Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 24-3 win over Mississippi State

Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 24-3 win over Mississippi State:

1. A breakthrough win for Mark Stoops. UK’s victory means Stoops will not go for all eternity without a road victory over an SEC West team.

After organizing its teams in East and West divisions since the 1992 season, the Southeastern Conference will do away with divisions in 2024, when Oklahoma and Texas join the league and give the SEC 16 teams.

Until Saturday night, Stoops was 0-11 as Kentucky head man in contests played on the fields of SEC West opponents.

As UK’s permanent opponent from the opposite division, Mississippi State and games in Starkville had played a big part in Stoops’ struggles on the road against the West. Before Saturday night, Stoops had gone 0-5 versus MSU at Davis Wade Stadium.

Overall, Kentucky had lost its last six games in Starkville.

Until this year, the Wildcats’ most recent victory over MSU on its home field had come in 2008, a 14-13 UK victory in which then-true freshman Randall Cobb was the Cats’ starting QB.

2. Cats are bowl eligible. The victory over MSU was Kentucky’s sixth win of the season (6-3, 3-3 SEC). That sixth victory means that, for the eighth straight season, UK is eligible for postseason play.

The Wildcats, obviously, entered the 2023 season with higher aspirations than mere bowl eligibility.

Still, locking in the extra practice time that comes from making a bowl game is significant in terms of player development. For a program with the spotty football history that UK has, extending positive streaks is important for reasons of recruiting and perception.

With games remaining vs. No. 8 Alabama, at SEC East rival South Carolina and at No. 15 and intrastate archrival Louisville, there remains a chance for Kentucky to make this season (more) memorable.

3. Wildcats take series lead. Kentucky’s victory over Mississippi State gave the Wildcats a 26-25 advantage in the all-time series between the schools.

Because of the impending SEC scheduling alterations (see above), UK and MSU will no longer be annual opponents and are not scheduled to meet next season.

UK now has a winning record against four of the 13 other football programs in the SEC: Arkansas (UK is 5-3), Mississippi State (26-25), Missouri (9-5) and Vanderbilt (49-43-4).

4. Devin Leary leaves game. The Kentucky starting quarterback took a hard hit on a pass attempt to Barion Brown in the third quarter and immediately left the game.

After a timeout, Leary returned to finish the drive and also quarterbacked the following series. However, on the Wildcats’ initial drive of the fourth quarter, Leary was in the injury tent and did not subsequently return to the game.

In last week’s 33-27 loss to Tennessee, Leary played his best game of the season. The North Carolina State transfer completed 28 of 39 passes for 372 yards with two TDs versus zero picks against the Volunteers.

Before leaving the game at Mississippi State, Leary went 13-of-22 for 156 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

The victory in Starkville was a bit of payback for Leary.

On Sept. 11, 2021, Leary quarterbacked his former school, North Carolina State, in a 24-14 loss at MSU. In defeat, Leary completed 30 of 49 passes for 303 yards and a TD. He also threw an interception and was sacked four times.

After the game, Mark Stoops said Leary had been sidelined by an eye injury that was impacting the quality of the quarterback’s vision.

5. UK “D” takes advantage of an opportunity. A Kentucky defense that had given up an average of 40.7 points and 473.7 yards a game against the very potent offenses of Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee in its prior three games caught a weakened MSU attack and made the Bulldogs pay.

Mississippi State was without starting quarterback Will Rogers and star running back Jo’Quavious Marks due to injuries.

With MSU absent its two best offensive skill players, Kentucky held the Bulldogs to 218 yards of total offense.

Mississippi State QB Mike Wright, who ran for 126 yards and a touchdown and threw for 184 yards and a score while quarterbacking Vanderbilt to a 24-21 upset of UK last season in Lexington, was held to 20 yards rushing and 78 yards passing on Saturday night.

Trevin Wallace (nine tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss), Ty Bryant (eight tackles) and Maxwell Hairston (eight stops) led the defensive charge for UK.

D’Eryk Jackson was credited with only three tackles but made the pivotal play of the game when he returned an interception 26 yards for a touchdown that put UK ahead 14-3 with 6:35 left in the first half.

It was the first time Kentucky held an SEC foe without a touchdown since UK beat Mississippi State 24-2 in Lexington on Oct. 10, 2020.

Fashion police

For its ninth game of the 2023 season, Kentucky wore white helmets with white jerseys with blue letters and numbers and white pants.

With its victory, UK is now 5-4 over the past five seasons in all-white uniforms.

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