5 things you need to know from UK’s 30-23 loss to Ole Miss in 2025’s SEC opener
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Gameday: No. 20 Ole Miss 30, Kentucky 23
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Ole Miss football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 30-23 loss to Mississippi in the 2025 SEC opener:
1. Kiffin has his “fourth down revenge.” Famously, the critical play of Kentucky’s 20-17 upset of No. 6 Ole Miss last season in Oxford was a 63-yard pass from UK quarterback Brock Vandagriff to Barion Brown that came a fourth-and-7 play from the UK 20 with the Wildcats down 17-13 with about four minutes left in the game.
Given fresh life at the Mississippi 17-yard line, UK scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdown two plays later.
On Saturday, Ole Miss head man Lane Kiffin turned the “fourth down tables” on Kentucky.
With UK, boosted by two Ty Bryant interceptions, off to an early 10-0 lead, Mississippi had the ball fourth-and-1 on its own 44-yard line.
Not only did Kiffin go for the first down in his own territory, he passed against a Kentucky defense stacked near the line of scrimmage to stuff the run.
The result of Kiffin’s bold play call was a 55-yard pass from Austin Simmons to Harrison Wallace.
Kiffin’s fourth-down gamble set up a 1-yard touchdown run for Kewan Lacy — and it completely turned the momentum of the game.
Meanwhile, with UK down 27-20 in the fourth quarter, Stoops went for it on fourth down in Ole Miss territory twice in the fourth quarter.
On the first one, fourth-and-9 from the Rebels’ 20, UK quarterback Zach Calzada threw the ball wide of a well-covered Hardley Gilmore in the end zone.
Cutter Boley was in at QB for UK in place of an injured Calzada on fourth-and-7 from the Ole Miss 27. The former Lexington Christian Academy star was sacked for a loss of 5 yards.
2. Calzada’s encore. It has not been a Hollywood beginning for Zach Calzada in a Kentucky uniform.
In UK’s season-opening win over Toledo last week, the transfer quarterback from Incarnate Word completed only 10 of 23 passes for 85 yards with one interception and also took a safety after he failed to hand the ball off in the end zone.
In Calzada’s first SEC contest as the UK starting QB, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound super-senior did not find the going a lot better.
Calzada finished 15 of 30 passing for 140 yards. On the plus side, he did not turn the ball over.
However, after the failed fourth down play from the Mississippi 20 (see above), Calzada left the field and immediately went into the injury tent on the Kentucky sideline.
The UK quarterback said after the game the injury was not the same shoulder that that knocked him out for the 2022 season when he was playing for Auburn.
Calzada had history with Ole Miss. While playing for Texas A&M in 2021, Calzada threw a pair of interceptions in a 29-19 loss at Mississippi. In his first go against the Rebels, Calzada completed 24 of 42 passes for 237 yards with no touchdowns.
3. The Hamdan report. In nine games last season against power conference opposition, Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan’s attack compiled paltry numbers:
The Wildcats averaged 124.2 yards a game rushing, 161.6 yards a contest passing, 286.4 yards of total offense and 14.1 points a game.
On Saturday, in the first chance for Hamdan and the 2025 UK offense to face a power conference defense, Kentucky ran for 167 yards and threw for 187.
The 354 total yards Kentucky accumulated was the second-most a Hamdan-directed offense has gained at UK in a SEC game.
The Wildcats gained 360 yards in losing 28-18 at Tennessee last year.
Nevertheless, a big part of the postgame rehash figures to center on Kentucky’s difficulty getting lined up in a timely manner on offense in the first half. UK ended up having to use all three of its first half timeouts to prevent the play clock from running out.
4. UK’s “homefield disadvantage” rolls on. With its defeat, Kentucky has now lost its last eight SEC home games and has dropped 12 of its past 14 conference games at Kroger Field.
UK is now 3-15 in its past 18 contests overall against power conference opposition.
5. Kentucky’s “Slop Index.” After three straight seasons in which UK had been plagued by undisciplined football, we are tracking how Kentucky fares in each game in various measurements of “sound or unsound football.”
• Penalties. Kentucky was called for six penalties for 50 yards; Ole Miss was penalized seven times for 86 yards.
Advantage: UK.
• Sacks allowed: Kentucky surrendered three QB sacks; Ole Miss did not give up one sack.
Advantage: Ole Miss.
• Turnovers: Two Ty Bryant interceptions of Mississippi quarterback Austin Simmons helped give UK an early 10-0 lead.
The Wildcats did not turn the ball over.
Advantage: UK.
Fashion police
For its 2025 SEC opener, Kentucky wore white helmets, blue jerseys with white letters and numbers and white pants.
Since 2020, UK is now 3-2 in the white-blue-white uniform combination.
This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 7:29 PM.
