Hopes and fears ahead of Kentucky football’s season opener against Southern Miss

What Kentucky football backers should hope for and what they need to fear as the Wildcats prepare to open their 2024 football season against Southern Mississippi.

Kickoff is at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at Kroger Field in Lexington.

The game will be telecast by the SEC Network.

Hopes …

▪ Brock Vandagriff gets off to a good start. Dating back to Shane Boyd vs. Ball State in 2001, Kentucky has won 16 of the last 22 games in which it has started a quarterback for the first time.

Georgia transfer Vandagriff will be making his first collegiate start against Southern Mississippi. This will be the third time in four seasons in which UK has started a QB freshly in from another school.

Penn State transfer Will Levis threw for 367 yards and four touchdowns in a 45-10 strafing of overmatched Louisiana Monroe in the 2021 season opener. In last year’s first game, North Carolina State transfer Devin Leary threw for 278 yards and a score as UK blitzed Ball State 44-14.

With UK plunging into SEC play against South Carolina and Georgia in the ensuing two weeks, it seems of unusual importance that Vandagriff play well enough against USM to build confidence.

▪ Kentucky can establish a rushing attack. Since 2016, UK has had five players — Boom Williams, Benny Snell, Lynn Bowden, Christopher Rodriguez and Ray Davis — combine to produce seven 1,000-yard-plus rushing seasons.

With Davis off to the NFL, Kentucky imported transfer Chip Trayanum, Ohio State’s power back a season ago, to be the Wildcats’ presumptive starter at running back.

Instead, Trayanum will miss time early this season with a reported hand injury.

That leaves it to holdovers Demie Sumo-Karngbaye and Jamarion Wilcox and true freshmen Jason Patterson and Tovani Mizell to man the UK running back position.

With Kentucky going into a massively important week two game with South Carolina, the Cats need for somebody to step up in week one toting the rock.

▪ The Wildcats play a clean game. Sloppy play has been a persistent Kentucky bugaboo for the past two seasons, each of which ended with UK sporting a 7-6 mark that was widely deemed as disappointing.

Now playing in an enhanced SEC, it would be nice if the Cats could set a different tone right out of the gate in 2024.

Fears …

▪ Another “flat performance” in an opener. Kentucky has won six of its last seven season openers, but aside from the 45-10 rout of ULM in 2021, none of those victories have been especially impressive.

Southern Mississippi, in particular, played UK tough in back-to-back season openers in 2016 and 2017.

In the former, USM overcame a 35-17 halftime deficit to score a surprising 44-35 win at Kroger Field in 2016. The following season, Kentucky was severely tested before holding on for a 24-17 victory in Hattiesburg.

▪ A quarterback from FSU. In four seasons at Florida State, new USM QB Tate Rodemaker threw for 908 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions in limited opportunities.

So after starting (and suffering a concussion) in FSU’s 24-15 win against archrival Florida last season, Rodemaker hit the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-4, 196-pound redshirt junior might boast modest career college stats — but he will enter the Kentucky contest off a win over an SEC foe in his prior college game.

▪ A dangerous punt returner. Southern Miss wide receiver Tiaquelin “Ti” Mims is good on offense (39 catches, 445 yards, two TDs in 2023) but is lethal on punt returns.

Last season, the 5-9, 175-pound Mims averaged 11.13 yards on 15 returns. Mims had an 82-yard punt return TD in USM’s 17-13 loss to Old Dominion — and had a second punt-return touchdown called back by penalty.

Big plays in the return game can be one way an underdog gives itself a shot at an upset.

This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 6:45 AM.

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