A great day to be a Wildcat.
What. A. Game.
The Kentucky Wildcats entered Saturday as 17.5-point underdogs to the Ole Miss Rebels, who have looked every bit like a team primed for a berth in the expanded College Football Playoff. The Rebels entered the week ranked No. 5 in the Coaches Poll and No. 6 in the AP Poll while outscoring opponents by an average of 32.9 points.
The Cats, meanwhile, were in desperate need of a signature win to get this season back on track following an 0-2 start in SEC play.
In what became one of the most stressful games of all time, Kentucky did just enough to pull off the 20-17 win over the Rebels.
It can’t be overrated how big of a win this was for Mark Stoops and his program. Now in Year 12, Stoops had never led Kentucky to a win over a top-five program in either of the main polls, while Ole Miss entered the week ranked No. 5 in the Coaches Poll.
The Cats also hadn’t beaten Ole Miss under Stoops, suffering a trio of painful defeats, the last being a 22-19 crusher in the 2022 season when both teams faced off ranked as top-15 teams.
As you can imagine, Kentucky made history with this monumental win, which will go down as one of the best ever in program history.
This was Kentucky’s highest-ranked win since 1977 at Penn State.
It was the first time the Cats have won in Oxford since 1978.
It’s also the first victory over an AP-ranked top-six team since a victory over No. 1 LSU in 2007.
And per UK, this was the highest-ranked road win at an SEC campus stadium. Kentucky actually beat No. 1 Ole Miss in 1964, but that came in Jackson, not Oxford. The previous record for the highest-ranked road win at an SEC campus stadium was at No. 10 Vanderbilt (14-0) all the way back in 1947.
Oh, and if you recall, this was Kentucky’s first road game since last season’s thrilling win at No. 10 Louisville. This marks the first time in school history that Kentucky has back-to-back road wins over top-10 teams, which comes after Stoops was 1-18 vs. top-10 teams entering the Louisville game last year.
More importantly, what was shaping up to be a lost season now has hope again.
The WINNING SEQUENCE for @UKFootball
HISTORIC game for the Cats over #6 Ole Miss – Highest ranked road win win since 1977
(via @UKFootball) pic.twitter.com/sYMqbP1N4R
— CLUB BLUE (@ClubBlueNIL) September 28, 2024
This is UK’s highest ranked road win at an SEC campus stadium in school history. The 1964 win over #1 Ole Miss was in Jackson.
Per @slax0 pic.twitter.com/YoXT8RMADO
— Dylan Ballard (@DylanBallard_UK) September 28, 2024
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