The Kentucky Wildcats go on the road for the first time this season to take on the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford, Mississippi, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday, September 28 at noon. They will be looking for their first SEC win and their first win against Ole Miss in over 12 years. The last win came from a Joker Phillips coached Wildcats team in 2011.
They nearly pulled it off two years ago in their last meeting when a Will Levis to Dane Key touchdown was called back in the final seconds due to an illegal motion penalty. Levis didn’t wait for the receivers to get set before snapping the ball, and that bad taste is still in many of the player’s and fans’ mouths. If they are going to pull off the upset of the AP sixth-ranked team in the nation, how can they do it?
1. Take advantage of an unprepared Ole Miss
The Rebels haven’t played a meaningful opponent in their four games this year. They have played all teams that rank well below average in the FPI rankings. These teams did not give them much of a contest, and Ole Miss ran away with each game. As much as we could argue that because they dominated in each contest, they were just the far superior team, which is true, but it didn’t prepare them for SEC play. Ole Miss Head Coach Lane Kiffin even agreed with this sentiment, “I’m a realist. I don’t think our opponents have prepared us for SEC play. My hope is that our practice and our fall camp have prepared us.”
The Wildcats will need to start the game with a gut punch on defense and then again with the offense. They will need to surprise Ole Miss with their strength in the trenches. Kentucky has a stellar defense, and a quick three-and-out for Ole Miss to start the game will go a long way.
Kentucky, on the other hand, has already gone toe-to-toe with the number-one-ranked team in the nation, Georgia. They could have won that game; they would have won if the referees had upheld the pick-six by Zion Childress. This game showed that Kentucky isn’t going to back down from anyone, but it also showed that Kentucky Head Coach Mark Stoops lacked the killer instinct that he needed to knock them off. He settled for field goals and punts when there were opportunities to throw a dagger into the game. He played not to lose rather than trying to win. If Stoops wants to pull off this upsetStoops must take advantage of aggressive opportunities.
2. Shut down the Rebels offense
The Ole Miss offense is electric so far this season, and quarterback Jaxon Dart is one of the Heisman contenders. He has thrown for 1,554 yards and 12 touchdowns. He has an impressive 79% completion percentage. He is a legitimate problem, especially as a 3-year starter for Lane Kiffin. He’s a veteran that understands this offense almost as well as Kiffin does himself.
The offense as a whole is leading the nation in yards per game at 670.8, which is about 70 yards more than the second-place team, the Miami Hurricanes. Kentucky will need to slow down Dart and second place, the running attack that has nearly 250 yards on the ground a game.
Once again, this is Ole Miss’s first real test, and a lot of those video game numbers will begin coming back down to earth in SEC play. They simply won’t be able to sustain nearly 700-yard games when they play in the SEC. That reality will hit them this week as they face off against Kentucky’s sixth nationally-ranked defense, which has only given up 217 total yards a game. The Wildcats held Georgia to 160 yards.
3. Give Brock Vandagriff time
The offense finally clicked against the Ohio Bobcats in last week’s game, and it was a sigh of relief for the fanbase. We bring in a big-time quarterback and running back to our already excellent receiver room, and the offense has been a dud basically all season. Much of that has to do with the fact that Vandagriff has no time to let plays develop. He has defenders in his face all game long. He’s been sacked eight times on the season but has had to scramble or throw the ball away countless times.
Whether it is the schemes or the offensive line, or a bit of both, the way to beat Ole Miss will be to find a way to give Vandagriff an extra second or two on every dropback. This won’t be easy, as the Rebels have 13 sacks on the season, and they will be coming after him, but the winning way will be to get this offense some rhythm again as they had against Ohio.
I see three ways Kentucky can win this game: taking advantage of an underprepared Ole Miss, shutting down the Rebels’ offense, and giving Vandagriff time in the pocket.
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