Mississippi State Rolls Past Kentucky 42-16 In Starkville

Mark Stoops would like to put Saturday out of his head as quickly as possible.

“You know, we have a great opportunity this weekend”. “That definitely held true”.

The Bulldogs finished with 206 yards rushing against Kentucky, including 117 and three touchdowns by Dak Prescott. Mississippi State came into Lexington unbeaten, and Towles nearly won the game by himself throwing for 390 yards and two scores and running for 76 yards and two scores.

The Volunteers (3-4, 1-3) have dominated the series since 1985, winning 29 of the past 30 games between the two border rivals. Given that this season was expected to be a bit of a rebuilding season by most people, nine wins would be an outstanding effort.

Kentucky (4-3, 2-3 SEC) moved the ball well, amassing 423 total yards, but committed three turnovers and struggled once it moved into Mississippi State territory.

“Obviously not a very good night”, Stoops said. He did throw a second-quarter interception, breaking his streak of 288-straight attempts without a pick. But he completed just 16 of 35 throws the rest of the way including three interceptions – one of which was brought back by penalty. “It was something I wanted to do. It’s something I have to do going forward”. He has completed 274 consecutive passes without an interception.

Stoops acknowledged a fine line between being aggressive and searching for a possible go-ahead score and managing the clock to limit an opponents’ chances on offense, but he felt the second-quarter situation against Mississippi State called for the latter. Prescott engineered a 5-play, 69-yard drive in 1:27 and hit Brandon Holloway for an 8-yard touchdown. While this is a good, sound team that’s good enough to beat anyone else on the schedule on the right day, with road games at Missouri and Arkansas coming up, and home games against Alabama and Ole Miss, it’ll take the pressure off if MSU can get the sixth win now and become bowl eligible.

Stoops plans to make his wishes clear the next time Kentucky faces a similar situation.

“I was trying to get the clock moving on second down and we should’ve just handed the ball off and we didn’t”, Dawson said. “That was a really big factor”.

With the win, the Bulldogs are now 6-2, 2-2 in the SEC.

The momentum never shifted back. Prescott found Darrion Hutcherson for his fifth touchdown.

MSU’s offense scored seven points in the third after its 28-point first half. “He looked comfortable and made good decisions”.