Ole Miss secured the first conference win of the 2025 SEC season by outlasting Kentucky in a 30-23 affair on Saturday, and while the Rebels made plenty of mistakes in the game, Lane Kiffin & Co. were likely just happy to leave Lexington with a win after the Wildcats upset them in 2024.
With marquee games against Arkansas, Tulane and LSU on the horizon, the Rebels have little time to work through the turnovers and other errors that plagued them Saturday, and that has led to some level of concern from ESPN’s Paul Finebaum.
“I expected a bigger performance. Some of the crew I was with yesterday morning thought it would be a slog,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “I’m not reading too much into it, I think Lane Kiffin just had to get the win. The field goal just was really curious to me. I guess right now, Mark Stoops is just trying to make things look better than maybe they really are. But I bet deep down, Lane’s not overly concerned.”
The analyst referenced Kentucky‘s late field goal to make the game 30-23 with under 10 seconds remaining, which occurred in an effort for the team to recover an ensuing onside kick.
Ole Miss next welcomes Arkansas to Oxford for a 7 p.m. EST primetime kick.
Current sports editor with the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. 2024 graduate from Mizzou and college athletics enthusiast.
