Kentucky football will kick off its 2024 season on Saturday against Southern Miss, an opponent the Wildcats fell short against in their 2016 season opener.
Although it has been nearly a decade since the 44-35 loss, it still weighs heavy on head coach Mark Stoops’ mind.
“I remember exactly what happened at the end of that half,” Stoops said. “I remember exactly the call we made, I remember exactly the mistakes I made. There were some lessons in that game that I carry with me.”
The game, which took place on Sept. 3, 2016, in front of a crowd of over 57,000 at Kroger Field, appeared to be going Kentucky’s way in the first half as the Cats held a 35-10 lead toward the end of the second quarter.
Despite that, a 71-yard touchdown pass from Southern Miss quarterback Nick Mullens to Isaiah Jones sparked a comeback that Golden Eagle fans will never forget.
One of those fans in particular was Dima Mixon, who now serves as the sports editor for the Student Printz at Southern Miss.
Mixon saw something special in that year’s team and believed the Golden Eagles had a real shot at a victory, so he and his father took a ten-and-a-half-hour road trip from Hattiesburg to Lexington for the game.
As they watched from their seats on the 50-yard line, Kentucky piled on points in the first half and, after the Cats scored for the fifth time with 56 seconds left in the half, Mixon and his dad had seen enough and left the stadium to head back to their on-campus hotel.
Upon exiting the stadium, Mixon recalled checking the score on his phone and seeing that Mullens had thrown the long touchdown pass. After the Golden Eagles scored two more touchdowns in the first nine minutes of the third quarter, he told his dad they just had to go back to the stadium and try to witness the comeback.
Despite the no re-entry policy at Kroger Field, Mixon and his dad convinced security to let them join the people hanging out inside the stadium and they watched as Southern Miss sealed the victory.
“It felt like a good opportunity for Southern Miss to beat an SEC team for once, and they ended up doing it,” Mixon said.
Mullens finished the game 18-for-28 with 258 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. After graduating from Southern Miss that year, he was then signed as an undrafted free agent by the San Francisco 49ers and is still in the league today as the second-string quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.
“I always want to see Southern Miss players succeeding in the NFL and Nick Mullens is definitely one of them,” Mixon said. “Hopefully he starts for Minnesota with J.J. McCarthy going down.”
Kentucky’s quarterback Drew Barker, who walked away from football after the 2017 season to focus on his master’s degree, completed 15 of 24 passes and threw for 323 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.
This year’s game, on the other hand, will see Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff get his first reps as quarterback for Kentucky against a Southern Miss team that has a starting lineup consisting of many newcomers.
The Cats are 28-point favorites to win on Saturday, which is a sizable difference from the 6.5-point spread in the 2016 game.
As for Mixon, he is not nearly as confident in a Golden Eagle victory this time around because of how different the teams are and how much Kentucky has grown as a program.
“I would be shocked if Southern Miss went in there and beat them,” he said. “Can they do it? I guess, but there’s a lot of alternate factors now than there were back then.”
Another factor that may hurt USM is the increase in fan support and amenities as well. With UK fans excited to see Kentucky’s new-look offense compete for the first time under the new light system at Kroger Field, the stadium is sure to be rowdy for the opening game.
Stoops also discussed fan impact in his press conference on Monday and how beneficial it is to have a fanbase that has high hopes for his team.
“I think it helps immensely,” he said. “We feel that passion and energy and we certainly feel it in the stadium. We have eight home games and we want to go deliver. You’ve heard me say it many times, I feel a deep obligation to put a team out there that they’re proud of.”
This weekend’s game between the Cats and the Golden Eagles will kick off at 7:45 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 31, from Kroger Field. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
