Mark Stoops ‘felt a little peace’ during Ole Miss’ game-tying FG attempt

It was the strangest feeling, Ole Miss kicker Caden Davis trotting out for the 48-yard field goal with 53 seconds to go in Oxford. Make it, and the game likely goes to overtime, a chance for the Rebels’ high-octane offense to finally figure itself out after the Wildcats had made life difficult for most of those 60 minutes. The defense had put together an all-time performance up to that point while Kentucky made a few massive plays on offense to earn the win, none bigger than Brock Vandagriff ‘s 63-yard bomb to Barion Brown on 4th and 7 from their own 20-yard line.

Then the ball managed to bounce Kentucky’s way after decades and generations of the opposite, Gavin Wimsatt ‘s fumble landing right in Josh Kattus ‘ lap at the goal line for the go-ahead touchdown.

This one just felt different, and Mark Stoops called his shot in the moments leading up to that potential game-tying field goal.

“I think most people can see that my blood pressure is generally a little high during some of those games. The end of that one definitely was a lot. We through these games a lot and it comes down to a couple of plays,” Stoops said during his call-in radio show Monday evening. “Then this week, lo and behold, the ball bounced our way once or twice — I’ll be the first to admit that. Sooner or later, that ball will bounce our way and get a break here or there.”

Stoops felt his team had earned a little bit of luck for how they had come up with crucial stops and held the nation’s best offense to just 353 total yards and 17 points after it had averaged 670.8 yards and 55.0 points per contest up to that point. Their response after the South Carolina lost a few weeks before, going blow for blow with Georgia, putting together a complete performance against Ohio, now Ole Miss — just go down the list.

They were finally putting it all together and Stoops could feel that reward coming, their hard work ready to pay off.

“We made plays when we had to. When they converted that fourth down off-schedule on the scramble and it was thrown up, they made that fourth down play, we had to load up and stop that tremendous offense once again to win the game,” Stoops said. “At that point — I think I said this, but it was true. I took my headset off, I faced Brad, Coach White, and I said, ‘Buddy, we’re due. We’re due a break. We’re due, we need a miss or we need a block, we’re due for one.'”

He looked at that 48-yard field goal and saw the circumstances, all of the pressure on Caden Davis and Ole Miss, none on his squad. They had done their part, now it was on the Rebels to do theirs.

In the eye of the storm, Stoops felt peace — and the upset.

“You know, it wasn’t a simple — it’s a lot of pressure, that’s not a simple kick. 48, 49 yards and all that pressure on you, us trying to get pressure, all that stuff,” he said. “I don’t know, at that moment, I felt a little bit of peace. I felt like we had played our heart out and were due a break.”

Wide left, game over. Victory formation Cats.

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