Wildcats beats Ole Miss 'our way': Stoops praises 'nasty, dirty runs' in gritty win

Kentucky shocked the nation and the SEC by taking down the number one offense in the country, Ole Miss 20-17. The feat was more impressive because they did it on the road in Oxford, Mississippi. This will become one of the all-time great Kentucky games in history. How did they do it? Head Coach Mark Stoops said, "We played it our way."

What does Stoops mean by they played it "our way"? Well, he went on to say, "That's a dirty game, just a hard-fought tough game." Now, he doesn't mean dirty in the sense of illegal or mean-spirited approaches to the game, doing things behind the refs' back, or something like that. That would be what Ole Miss did with the faking of the injuries during the game. When Stoops says that the game was dirty, he means they won it in the trenches. They were more physical and more aggressive, they were nasty and tough.

Kentucky in the trenches was a sight to behold. They had seven tackles for loss and four sacks; that defensive line was absolutely wreaking havoc on the Ole Miss offensive line. Defensive lineman Deone Walker, the highest projected NFL draft pick on the Kentucky roster, was dominant throughout the game. He had 0.5 sacks and 1 tackle for loss, but like most big defensive tackles, it's creating the pressure that allows others to succeed. One of those guys was Octavious Oxendine, who was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week.

Kentucky also played it "our way" by controlling the time of possession. Ole Miss is a high-octane offense that tries to maximize as many drives as possible in a game. They want to play fast, up-tempo, and not let defenses settle in. The way to slow that down is to control the clock. Kentucky held the ball for nearly 20 more minutes than Ole Miss, 39:43 to 20:17.

Coach Stoops had one more quote that ran along a similar idea when he mentioned talking to Coach Bush Hamdan at half-time about running the ball after the half. "We've got to continue to get those nasty, dirty runs. We gotta get the 3, 4, 5, that sets up everything else." Kentucky wanted to establish the run through the whole game, for that is how Stoops likes to see the game unfold; it's the "our way," and the Wildcats rushed 47 times to the Rebels 29.

The Wildcats won big, and they did it "our way." They played amazing defense, were committed to controlling the clock, and pound the rock. A gutsy fourth-down call helped, but all in all, it was a huge win for the Wildcats.