Kentucky defeated No. 6 Ole Miss 20-17 on Saturday after the Rebels missed a 48-yard field goal with 48 seconds left, ending the College Football Playoff hopes of an Ole Miss team with some of the highest Expectations dealt a blow in the program’s history.

The Wildcats (3-2, 1-2 SEC) attempted fourth-and-7 at their own 20-yard line with 3:51 left, and Brock Vandagriff found Barion Brown for a 63-yard gain into the red zone . Kentucky scored two plays later when a fumble by Gavin Wimsatt ended up in the hands of tight end Josh Kattus, who crossed the goal line to take a three-minute lead with 2:25 to play.

Ole Miss (4-1, 0-1 SEC) then moved into Kentucky territory thanks to a 42-yard fourth down from Jaxson Dart to Caden Prieskorn, but he failed to get another first down and got one Missed long field goal attempt.

It was Kentucky’s first road win against an SEC team ranked in the AP Top 10 since beating No. 1 Ole Miss in 1964 and its first win in Oxford since 1978.

KENTUCKY RECEIVES ITS HIGHEST ROAD WIN SINCE 1977 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9P9WWXmgVH

– ESPN (@espn) September 28, 2024

A major step backwards for Ole Miss’ ambitions to become elite

Perhaps this is another example of how the SEC is a league where no one can take a week off. And Kentucky is certainly resurgent after being blown out by South Carolina on Sept. 7, which brought Georgia to the brink and now upsets Ole Miss. It’s a huge win for Mark Stoops, perhaps the biggest of his long tenure, and a complete change of mood from the early debacle against the Gamecocks. There is new hope for the team, between a stifling defense and an offense that keeps getting better.

But overall, it’s about Ole Miss, which was said to have entered the game with the seventh-best chance of making it into the College Football Playoff The athleteThe model is at 79 percent. Those playoff expectations have taken a major hit, as has the overall claim to being an elite program. When Georgia found itself in a game at Kentucky, it rallied everything it had to pull it out. Even Missouri had two close calls at home and survived. Ole Miss should get through this – the remaining question is whether it can close the deal against the top teams. This was a major step backwards for the rebels’ program.

Of course, it’s not over yet, and neither is any SEC team in the expanded playoff era. But Ole Miss still has to go to LSU and host Georgia, and after that games against South Carolina (next week in Columbia) and at home against Oklahoma are anything but a given. —Seth Emerson

How did Kentucky pull off this upset?

It’s time to get serious about the Wildcats’ defense. In a 31-6 home loss to South Carolina that seemed to portend hard times for the Stoops team, it buckled a little under the weight of a hapless offense. A 13-12 home loss to Georgia was a surprising near-surprise, and now the Wildcats have stifled Lane Kiffin’s offense at nearly a point per minute. Five sacks, including two by Octavious Oxendine and a huge late one by JJ Weaver, led to Ole Miss going 1:10 short on third down.

LARGE TIME SACK OF @jjtimeee pic.twitter.com/hcj0avqjNc

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) September 28, 2024

Deone Walker and the UK defensive front were dominant, holding the Rebels to 92 rushing yards. And Kentucky’s offense chipped in with an efficient Vandagriff game (18 for 28, 243 yards, one touchdown), helping the Wildcats nearly double the Rebels’ time of possession. This stat is important in a matchup like this. – Joe Rexrode

Ole Miss’ explosiveness couldn’t match Kentucky’s physicality

Ole Miss lost this game in advance, which raises questions about how it will physically compete against top teams in the SEC and beyond – whether it can actually bounce back to make the playoffs. Kentucky dominated the line of scrimmage despite averaging just 2.0 yards per carry. The Wildcats were able to dictate the tempo offensively and keep the Rebels’ explosive offense on the sideline. Kentucky held the ball for 39 minutes and 48 seconds and Ole Miss converted just one third down. Those are killer numbers against a high-speed offense that has led the FBS in yards, yards per play, passing offense and points through the first four games, scoring 220 points.

Still, Ole Miss at least had a chance to send the game into overtime when Dart completed a 42-yard pass to Prieskorn on fourth-and-11 – the second big fourth-down conversion of the game after Dart scored Tre Harris for scored a 48-yard pass for a 48-yard touchdown near the end of the third quarter. But once again, Kentucky’s lead at the line of scrimmage was clearly evident as a sack helped limit Ole Miss to the long field goal attempt, which it missed, ending the high hopes of an Ole Miss team that Started 2024 with the highest preseason ranking since, seriously damaging 1970. —Scott Dochterman

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(Photo: Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)