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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Mark Stoops was hyped and crowd surfing after Kentucky upset #6 Ole Miss!
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.
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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.
It has officially been an entire week since the college football transfer portal opened on Jan. 2, with teams across the nation scrambling for visits and quick commitments.
Despite his duties as Oregon’s offensive coordinator, which ended in abrupt fashion on Jan. 9 by way of the No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers, Will Stein and company have been holding or folding their cards in contention with the nation’s top programs.
According to 247Sports, Kentucky currently holds the No. 14 overall portal class ahead of the 2026 season, consisting of 13 total commitments. Of those, two players are four-star recruits and eleven of them are three-star recruits.
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Showing the attention to detail and the connections built so quickly, the Wildcats reached out to Arkansas linebacker Tavion Wallace on Jan. 3, the younger brother of former Kentucky linebacker Trevin Wallace. At one time, the younger Wallace brother was a consensus four-star recruit and was ranked as a top 25 linebacker in the country.
ICYMI: LB Tavion Wallace, the younger brother of former Wildcat Trevin Wallace, has officially transferred from Arkansas to Kentucky!
This polished prospect serves as the first addition of the Will Stein era.
As former Wildcats, led by quarterback Cutter Boley, began to spread their wings and transfer elsewhere, Kentucky remained consistent in its recruiting trail.
During this same time period, the Wildcats hosted the consensus No. 1 overall quarterback in this year’s portal class, Sam Leavitt. Rumors of a hefty NIL package and a modern-era player swap circulated with Boley’s commitment to Arizona State, with reports of Leavitt and Stein watching film until midnight the day he visited Lexington.
Jan. 4 and 5 would remain as marquee days in the Wildcats’ efforts, landing five different players. At the start of the batch was Gardner Webb EDGE Antonio O’Berry, who chose Kentucky over schools such as Ohio State, Georgia and more. The 6-foot-6 threat tallied 10.5 TFLs and seven sacks in the 2025 season.
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BREAKING: Gardner Webb EDGE Antonio O’Berry will transfer to the University of Kentucky.
Commitments started to flood every social media notification inbox, with the Wildcats adding three new guys just several hours apart: Baylor’s interior offensive lineman Coleton Price, LSU’s defensive tackle Ahmad Breaux and Western Carolina cornerback Hasaan Sykes.
NEW: Kentucky Football has added three new transfer players over the past 24 hours!
Price spent four seasons at Baylor, playing three as a starter and earning a 68.0 overall offensive grade in 2025. Breaux had 19 total tackles last season with half of a sack credited to his name as well. Sykes impresses the most out of this batch, deflecting five passes, recording three interceptions, two sacks and forcing a fumble in last year’s outings.
On the night of the fifth, Stein went and got his quarterback, ending all speculation surrounding Leavitt’s decision. Kenny Minchey, Notre Dame’s backup play caller, flipped his commitment just one day after transferring to Nebraska and decided to become a Wildcat.
Minchey, with an athletic and melodic skill set, spent last year on the Fighting Irish’s bench behind CJ Carr.
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BREAKING: Kentucky has officially flipped Notre Dame transfer QB Kenny Minchey from Nebraska!
Minchey competed for the starting position at Notre Dame, ultimately spending his entire sophomore season behind CJ Carr.
Minchey was a four-star recruit out of Hendersonville, Tennessee and has every tool needed to be an elite guy in the SEC.
The fun didn’t stop there, as in the next afternoon, Kentucky would land Oklahoma running back Jovantae Barnes, brining in fire power at a much needed position. Barnes totaled 1,281 yards and 12 touchdowns during his time with the Sooners.
BREAKING: Kentucky makes a splash in the backfield, landing Oklahoma transfer RB Jovantae Barnes!
Just an hour before, Kentucky would receive two commitments from SEC foes, acquiring cornerback Aaron Gates from Florida and interior offensive lineman Max Anderson from Tennessee.
NEW: Kentucky has acquired two more transfer players in CB Aaron Gates and IOL Max Anderson!
With anticipation and optimism shifted to Kentucky’s basketball game against Missouri on Jan. 7, the Wildcats would again bring in more top talent behind the scenes, earning commitments from Purdue’s defensive tackle and Frederick Douglas graduate Jamarrion Harkless, Alabama offensive tackle Olaus Alinen, UAB wide receiver Xavier Daisy and last but certainly not least, Florida’s three-year starting safety Jordan Castell.
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NEW: In just a day’s time, Will Stein and Kentucky have added four more transfer players to next year’s roster!
To round off the week, Pitt defensive back Jesse Anderson decided he wanted a little bit more blue in his life for his two remaining years of his college journey, committing to Kentucky on Jan. 9.
NEW: Defensive back Jesse Anderson has officially committed to Kentucky!
Stein and his team aren’t done just yet – mind you this is just week one. With Oregon’s 56-22 loss to Indiana in the Peach Bowl, the new coach in the bluegrass state will say his final goodbyes and turn his complete and total attention to the Wildcats.
Kentucky football’s newest chapter is off to a hot start and it’s all gas, no brakes moving forward.
On Saturday, Jan. 3, the Kentucky Wildcats and new head coach Will Stein put down the first piece of the puzzle, landing Arkansas linebacker Tavion Wallace from the transfer portal, the younger brother of former Kentucky linebacker Trevin Wallace.
The former Razorback stands at 6-foot-1 and weights 239 pounds, who at one time was a consensus four-star recruit and was ranked as a top 25 linebacker in the country – all taking place while his brother was dominating the SEC and eventually turned into a third round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Out of high school, Wallace received an abundance of offers, including notable schools such as Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, Florida State and Michigan. Among the finalists in his recruitment, Kentucky was a soft mention, but other SEC foes led the way, with Florida State over in the ACC serving as the lead favorite.
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Ultimately, Wallace shocked many, and went with defensive coordinator Travis Williams and the Razorbacks.
During his first season of collegiate ball, Wallace didn’t take the field much down in Fayetteville, AR, only appearing in nine games and notching two tackles in the stat sheets. Ultimately, he entered the transfer portal after head coach Sam Pittman was relived of his duties.
The linebacker position is a need for Kentucky, and early on, the proper steps are being made. This polished prospect will look to follow in his brother’s footsteps and wow Big Blue Nation this coming fall.
In today’s era of college football, players move around faster than you can blink and the initial incentives can go out the door for a slightly bigger paycheck.
Thankfully for the Wildcats, one of their key pieces for their first year under newly hired head coach Will Stein will be repping the blue and white once again.
Ty Bryant, a Lexington native and one of Kentucky’s best in the secondary, is officially returning for his senior season.
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Reported first by Larry Vaughn (VaughtsViews), Bryant will look to capitalize on an impressive junior season, leading the team in multiple categories, including total tackles and interceptions.
Bryant’s mom, Terri, shared a very heartfelt message on Facebook as the news broke. “We were fully prepared to support him in another jersey…we’re absolutely ecstatic,” she said. “Blue and White, One more ride…”
With the addition of Jay Bateman, coming across the SEC boat from Texas A&M, having a player like Bryant as a vocal leader and with upperclassman twang will be beneficial against conference foes.
Both Stein and Bateman have secured a key returner as the new era of Kentucky football quickly approaches.
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Other Sports1 week ago