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Saturday’s game vs. Mississippi State is big for Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Football program, but for Stoops, no game may ever be bigger than the one vs. the Bulldogs in 2016. At SEC Media Days in July, ESPN’s Marty Smith revealed that Stoops told him he knew he had to win that game or he’d be fired.
“He told us, he knew either I’m winning or I’m fired,” Smith said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “He knew it. ‘I’m winning or I’m fired.’”
Since then, Kentucky’s gone to back-to-back bowls and Mississippi State’s currently in the top 15 despite having a brand new coach; to fully appreciate how far both programs have come, let’s look back on that fateful night in October, specifically, the kick that saved Stoops’ job.