Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 24-2 win over Mississippi State
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Game day: Kentucky 24, Mississippi State 2
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Mississippi State football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 24-2 win over Mississippi State:
1. The Kentucky defense had one of the great “How do you like me now?” performances of all time. One week after being torched for 459 yards in a crushing 42-41 overtime loss to Mississippi, the UK D performed a clinic in how to shut down Mike Leach’s Air Raid attack.
UK rushed three and dropped eight defenders into zone coverage for most of the night. It worked to perfection. The Wildcats, who had not forced a turnover all season, intercepted Mississippi State quarterbacks a whopping six times, including a pick-six by outside linebacker Jordan Wright.
Kentucky’s tackling was impeccable. Against an offense built around hitting playmakers with short passes in motion and having them create explosive plays, UK simply did not allow that.
Leach’s offense completed 36 passes but they went for only 275 yards.
UK’s linebackers were stellar: Jamin Davis had 11 tackles, DeAndre Square nine, redshirt freshman Jared Casey six and Wright five tackles, two TFL, a pass breakup and the interception he returned for a TD.
2. Terry Wilson really struggled. One week after playing his best game as Kentucky’s starting QB vs. Ole Miss (14-of-18 passing for 151 yards; 129 yards rushing for three touchdowns), the UK senior was largely ineffective.
Wilson completed only 8 of 20 passes for 73 yards and ran for only 50 yards on 13 carries.
If UK is going to rally from its 0-2 start against an SEC-only schedule to produce a respectable season, it is going to need much better QB play than it had Saturday night.
On the plus side, Wilson is now 13-5 as UK’s starting QB, 6-5 in SEC games.
3. Both teams had a heck of a punter. Mississippi State’s Tucker Day was brilliant. Of his five punts, four went for over 50 yards. He averaged 59.6 yards a kick.
Kentucky’s Max Duffy, the 2019 Ray Guy Award winner, was his usual self. In eight punts, Duffy had three of more than 50 yards and three that he stopped inside the 20-yard line.
When a long snap sailed over Duffy’s head, he alertly prevented a Mississippi State touchdown by kicking the ball through the end zone.
Duffy’s impact on the game was far greater than his 44.9 yards average would suggest.
4. A huge “perception win” for Mark Stoops. Many UK fans, understandably, have warm memories of Kentucky’s time running the Air Raid with Hal Mumme, Leach, Tim Couch and Co. in the late 1990s.
For that reason, some Kentucky backers have always hoped Leach would someday bring the pass-happy attack back to UK as head coach.
That Stoops’ defense so throttled Leach’s attack in the first head-to-head meeting between the two should buy him a lot of “fan-base credibility.”
5. Stoops in the UK record books. With the victory, Mark Stoops (33-20) moved past Jerry Claiborne (32-19-3) for most coaching wins at the venue now known as Kroger Field.
Now 45-46 as UK head man, Stoops needs three wins to pass Fran Curci (47-51-2) for second on UK’s all-time wins list
The UK head coach is now 4-13 vs the SEC West with wins over Mississippi State (2016 , 2018 and 2020) and Arkansas (2019).
The fashion show
Kentucky wore blue helmets, blue jerseys with white letters and numbers and blue pants.
Since the start of the 2017 season, UK is now 4-1 in all-blue.
This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 11:31 PM.
