College football – there’s really nothing like it. In Week 2, Kentucky appeared to be the worst team in the SEC. A week later, the Wildcats had No. 1 Georgia on the ropes at Kroger Field. However, many were unsure of who this team really was.

They showed who they are in front of a sold-out crowd at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday.

Cats 20, No. 6 Ole Miss 17. Kentucky's largest SEC road win in program history was secured by play Mark Stoops Football. The Wildcats defeated what was supposed to be the best Ole Miss team of all time with a ball control offense, strong defense and good situational football.

KSR recaps the historic victory live from the Oxford press box, where thunderous chants of “Go Big Blue” were heard immediately after the Ole Miss kicker’s 48-yard attempt Caden Davis went far to the left in front of the student area.

Kentucky's offense finds the explosive play button

There's no denying that the South Carolina game was an unmitigated disaster offensively. This game was an important data point, but some data showed us that the performance was an aberration. Kentucky moved the football consistently against a good Georgia offense while effectively running the football and finding explosive passing plays against Southern Miss and Ohio. Still, there was an element of evidence with this passing play.

Offensive Coordinator Bush Hamdanquarterback Brock Vandagriffand the Kentucky wideouts went out and proved it on Saturday.

Vandagriff finished the game 18 of 28 (64.3%) for 243 yards on 8.7 yards per attempt. The redshirt junior posted a high pass success rate (36.4%), but the Wildcats made up for the inefficiency and lack of bite in the traditional running game (18 runs for 70 yards from the tailback) with explosive completions.

The long go ball too Barion Brown for 63 yards will long be remembered, but the other plays allowed Kentucky to move the football and score points. Kentucky had seven pass plays with a gain of more than 15 yards and two completions Dane Key of more than 20 yards. True freshman tight end Willie Rodríguez added a 20-yard completion to help Kentucky flip field position early in the fourth quarter. Jamarion Wilcox recorded a 17-yard rush in the third quarter to create a scoring opportunity that resulted in a field goal.

Kentucky won't win this game without explosive plays. Overall offensive efficiency dipped in the first half, but the team leaves Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with a historic upset win as 15.5-point underdogs due to chunk plays.

A defensive masterpiece

We don't need to go over the video numbers the Ole Miss offense put up this season, but let's do it anyway. The Rebels ranked in the top five nationally in points per drive, yards per game, completion percentage and EPA/game. Add in the track record and there was every reason to believe that this offense was led by a three-year starting quarterback in Lane Kiffin Jason Dart was a car.

Now is the time to realize that Kentucky has a legitimate top-10 defense, and they just pulled off the tight ends of shutting down two NFL quarterbacks in the last two SEC matchups.

Ole Miss managed just 70 yards on 16 snaps in the traditional ground game. Lane Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. made it clear early on that they were worried about the front in Kentucky. The Rebels went to a pass-heavy attack and found some success by targeting the star receiver Tre Harris (11 receptions for 176 yards on 15 scores), but struggled to find his footing anywhere else.

Dart had thrown for at least 370 yards in every game this season, but needed a fourth down late in the fourth quarter to get to 261 yards. The senior quarterback took four sacks and posted a 41.9 percent completion rate, his lowest average of the season. Ole Miss found explosives thanks to Harris, but it sputtered due to the lack of balance. This ultimately led to some scoring opportunities being wasted and no points being scored.

Kentucky's front made Ole Miss one-dimensional, and the pass rush was good enough to get Dart off the platform and force some key incompletions.

The Wildcats just held a top-five offense to 17 points on 11 possessions. That won't happen for the rest of the season.

Kentucky has its winning identity back

When Kentucky broke through under Mark Stoops, the Wildcats won games with a ball-control offense that could dictate the playing conditions. At best, Great Britain had a defense capable of playing at a top-15 level. Adding those two factors together ultimately led to two double-digit season wins and rankings in four years, along with a 19-9 one-possession record from 2016-21.

Unfortunately, we saw some of that identity dissolve as the offensive line took a big step back and the program looked to beef up the passing game. That transition led to a 2-5 one-possession record in 2022-23. Throughout the offseason, we heard Stoops and coaches talk about the need to run the ball efficiently. They wanted this to happen so Kentucky could control games and outlast opponents by forcing them to play on their terms.

Kentucky's ball-control offense and stingy defense forced Ole Miss to play on the away team's terms. The Wildcats took Lane Kiffin's spread-tempo team into the mud and had a fist fight. Kentucky knows how to win football games when they turn into fistfights.

Mark Stoops is at his best with a team like this at Kentucky. After a shock to the system in Week 2, Kentucky showed determination and showed off that style of play against Georgia. This philosophy was shown to us on Saturday. The result was no coincidence.

The Wildcats have one of the best rosters in program history and a true winning identity. That was evident on Saturday. Mark Stoops football is back in full swing, and that philosophy gives Kentucky a great chance to win games on a weekly basis in the SEC.