Know The Enemy: How Ole Miss is Scouting the Kentucky Wildcats

No one ever talks about the Kentucky in the SEC East's big picture. But Mark Stoops has surprisingly built the Wildcats into a very consistent and competitive team in the Southeastern Conference, and he's built them entirely through the trenches.

Stoops arrived at Kentucky in 2013, but it took a little time to get going. However, since 2016, the Wildcats have had a winning season and made a bowl game every year. Since 2018, they're 18-8 with two bowl wins. Simply put, the Wildcats have been good and very consistent.

To open this year, the Wildcats lost their season opener 29-13 to the No. 8 Auburn Tigers on Saturday. Honestly, it's a game that could have looked even worse, as a pick 6 thrown by Kentucky quarterback Terry Wilson right before the half was called back due to a targeting call.

Regardless of their week one performance against one of the top teams in the conference, Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin are mostly preparing for the positives they saw.

"This is obviously a really good team we're playing. They have a lot of veteran players, especially on the offensive line," Kiffin said on Monday. "They lost the turnover battle Saturday but did some really good things otherwise.

"On defense, they're really disciplined. They don't do a lot of things, but they know what they're doing really well. Offensively, they run the ball really well with that veteran offensive line. We're still in the beginning phases of it, butt that's what we've seen so far."

That offensive line Kiffin mentioned twice is certainly the strength of this team, a strength that mirrors the way Stoops has built this program – through the trenches.

The SEC coaches preseason All-SEC First team featured two Kentucky offensive lineman, with tackle Darrian Kinnard and Center Drake Jackson where a third Kentucky lineman, Landon Young, was on the second team. If Kentucky is to win and cover the 6.5 point spread, they'll need to use that offensive line and use it better than they did against Auburn when they rushed for only 3.6 yards per carry.

On the other side of the ball, it's a lot of the same. The strength of the Kentucky defense, like with the offense, is in the trenches.

"They're really talented up front with some really big bodies. That defensive line is a really experienced group with a lot of guys that have played a lot of football," said Ole Miss center Ben Brown. "They have a lot of guys that are going to play really hard and fight until the end of the game, so we're going to have to do the same."

That defensive line held Auburn to only 91 yards on the ground on Saturday at a clip of only 3.03 yards per carry. For Ole Miss, the Rebels ran the ball 45 times on Saturday for over 170 yards. As good as they are through the air, they still want to run more than they pass. That battle in the trenches might decide this game.

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