Know Your Foe: In Ole Miss, UK will face a revenge-minded foe in a critical game
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky faces No. 21 Ole Miss Saturday in SEC opener at Kroger Field, 3:30 p.m.
- Ole Miss seeks revenge after 2024 upset loss that hurt playoff hopes
- Rebels' offensive output has declined in each of past three matchups vs. UK
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Preview: Ole Miss at Kentucky football
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Ole Miss game at Kroger Field.
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Scouting Kentucky football’s next opponent, the Mississippi Rebels:
Game details
Kentucky (1-0, 0-0 SEC) will open Southeastern Conference play against No. 21 Mississippi (1-0, 0-0 SEC) on Saturday, Sept. 6, at Kroger Field (seating capacity of some 61,000) on the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
The game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. (EST) and will be telecast by ABC (WTVQ-TV Channel 36 in Lexington).
Coach Lane Kiffin’s Rebels defeated Georgia State 63-7 on Saturday night in Oxford, Mississippi.
Kentucky-Ole Miss history and trends
Ole Miss leads the all-time series with Kentucky 30-15-1.
So far in the 21st Century, the Rebels have gone 7-3 vs. the Wildcats.
UK coach Mark Stoops is 1-3 against Mississippi.
Ole Miss head man Lane Kiffin is 3-1 against Kentucky overall as a head coach and is 2-1 vs. the Wildcats as Rebels coach.
In the previous 27 seasons, UK has won the second game on its schedule 24 times.
Most recent meeting
Kentucky tight end Josh Kattus recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown that put UK ahead of No. 6 Mississippi 20-17 with 2:25 left in the game, and the Wildcats defense made it stand up for an upset of No. 6 Ole Miss on Sept. 28, 2024, in Oxford, Mississippi.
UK’s win was assured when Mississippi place-kicker Caden Davis hooked a 48-yard field goal attempt wide left with 48 seconds left in the game.
At No. 6, Ole Miss was the highest-ranked team Kentucky had beaten in a true road game since the 1977 Wildcats defeated No. 4 Penn State, 24-20, in State College, Pennsylvania.
The defeat to UK likely knocked Mississippi, which would finish the regular season 9-3, out of the College Football Playoff.
Kentucky-Ole Miss: Three things to know
1. Making his first college start in Saturday night’s game against Georgia State, Ole Miss quarterback Austin Simmons completed 20 of 31 passes for 341 yards with three touchdown throws and two interceptions.
A 6-foot-4, 215-pound sophomore from Miami, Simmons entered this season having thrown only 32 passes in college football. On Saturday at Kroger Field, he will be making his first SEC start and his first road start.
2. In the win over Georgia State, Mississippi had both a 100-yards-plus rusher and receiver.
Sophomore running back Kewan Lacy ran for 108 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries in the 63-7 win over the Panthers. A 5-11, 200-pound product of Dallas, Lacy exceeded Saturday his season rushing yardage total (104) from last season.
Lacy did not carry the ball against UK in 2024.
Meanwhile, former Penn State wideout Harrison Wallace III caught five passes for 130 yards and a TD for Mississippi vs. Georgia State. The 6-1, 195-pound product of Montgomery, Alabama, caught three passes for 29 yards vs. Kentucky last season.
3. In the three games in which Lane Kiffin has coached Ole Miss against UK, it has been a story of diminishing returns for the Rebels offense.
During Kiffin’s inital season as Rebels head man in 2020, Mississippi beat Kentucky 42-41 in overtime at Kroger Field. The Rebels threw for 320 yards and accumulated 459 yards of total offense in that game.
Two years later in 2022, when Ole Miss held off a Kentucky rally to win 22-19 in Oxford, the Rebels had 220 passing yards and 399 yards of total offense.
Last season, when UK stunned the No. 6 Rebs 20-17 in Oxford, Ole Miss was held to 261 passing yards and 353 yards of total offense.
In a contest whose outcome appears crucial to Kentucky’s postseason aspirations, UK’s odds of upsetting a ranked Mississippi for a second-straight season would be boosted considerably if the Wildcats defense can continue this trend.
This story was originally published September 1, 2025 at 7:30 AM.
