore.

Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff uncorked the best throw to date of his young Wildcats career, nestling the ball perfectly into the hands of Barion Brown on a go route down the left sideline. At time susceptible to “drop-itis” during his Kentucky career, Brown made a touch catch, cut back and ran the ball all the way to the Mississippi 17-yard line.

Two plays later, UK had the football in the Rebels’ end zone.

2. A dominant Kentucky defense. Entering Saturday’s game. Lane Kiffin’s high-octane offense stood No. 1 in the nation in total offense (670.8 yards a game); first downs (130); passing yards a game (422.8); and scoring (55 points a game).

So powerful had the Mississippi attack been, the Rebels had punted only four times total in their first four games.

Well, Brad White’s physical Kentucky defense held Ole Miss to 353 yards of total offense; 14 first downs; 261 passing yards and 17 points

The UK defense forced five Mississippi punts.

Making the Kentucky defensive effort even more impressive, the Cats played without star cornerback Maxwell Hairston, who missed the game with injury.

Even in Maxwell’s absence, UK got strong cornerback play from JQ Hardaway (team-high 11 tackles, a forced fumble) and DJ Waller (four tackles, half a sack, one tackle for loss).

Kentucky’s veteran linebacks, Jamon Dumas-Johnson (seven tackles, half a sack, 1 1/2 TFL) and D’Eryk Jackson (seven tackles, 1 1/2 TFL), played strong.

And the Wildcats got disruptive performances from defensive linemen Deone Walker (four tackles, half a sack, one TFL) and Octavious Oxendine (three tackles, two sacks and one quarterback hurry).

3. A win of historic proportion. Kentucky’s victory was UK’s first win away from Lexington against an SEC foe ranked in the top 10 since Sept. 26, 1964, when coach Charlie Bradshaw’s Wildcats upset No. 1 Ole Miss 27-21 in Jackson, Mississippi.

Overall, the No. 6 Rebels were the highest-ranked team Kentucky has beaten on the road since Oct. 1, 1977, when Fran Curci’s Cats upset No. 4 Penn State in State College 24-20.

4. Stoops vs. the top 10. After going 1-17 in his first 18 games versus teams ranked in the AP’s top 10, Mark Stoops has now won two of the past three games against top-10 foes — and very nearly three straight.

In UK’s prior two games against top-10 teams prior to playing Ole Miss, the Cats upset No. 9 Louisville 38-31 in last year’s regular-season finale and fell agonizingly short of upsetting No. 1 Georgia, 13-12, in this season’s third game.

The last time Kentucky won two out of three vs. top-10 teams was in 2007, when Rich Brooks’ Wildcats beat No. 9 Louisville 40-34 and No. 1 LSU 43-37 in triple overtime but lost at No. 8 Georgia 24-13.

5. Stoops vs. ranked teams. With its victory against Ole Miss, Kentucky is now 14-28 against foes ranked in the AP Top 25 in the Mark Stoops coaching era.

To put that in historical perspective, the six UK coaches who immediately proceeded Stoops combined for 10 wins against ranked opponents.

The records, in descending order of victories, for all Kentucky coaches since World War II against teams ranked in the Associated Press poll:

▪ Mark Stoops 14-28.

▪ Paul “Bear” Bryant 9-10.

▪ Fran Curci 9-19.

▪ Blanton Collier 5-18-1.

▪ Charlie Bradshaw 4-8.

▪ Hal Mumme 3-16.

▪ John Ray 2-16.

▪ Jerry Claiborne 2-22.

▪ Rich Brooks 2-25.

▪ Guy Morriss 1-7.

▪ Joker Phillips 1-12.

▪ Bill Curry 1-20.

Fashion police

For its first road game of 2024, Kentucky wore white helmets with white jerseys with blue letters and numbers and white pants.

Since the start of the 2020 season, UK is now 5-3 when wearing its “icy whites.”

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