Davis Wade Stadium, a venue that once roared with cheers and the ringing of cowbells, fell eerily silent, barring one prominent section of blue and white in the southeast corner.
Trailing by three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, Mississippi State third-string quarterback Chris Parson had led the Bulldogs down the field in a make-or-break effort to prevent the first Kentucky football win in Starkville since 2008.
Despite reaching the two-yard line, penalties saw the home squad lineup for a fourth-and-goal from the UK 18-yard line with just over six minutes remaining in the contest.
Things had been going poorly for Zach Arnett’s Bulldogs on the offensive side of the ball, but on this drive everything seemed to be going right with a statement fourth down conversion seemingly instigated by fate itself.
Had it been a movie the play would’ve been the start of a miraculous comeback led by the underdog Parson, who would finally rise to the occasion and have his fairytale moment in his home venue.
Unfortunately for the few fans left in attendance, this was no movie and no such triumph was on the way.
Taking the snap, Parson rolled right, trying to avoid pressure from Kentucky defensive lineman Kahlil Saunders, desperate for an open receiver with the game on the line. Outside the pocket with Wildcats on his heels, Parson saw his door close right in front of him, but it didn’t just close on its own.
No, Parson’s door was instead bluntly slammed shut by one J.J. Weaver, a senior outside linebacker from Louisville, who dropped his shoulder and took the quarterback’s legs out from under him, securing the sack and the turnover on downs.
Bouncing the ball off the ground and initially only getting up onto one knee, Parson knew exactly what had just been confirmed in the minds of fans in attendance: Mississippi State was going to lose this football game.
Weaver’s sack could hardly be called the only play that defined Kentucky football’s 24-3 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs to snap the Starkville streak – D’Eryk Jackson’s pick-six and the statement 20-play defensive stand by the Cats would throw their hats in the ring for that honor – it was certainly the dagger that secured it.
“To finish it off and keep it out of the endzone, that’s it, you just gotta keep battling,” defensive coordinator Brad White said. “The guys could hang their head like, ‘Man, they’re going to score,’ but they didn’t, they battled.”
The win couldn’t have come at a better time for head coach Mark Stoops and the Wildcats, who entered the game on a three-game losing skid and had a date with a fiery Alabama squad that seemed to be clicking at just the right time the next week.
Despite that, merely snapping a losing streak was far from the biggest significance of the Starkville win, with it also marking the first ever Kentucky win in the venue under Stoops, who had been 0-5 prior, and the first since 2008, which coincidentally was also the last time the Wildcats had defeated any SEC West opponent on the road. It also saw the Cats take the lead in the all-time series against the Bulldogs 26-25.
“Like Coach Stoops was saying to me with a couple of minutes left in the game, ‘You gotta smile up there man,’” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said. “You get ticked off because you don’t execute right but we win the game and really at the end of the day that’s all that matters. Wins are wins and this is not an easy place to win, it’s not an easy travel. Those cowbells aren’t fun, our kids were resilient.”
The last time the Cats had won in Starkville, Jackson, who had the aforementioned pick-six, was just five years old.
Stoops, while unsatisfied, did acknowledge the significance of such a feat.
“I was very pleased with the victory,” he said. “We needed a win. To come to a place we haven’t won in a long time, our team showed the grit and the resolve we need in the program. I told the team to just be grateful and be happy. I’m very proud of them.”
On top of breaking the Starkville streak, the win also extended Kentucky football’s streak of bowl eligibility to a program-high eight years.
“I mean, it’s just success, right?” Coen said. “It’s not the standard at which this place is operating anymore but anytime you make a bowl game you have a chance to win seven games, which is more than you’re losing. It’s above average. It’s not where we are (anymore), but I think there’s a lot of teams out there in the country that don’t do that.”
While Stoops, as well as Coen and White, expressed disappointment with aspects of the Cats’ execution in the contest, the win arguably stands as the most significant of the season thus far, despite the struggles of the Bulldogs and the Mississippi State program more broadly after the passing of former head coach Mike Leach.
With just three contests remaining in the 2023 season, the Wildcats have a gauntlet ahead of them with contests against No. 8 Alabama, which is heading into Kroger Field and looking to put together a playoff resume, South Carolina, which boasts a famously hostile road atmosphere, and No. 11 Louisville in Cardinal Stadium.
Kentucky will look to build upon the historic victory with the aforementioned contest against the Tide. The game will serve as both the home finale for the Cats and “Senior Day.” Kick off against the Tide is scheduled for noon ET and will air on ESPN.
