UK football fights back but falls to Mississippi in OT in home opener

Nothing is going to come easy for Kentucky in this 10-game slate filled exclusively with Southeastern Conference opponents.

If that wasn’t apparent from the very beginning of the Wildcats’ 42-41 overtime loss to Mississippi in Saturday’s socially distanced home opener at Kroger Field, it was clear by the end of the night.

Kentucky fell behind early, came back to take a 28-14 lead, then gave up 21 straight points from there and seemed lucky to even get this game — one in which the Cats were a seven-point favorite — to overtime.

Whatever luck they had turned bad in the extra period.

Terry Wilson — solid on the ground and through the air all night — ran in a touchdown to start off overtime, but UK kicker Matt Ruffolo missed the extra point, giving Coach Lane Kiffin and his high-octane offense a big opening.

The Rebels gladly took it.

Just like they had for most of the second half — most of the game, really — Ole Miss marched into the end zone Kentucky was supposed to be defending. Elijah Moore caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Matt Corral to tie it at 41. Ole Miss kicker Luke Logan finished the job with the extra point.

And the Wildcats dropped to 0-2.

“It’s been a crazy year, and this season is going to be different,” said UK Coach Mark Stoops. “It’s going to be difficult, playing a 10-game SEC schedule. And games are going to be close. We have to make those plays in critical moments to win us football games. … The game was a struggle. You knew it was going to be.

“We went through some patches where we overcame some adversity. Got the game into overtime. And then to lose it that way is difficult.”

The Kentucky defense struggled to contain Corral and the Ole Miss offense all night long.

Last weekend, Kiffin’s bunch put up 613 yards in a 51-35 loss to Florida in the season opener, and Stoops warned ahead of time that the Rebels would try to get things moving quickly at Kroger Field.

They did just that.

Just 2 minutes and 22 seconds after the first snap of the game, the Rebels had run eight plays, gone 75 yards, and scored seven points with very little resistance from the UK defense. For most of that first drive, the play clock had barely started before the ball was snapped.

“They’re going so fast. It’s so hard to simulate that,” Stoops told the UK Radio Network at halftime, his team leading 21-14. “Once we settled in, we did some good things.”

After Ole Miss opened the game with that quick touchdown strike, the Cats forced two straight three-and-outs, appearing to get a little more comfortable against the Rebels’ attack.

But it was never easy.

UK took a 28-14 lead with a touchdown on its first possession of the second half, a continuation of a running attack that was dominant for much of the game. Ole Miss answered with 21 straight points, however, and it could have been worse.

Those three scoring drives for the Rebels went 75, 54 and 53 yards, none of them lasting more than 94 seconds. The other Ole Miss possession in that span ended on the UK 2-yard-line after the Wildcats’ defense came up with a fourth-down stop, one of the few highlights in an otherwise dismal second half for Kentucky.

The damage done against UK’s defense: 67 plays for 459 yards, with Corral completing 24 of 29 passes for 320 yards and four touchdowns.

“This offense was extremely explosive, extremely fast. And it gets you off-kilter,” Stoops said after the game. “You have to get stops in critical moments. We did not play very good defense tonight.”

Kentucky actually outgained Ole Miss, going for 559 yards in a run-heavy attack.

Midway through the third quarter, running backs A.J Rose and Chris Rodriguez had surpassed 100 yards rushing, as had quarterback Terry Wilson. By the end, Rodriguez had run for 133 yards and two touchdowns, Rose had 117 yards and a score on 12 carries, and Wilson had gone for 129 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, while completing 14 of 18 passes for 151 yards and no interceptions. The third member of UK’s running back attack, Kavosiey Smoke missed the second half due to a rib injury.

A goal-line fumble by Rose on Kentucky’s opening drive was the only turnover by either team. Two plays before that — on UK’s first offensive snap of the game — Rose took the ball, rounded the corner and zoomed into open field, working his way toward the Ole Miss end zone with, seemingly, nothing between him and six points.

As he finished off what would have been a 75-yard touchdown run, Rose pointed up to the Kentucky fans in the stands behind the end zone, and he was promptly hauled down from behind by a Mississippi defender, hitting the turf three yards short of the end zone.

Two plays later, while fighting through the pile at the goal line, Rose fumbled. Ole Miss recovered. A great run with zero points to show for it.

It was an early indication that every win — every yard, in fact — will have to be earned this fall.

Up next for the Wildcats will be a home date next weekend with No. 16 Mississippi State, followed by a trip to No. 21 Tennessee and a home game against No. 4 Georgia.

Saturday was a tough one for the Cats. It only gets tougher from here.

Next game

Mississippi State at Kentucky

7:30 p.m. Saturday (SEC Network)

This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 7:35 PM.