At some level, the chess match of SEC football comes down to a man-versus-man battle. Saturday night, Mississippi State had no answer for Kentucky’s Josh Allen. Allen amassed six tackles, a pair of tackles for loss, including a sack of MSU QB Nick Fitzgerald, another QB hurry, and a pass break-up in coverage.

He seemed to personally inspire another handful of false start penalties from tackles who wanted to get a decent block on him.

Kentucky's career sack leaders
1. Oliver Barnett 26
2. Bud Dupree 23.5
3. Dennis Johnson 19
T4. Josh Allen 17.5
T4. Jeremy Jarmon 17.5

“Obviously,” admitted defeated Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead, “41 (Allen) is an excellent player.”

As Mark Stoops’ crafty can-do Kentucky Wildcats moved into the Top 25 for the first time since 2007, no single Wildcat better symbolizes the rags-to-riches transition to Lexington than Allen. Four years ago, Kentucky struggled to play competitive football in the SEC. Allen struggled to get any FCS program to even notice him. This week, both will get plenty of notice.

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Allen was a 6-5, 210-pound raw linebacker when Kentucky recruited him. He had played three years of high school football in Alabama, earning All-State recognition as a wide receiver as a junior at Abbeville High. When Allen transferred back home to New Jersey for his senior season, he found himself completely off big-time college football’s radar. Indeed, the only mention of FBS powers in Allen’s recruiting biography was that his sisters played basketball for Louisville and Virginia Tech, respectively.

Allen committed to play for Monmouth, an FCS team. In the final days of the spring 2015 recruting season, he received a scholarship offer from FBS Buffalo, and had some interest from Kansas and Hawaii. Allen’s high school coach, John Fiore, knew he was capable of more, and he told another local coach about the situation. The loss of every other FBS program became Kentucky’s gain.

When Allen’s highlight video reached them, Stoops and then-defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot saw a raw athlete who could turn into something special. A few days later, Allen was a Kentucky Wildcat. Coach Fiore told the Lexington Herald-Leader in January 2015, “A couple of years from now, when he’s making all these headlines and killing it for Kentucky, everybody’s going to be ripping Rutgers over here. They could have had him first shot and nobody would have known.”

Rutgers was hardly the only school to miss on Allen. 247sports ranked him as No. 2,121 in the class, and a 2-star prospect. Kentucky had the No. 38 class in the nation and only two players in that class were ranked lower than Allen.

Allen played as a true freshman as he struggled to add bulk and fill out into a college edge rusher. He had just four tackles, filling in mostly on special teams. But in 2016, as Kentucky ended a 5-season bowl drought, Allen began to develop into a force. He worked his way from being an athlete who happened to play football into a big-time football player.

His elite speed off the edge helped him start nine games for Kentucky, amassing 62 tackles and seven sacks. The following year saw more of the same, as Allen earned AP All-SEC second team honors with 65 tackles and seven more sacks. Allen had come far enough that many thought he would leave Lexington for the NFL, with some draft analysts projecting him as a first-round draft pick.

Allen had unfinished business in Lexington, figuratively and literally. He became a father in January, and decided that he could best care for his family by putting in another year of work, finishing his transformation into an NFL-sized defender. Teams like Mississippi State had pushed around the speedy but thin Allen in 2017, but after a year of grueling work, he puts the same explosive speed onto a 260-pound frame.

Between his leadership, his experience, and his physical maturity, Allen has gone from being a late bloomer to a star. In four games this season, Allen has 25 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 4 QB hurries, and 2 pass break-ups. He continues to move up Kentucky’s all-time sack list (17.5 ties him for fourth), and has admitted an ambition of breaking Oliver Barnett’s record of 26. His NFL stock continues to soar, as has the stock of Kentucky’s defense.

Stoops complimented Allen extensively after the upset of Mississippi State, telling the media, “He is a dominant football player …. He’s a dynamic player and he was very hard to block tonight.”

Stoops continued, “The great thing about him is he is so happy for the team. He’s going to get his and he’s doing what he has to do, but it’s about the team and having success and that’s the way all these guys are.”

Kentucky’s rapid rise to No. 17 is one of the biggest surprises of college football in 2018. It’s only appropriate that it be led by perhaps the most unlikely of players. Four years ago, Kentucky looked at Josh Allen when nobody else bothered to notice. Plenty of people are noticing both Allen and Kentucky now.