Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 35-28 win over Missouri

Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 35-28 win over Missouri in the 2021 SEC opener at Kroger Field:

1. Mark Stoops and troops are killing the ‘old Kentucky.’ UK won its SEC opener by overcoming a number of self-inflicted wounds.

Missouri’s first touchdown drive was extended when Tyrell Ajian’s interception of Connor Bazelak was nullified by a pass interference call on Cedric Dort.

With UK on the verge of going ahead 28-7 late in the first half, Christopher Rodriguez fumbled at the Missouri 1-yard line after Mizzou safety Jaylon Carlies appeared to hit the ball head-on with his helmet.

As Missouri was driving for what became the tying touchdown in the fourth quarter, UK’s Jalen Geiger dropped what should have been an easy interception off of a deflection in the end zone.

Kentucky was up 35-28 with just over two minutes left in the game and had Matt Ruffolo lined up for a 37-yard field goal that would seemingly have clinched victory.

Missouri blocked it and recovered it at the Tigers’ 45-yard line.

In prior eras, Kentucky teams tended to buckle beneath that type of adversity.

To the credit of Stoops and the current Cats, they have built a culture in which Kentucky can find its way through such tumult.

2. Christopher Rodriguez is a star. The Kentucky junior running back, once known as “Mini-Benny” in reference to ex-UK great Benny Snell, is building a major legacy of his own.

The 5-foot-11, 224-pound redshirt junior ran 27 times for 206 yards and three touchdowns. He also caught a 5-yard scoring pass, the first of his career.

For all the attention on the new offense Liam Coen has brought from the L.A. Rams and the howitzer throwing arm of Will Levis, it was Rodriguez and the Big Blue Wall who dominated the Missouri defense.

3. Why J.J. Weaver is so vital. On a night when Kentucky recorded only three tackles for loss and only one quarterback sack, Weaver, the redshirt sophomore from Louisville’s Moore High School, made that one sack count.

With UK clinging to its 35-28 lead inside the final two minutes and Missouri with a third-and-5 on the Wildcats’ 37-yard line, the 6-5, 231-pound Weaver broke through the line and wrested Bazelak to the turf for an 8-yard loss.

Remember, Weaver tore an ACL in Kentucky’s next-to-last regular-season game last year at Florida.

His earlier-than-anticipated return is humongous for UK because the Cats don’t have anyone else physically capable of doing what he can rushing off the edge.

4. Overcoming the ‘McKinniss whammy.’ Kentucky’s victory marks the first time in the past six UK-Mizzou games that Grant McKinniss, the ex-UK and current Missouri punter, has been on the losing side.

From 2016-19, McKinniss was at Kentucky as the Wildcats won over Missouri each season.

After using the graduate transfer rule and then the NCAA’s “free year of eligibility,” McKinniss has been the Mizzou punter the past two seasons.

Last year, the first for the punter in Columbia, Mizzou ended its losing skid vs. UK with a decisive 20-10 victory.

Alas, the sixth time was not the charm for McKinniss. Though he punted well, pinning Kentucky inside its 20-yard line on four of his five kicks, the Findlay, Ohio, product finally came out on the short end of a UK-Mizzou matchup.

5. Stoops ties SEC wins mark. The victory over Missouri was the 25th Southeastern Conference victory for Mark Stoops as UK head man (25-42 since 2013).

That ties Fran Curci (25-30 from 1973-1981) for the most SEC wins by a Kentucky coach.

The win also moves Stoops above .500 overall as UK head man (51-50). Stoops started his Kentucky career 12-26 and has since gone 39-24.

Stoops now needs 10 more wins as Wildcats coach to surpass Bear Bryant (60-23-5) as Kentucky’s all-time winningest coach.

Kentucky is now 4-5 in SEC openers under Stoops.

The fashion police

For its SEC opener, Kentucky wore blue helmets, blue jerseys with white numbers and letters and blue pants.

Since the start of the 2017 season, UK is now 5-1 in all-blue.

This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 11:17 PM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-444-4731

Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription