An unexpected absence turned into inspiration for the Kentucky secondary on Saturday. Mark Stoops shared the latest on Maxwell Hairston on Wednesday.

Hairston, a 6-foot-1 junior from Detroit, played through a shoulder injury against Georgia and Ohio, the game where he returned an interception for a touchdown, tying the school record for career pick-sixes. Things appeared to be trending in the right direction, which is why many were shocked when he was on the Thursday night injury report. He was ruled out the night before the game against Ole Miss.

During his only meeting with local media during the first bye week of the season, Stoops addressed the current status of Kentucky’s star cornerback.

“He’s doing better. He’s recovering and he’s doing better,” Stoops told reporters. “He’ll be out.”

Stoops did not go on record on how long Hairston will be out but did note that he will update the media later on about the status of Hairston moving forward.

The odds looked stacked against the Cats, facing the nation’s top passing offense without its All-SEC cornerback in Week 5. The team rallied together and stifled the aggressive Ole Miss attack. The Rebels were held to a season-low 17 points and 353 total yards.

Without Hairston, J.Q. Hardaway was tasked to contain wide receiver Tre Harris. He had a career-high 11 tackles and forced a fumble in the red zone.

“(Hairston) texted us from the hospital telling us, ‘Man, just continue to work, continue to do what we put in the work for.’ So we really played for Max today. We played for Max and had him in the back of our head,” said Hardaway. “He was our motivation, for sure.”

True freshman Terhyon Nichols was asked to play more snaps in Hairston’s absence. We learned the cornerback dislocated his shoulder while breaking up a pass to Harris down the far sideline. They popped it back into place in the locker room and he returned to the action in the second half.

It’s a bye week for the Kentucky football team. The Wildcats return to action at Kroger Field for a night game against Vanderbilt on Oct. 12.

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