KENTUCKY POSTGAME NOTES
Kentucky at Mississippi State
Davis Wade Stadium
October 30, 2021
FINAL SCORE: Mississippi State 31, No. 12 Kentucky 17
Team Records and Series Information
- Kentucky is 6-2 overall, 4-2 in the Southeastern Conference. Mississippi State is 5-3 overall, 3-2 in the SEC.
- Mississippi State leads the series, 25-24. The home team has won the last seven meetings.
- Next for Kentucky: Kentucky returns home to play host to Tennessee on Saturday, Nov. 6. Game time is 7 p.m. and it will be telecast on ESPN2.
Coach Mark Stoops
- Coach Mark Stoops is now 55-52 at Kentucky. After two games of the 2016 season, his record was 12-26 but has gone 43-26 (.623) since.
- Stoops extended his school record for total games coached at UK (107).
- Coach Stoops is in his ninth season as head coach of the Wildcats, tying Fran Curci (1973-81) for most seasons as head coach at UK.
Player Notes
- Junior quarterback Will Levis completed 17 of 28 passes for 150 yards and one touchdown.
- Junior running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. led the Wildcat rushing with eight carries for 34 yards.
- He has 2,170 career rushing yards, remains in ninth place in school history.
- Junior running back Kavosiey Smoke rushed eight times for 19 yards.
- He has 1,186 career rushing yards, 33rd place on the UK career rushing list.
- Junior wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson caught nine passes for 79 yards. He caught 12 passes in the previous game at Georgia.
- He is the first Wildcat to catch at least nine passes in two games in the same season since La’Rod King in 2012.
- He is the first Wildcat to catch at least nine passes in two SEC road games in the same season since Randall Cobb in 2010.
- He is the first Wildcat to catch at least nine passes in consecutive games since Keenan Burton in 2006.
- He is the first Wildcat to catch at least nine passes in consecutive SEC games since James Whalen in 1999.
- After having missed the last two games because of injury, senior wide receiver Josh Ali got the scoring started with a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown following MSU’s first possession.
- It was Ali’s first punt return TD of his career and UK’s first since Lynn Bowden Jr.’s 58-yard scoring jaunt on Jan. 1, 2019 in the Citrus Bowl vs. Penn State.
- It is UK’s longest punt return since Rafael Little’s 84-yard return vs. Louisiana-Monroe in 2006.
- It is UK’s longest punt return in an SEC road game since Derek Abney’s 86-yard return in 2002 in Arkansas.
- He also caught two passes for nine yards and has 1,103 receiving yards in his career.
- Sophomore wide receiver DeMarcus Harris caught two passes for 30 yards, including his first collegiate touchdown, a 17-yarder early in the fourth quarter.
- Senior linebacker Jacquez Jones had a career-high 18 tackles.
- Senior defensive end Josh Paschal had six tackles, including two for loss.
- He has 32 tackles for loss in his career.
- Senior linebacker DeAndre Square made 12 tackles, including one for loss.
- Senior safety Yusuf Corker had 11 tackles and a pass breakup.
- Sophomore safety Vito Tisdale had his first career sack and first career pass breakup. He finished with five tackles.
- Sophomore noseguard Josaih Hayes made his first collegiate sack. He finished with four tackles.
- Senior punter Colin Goodfellow kicked three times for a 53.7-yard average.
- For the second game in a row he had a career-long 70 yarder, becoming the first player in school history to have two punts of at least 70 yards during his career.
- He entered the game leading the SEC with a 46.7-yard average.
- True freshman Trevin Wallace made his first collegiate start at outside linebacker and had a career-high 12 tackles.
- Game captains for today were Josh Paschal, DeAndre Square, Will Levis and Luke Fortner.
