Nearly one year ago, the Kentucky Wildcats stunned the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels, winning 20-17 in Oxford, Miss.

Going into the matchup, Kentucky earned two wins from non-Power Four schools and hadn’t scored a touchdown in the first two SEC games, losing to South Carolina 31-6 and No. 1 Georgia 13-12, both of which were at home. Meanwhile, the Rebels were off to a blazing hot 4-0 start with future first-round draft pick Jaxson Dart at quarterback.

Ole Miss was averaging an absurd 55 points per game on offense.

On the opening kickoff, the Wildcats forced a fumble that was later overturned as the runner was already down by contact, which became an 83-yard drive for a touchdown for Ole Miss with a goal line rush by Henry Parrish Jr.

Kentucky responded with an exhaustive 15-play drive, consuming more than seven minutes off the clock. 

After a gusty fourth-and-1 conversion, the Wildcats made it into the red zone, which ultimately ended in a chip shot field goal by Alex Raynor. Kentucky cut into the deficit to make it 7-3.

Both teams traded punts in a rather monotonous second quarter.

The Wildcats received the ball on their own 19-yard line with less than six minutes left on the clock. Kentucky was on the fortunate end of two pass interference calls called against the Rebels on third downs to keep their drive alive.

Wideout Dane Key corralled three passes for 45 yards, including a contested snag on the backline of the end zone, to finally score Kentucky’s first SEC touchdown of the season. 

The Cats claimed a 10-7 lead going into the half.

Kentucky faltered in their opening drive of the second half, going three-and-out. With the ball back in Dart’s hands, the Rebels were moving down the field with promise.

However, the Wildcats defense didn’t collapse in the red zone, as Ole Miss was forced to kick a field goal, tying the game 10-10.

Kentucky would respond with a field goal of their own thanks to a 15-yard catch-and-run by Key on a third-and-18, which put Raynor in range. The Wildcats took a narrow 13-10 lead.

Again, Ole Miss was brewing with a quality drive on offense, reaching the red zone in only four plays. A short pass by Dart to wideout Tre Harris was immediately met by Jonquis “JQ” Hardaway, jarring the ball loose at the Kentucky 18-yard line, as the Cats leaped on the fumble.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky offense was stopped again, as quarterback Brock Vandagriff took his fourth sack of the game by holding onto the ball for too long. The Rebels forced another punt.

Ole Miss kickstarted their drive near midfield; after gaining only a single first down, the Rebels were met with a fourth-and-7 in four-down territory.

Dart connected with Harris across the middle to convert the first down, as the Wildcats defense that was missing star cornerback and future first-round draft pick Maxwell Hairston finally broke. Harris cashed in a 48-yard touchdown to deliver the Rebels their first touchdown since the opening drive to the baby blue and red striped home crowd.

The next two offensive drives from both squads resulted in punts.

Kentucky took the field on offense with less than five minutes left on the clock on their own 17-yard line. Two incompletions and a short run put the Wildcats in a challenging fourth-and-7, as it appeared to be another deadbeat drive for the offense.

A deep hurling ball down the left sideline from Vandagriff met the hands of wideout Barion Brown, who caught the ball with one-on-one coverage. 

The footrace led Kentucky to flip the field, placing the offense on the Rebels 17-yard line. Brown’s conversion galvanized a struggling Wildcats offense that had punted three consecutive times.

Two plays later, the Wildcats came knocking on the end zone with backup utility quarterback Gavin Wimsatt in the game on a first-and-goal on the six-yard line. 

Wimsatt kept the ball on an option play, as the quarterback dashed to the left side of the line, lunging toward the goal line. The ball shot out over the head of Wimsatt, but tight end Josh Kattus was directly behind him to snag the loose ball and score.

In a wild turn of events, Kattus scored Kentucky’s first touchdown since the end of the first half. The Wildcats took a 20-17 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the game.

Kentucky’s defense that had held the Rebels all game had a chance to make one more stop to seal the upset, but the task wouldn’t be easy.

Ole Miss was stopped on their opening three plays, putting their offense in another daring fourth-down situation. On fourth-and-11, Dart rolled out of the pocket with a jumping throw, spotting tight end Caden Prieskorn on the other end of the field.

Prieskorn won the jump ball to keep Ole Miss alive.

The completion put the Rebels on the Kentucky 34-yard line with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. After getting a sack on second down, the Wildcats forced Dart to tuck-and-run, and a massive hit flung the ball in the air, which was recovered by the defense.

However, an offsides nixed the heroic turnover and gave Ole Miss another shot at winning.

The Rebels didn’t capitalize on the replay of downs, which forced a fourth down. Thankfully for the offense, Ole Miss was in fringe field goal range for a chance to tie the game 20-20 to send the game into overtime. 

Caden Davis shanked the 49-yard attempt wide left, as the Wildcats held on to knock off Ole Miss on the road.

To date, that upset is the biggest in the Mark Stoops era. Afterward, a hilarious viral video of Stoops being crowd-surfed by Kentucky players in the locker room circulated on social media, adding to the buzz around the win.

Only four times in program history had the Wildcats pulled off an underdog victory against higher-ranked competition. 

Oddly enough, the shocking upset marked a turning point for Kentucky, as the Wildcats would go on to lose six of their last seven games to finish 4-8. The Ole Miss upset would be the only SEC win of the season, the worst finish under Stoops since 2013, his first season as head coach.

Vandagriff, who was highly sought after in the transfer portal, would be benched after continual poor production and decide.

Meanwhile, aspirations of a College Football Playoff berth for Ole Miss got much slimmer following the loss to Kentucky. The Rebels went on to have a successful 10-3 season that included a win over No. 2 Georgia, but a loss to unranked Florida in the following game sullied their chances of contending for a national championship. 

On Saturday, No. 20 Ole Miss enters Kroger Field as favorites. Head coach Lane Kiffin holds a 2-1 record against Stoops, with all three games being decided by three points or less. 

Although the matchup doesn’t appear to be close on paper, history speaks for itself and should make for another interesting SEC battle.