‘We’re here. We’re letting everybody know we’re not going nowhere.’

Even as a steady rain poured down, no student, no fan was ready to go home.

Some found their way to the Kroger Field turf, squishy and wet beneath their feet.

At one point in the chaos that was Saturday night after Kentucky upset No. 14 Mississippi State 28-7, UK’s Benny Snell found himself surrounded on all sides by fans chanting “Heisman! Heisman! Heisman!”

At another point early in the game after Snell’s second of four touchdowns over one of the most physical defenses in the Southeastern Conference, a crowd of 60,037 chanted his name as the loudspeakers blared an old Elton John hit — “Benny and the Jets” — that has become his anthem of sorts.

All night there were snapshots like that for Kentucky, which knocked off its second ranked opponent of the season and outgained the previously unbeaten Bulldogs 300-201.

“I’m living my dream right now and I couldn’t be more happier in this support, and the crowd was amazing,” Snell said. “It was the best feeling ever, for real.”

When he settled in at the podium and was asked about his star running back’s big night, which kept the Cats unbeaten, Coach Mark Stoops said: “He was amazing as well. What did he have? I don’t even know.”

He had 165 yards and four touchdowns on 25 carries.

”Oh, that’s it?” Snoops laughed.

“He’s just — he’s Benny,” the coach continued. “He has a determination about him and a toughness and vision. And he’s Benny. He doesn’t surprise me because once again he’s a dominant football player and he deserves the credit that he gets.”

On Saturday night in a big win at a big time for UK, Snell set the UK career touchdown record with 39 scores, passing Randall Cobb’s 37 touchdowns.

Snell’s 2,964 yards is fourth on the Cats’ rushing list and he needs 32 yards to tie Rafael Little for third place. He’s now just 872 yards shy of besting the school record set by Sonny Collins, who was at the game as an honorary captain.

“He’s a great running back,” defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said of Snell. “I told my teammates he backed everything he said up. I think he had like four touchdowns himself, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

While the Snell snapshots were special, he was hardly alone in the memory making category on a saturated Saturday night.

There was a Kentucky defense that held Mississippi State to just 201 total yards after the Bulldogs came into the game averaging 312 on the ground alone in the first three games.

The Bulldogs’ 201 yards is the fewest UK has allowed an SEC opponent not named Vanderbilt since 1993.

“Just a phenomenal job by our guys,” Stoops said of the defense, which was paced by Darius West’s nine tackles. Jordan Jones added eight.

“And again, there was nothing — it was a good plan, it was a good solid plan, but there wasn’t any crazy mojo going on, the guys just played hard and did some really good things and played stout,” Stoops continued.

Behind Josh Allen’s six tackles, including two for a loss and one sack, Kentucky harassed and hung on quarterback Nick Fitzgerald all night, holding him to 145 yards through the air and 20 yards rushing.

“We don’t need to do anything special, just be the best version of you and do your job,” said UK’s Kash Daniel, who had seven tackles.

The Cats sacked the senior signal caller three times and redshirt freshman Tyrell Ajian picked him off on a key drive early in the fourth quarter.

“We went out in the second half and showed them that we play real football here now,” said Allen of UK’s performance, which included holding the Bulldogs to 53 yards after the break. “We’re here. We’re letting everybody know we’re not going nowhere.”

A big win over a ranked opponent — the Cats’ second this season — was just one more hurdle for Kentucky to get over on its way to bigger things, the coaches and players said.

Florida streaks, UK’s issues with running quarterbacks, a secondary that struggles, not playing physical enough at the line of scrimmage: All things that Stoops has heard for years.

All of those things seem to be fading like old snapshots.

“We’re knocking the dang doors down one at a time,” Stoops said. “So we’re going to knock a door down every seven days is what we’re trying to do.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2018 at 1:25 AM.