Week 1 College Football Game ‘Terminated’ In Third Quarter

After five hours of lightning delays and roughly 25 minutes of football, Kentucky Wildcats fans finally got to go home happy campers with a 1-0 team.

Lightning strikes ruled the night, initially delaying the Southern Miss Gold Eagles-Kentucky game for more than two hours before it finally kicked off at 10:05 p.m. ET. Then, with more than nine minutes to play in the third quarter, lightning strikes and a sustained storm returned.

With the clock nearing 1:00 a.m. and Kentucky already up 31-0, the two teams decided to call the ballgame.

"By mutual agreement of the participating institutions as permitted by NCAA rules, tonight’s game between Kentucky and Southern Mississippi has been terminated and is considered a complete game with a final score of 31-0 in favor of Kentucky," the UK football X account posted. "All statistics in the game are considered final and complete."

Weather was a factor across the country, most notably in the Penn State vs. West. Virginia game, and ended this one early. Kentucky players and fans are just lucky this one was far enough out of reach to make the finalization practical.

Kentucky now moves to 1-0 on the 2024 season with an impressive 2.5-quarter shutout victory, while Southern Miss falls to 0-1.

Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff finished with three touchdowns and 169 total yards in his debut, dishing out two of those to speedy wideout Barion Brown.

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