College football final: Kentucky 31, Southern Miss 0
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Game day: Kentucky 31, Southern Mississippi 0
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Southern Mississippi football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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Mark Stoops begins his 12th season as Kentucky football’s head coach when the Wildcats play host to the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles at 7:45 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Jon Hale, Mark Story, Cameron Drummond and yours truly will be at Kroger Field covering the action. Follow us on Twitter/X at @jonhale_hl, @markcstory, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.
You can also follow a Kentucky football list on Twitter/X by clicking here.
Final: Kentucky 31, Southern Miss 0
The game was called because of weather with 9:56 left in the third quarter.
Game suspended again
Officials announced at 11:52 p.m. that lightning has been detected in the area again and play has been suspended. Kentucky leads 31-0 with 9:56 left in the third quarter. The start of the game was delayed by two hours and 20 minutes because of lightning.
Kentucky now up 31-0
On its first possession of the second half, Kentucky drove 84 yards in seven plays for a 31-0 lead. Vandagriff threw his third TD pass of the night, hitting tight end Jordan Dingle for a 5-yard score with 9:56 left in the third quarter.
Halftime: Kentucky 24, Southern Miss 0
Barion Brown scores second touchdown
After a failed fake punt by Southern Miss, Kentucky took over at the Golden Eagles’ 29-yard line. Three plays later, Barion Brown took a pop-pass from Brock Vandagriff for a 12-yard score to push the Wildcats’ lead to 24-0 with 31 seconds left in the first half. It was Brown’s second TD of the night and Vandagriff’s second scoring pass of the night.
Kentucky now leads Southern Miss 17-0
UK drove 75 yards in seven plays to extend its lead over Southern Miss to 17-0 with 3:07 left in the first half. Quarterback Brock Vandagriff hooked up with Dane Key for a 35-yard gain to get the drive started. Redshirt freshman Jamarion Wilcox had a 10-yard run and true freshman Jason Patterson had runs of 12 and 11 yards on the drive. Demi Sumo-Karngbaye scored from a yard out.
Kentucky extends lead to 10-0
A 23-yard punt by Southern Miss gave Kentucky great field position at the visitors’ 32. Alas, the drive went nowhere. But Alex Raynor booted a 41-yard field goal to give the Wildcats a 10-0 lead with 7:45 left in the first half.
Note: Kentucky has picked off two Southern Miss passes in the first half. Pop Johnson picked off the first. JQ Hardaway picked off the second, his coming in the end zone to stop a Golden Eagles 75-yard drive.
End of 1st quarter: Kentucky 7-0
Kentucky leads Southern Miss 7-0 at end of first quarter, but Golden Eagles have converted three third downs — including a third-and-18 — and will snap ball from the Kentucky 13 when second quarter begins. Third-down defense was a chronic problem for the 2023 Cats.
Kentucky takes 7-0 lead
Each team threw interceptions on their first drives. After UK linebacker Pop Dumas-Johnson picked off a Southern Miss pass, Kentucky drove 59 yards in 10 plays to take a 7-0 lead. Brock Vandagriff found Barion Brown in the right corner of the end zone for a 12-yard TD pass. Vandagriff was 4-of-4 passing for 34 yards on the drive. He also had an 11-yard run.
Update: Kickoff is set for 10:05 p.m.
After an extended weather delay, kickoff is now scheduled for 10:05 p.m. here at Kroger Field. Both teams entered the field for warm-ups at 9:40. If the start time holds, it will be a delay of two hours and 20 minutes.
This story was originally published August 31, 2024 at 6:45 PM.
