Booth Watch: First Tom Hart game of the season

The atmosphere at Williams-Brice Stadium for Kentucky vs. South Carolina on Saturday night should be wild; it’ll also be entertaining for us at home thanks to the broadcast team. Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers, and Cole Cubelic will call the Cats vs. the Gamecocks, a 7:45 p.m. ET kickoff on SEC Network, our first game this season with the talented trio.

That means we’ve got some KSR references coming our way, thanks to Hart, a longtime friend of the site and show. I reached out to Hart to get his thoughts on the matchup. He was also on the call for Kentucky’s thrilling comeback vs. South Carolina in Lexington in 2014, aka the Jojo Kemp game, one of the biggest wins of the early Mark Stoops era. With Kentucky and South Carolina both searching for their first SEC wins of the season — the Cats just their second SEC win since 2023 — Hart says the stakes are high for this one as well.

“Is it hyperbole to state this is the most consequential game in college football this weekend? I think not.”

Most college football fans would say that is hyperbole, given the loaded Week 5 slate, which includes No. 4 LSU vs. No. 13 Ole Miss, No. 17 Alabama vs. No. 5 Georgia, and other big SEC matchups; however, as someone who has called many a Kentucky game, Hart has the pulse of the BBN, which is growing increasingly restless with the state of the program. South Carolina has been more successful as of late, but the Gamecocks have dropped two straight despite having a Heisman contender in quarterback LaNorris Sellers. Hart, Rodgers, and Cubelic were on the call for South Carolina’s surprising 31-7 loss to Vanderbilt two weeks ago. Can Cutter Boley turn things around by leading the Cats to an upset Saturday night?

“All I’m saying is it would be a shame to miss this because one chose to hang out with penguins and giant tortoises,” Hart quipped.

Do KSR references really count if Matt Jones doesn’t know about them because he broke his phone in South Africa? We’re about to find out. Also, if you’re going to the game, Hart advises you to use crosswalks when available and avoid picking fights with South Carolina fans. We don’t need anyone getting sucker punched like Ryan Lemond two years ago.

Week 5 TV Schedule

As mentioned, this week’s schedule is loaded. I hope you don’t have many plans outside of sitting on the couch and enjoying it all.

Date	Time (ET)	Game/Commentators	Network
Thu, Sep 25	7:30 p.m.	Army at East Carolina Matt Barrie, Tom Luginbill, Harry Lyles Jr.	ESPN
Fri, Sep 26	7 p.m.	No. 8 Florida State at Virginia Bob Wischusen, Louis Riddick, Kris Budden	ESPN
	9 p.m.	No. 24 TCU at Arizona State	FOX
	10:30 p.m.	Houston at Oregon State Anish Shroff, Andre Ware, Paul Carcaterra	ESPN
Sat, Sep 27	12 p.m.	No. 22 Notre Dame at Arkansas Dave Pasch, Dusty Dvoracek, Taylor McGregor	ABC
	12 p.m.	No. 16 Georgia Tech at Wake Forest Mike Monaco, Kirk Morrison, Dawn Davenport	ESPN
	12 p.m.	Louisville at Pittsburgh Roy Philpott, Sam Acho, Taylor Davis	ESPN2
	12 p.m.	No. 21 USC at No. 23 Illinois	FOX
	12:45 p.m.	Utah State at No. 18 Vanderbilt Taylor Zarzour, Matt Stinchcomb, Alyssa Lang	SEC Network
	3 p.m.	No. 1 Ohio State at Washington	CBS/Paramount+
	3:30 p.m.	No. 4 LSU at No. 13 Ole Miss Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy, Molly McGrath	ABC
	3:30 p.m.	Auburn at No. 9 Texas A&M Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer, Katie George	ESPN
	3:30 p.m.	Baylor at Oklahoma State Lowell Galindo, Aaron Murray, Lauren Sisler	ESPN2
	3:30 p.m.	Utah at West Virginia	FOX
	3:30 p.m.	UCLA at Northwestern	BTN
	3:30 p.m.	No. 11 Illinois at Iowa	Peacock
	4 p.m.	Tulane at Tulsa Chuckie Kempf, Darius Walker	ESPNU
	4:15 p.m.	No. 15 Tennessee at Mississippi State Dave Neal, Fozzy Whittaker, Morgan Uber	SEC Network
	7 p.m.	Arizona at No. 14 Iowa State Dave Flemming, Brock Osweiler, Stormy Buonantony	ESPN
	7 p.m.	No. 6 Oregon at No. 3 Penn State	NBC/Peacock
	7:30 p.m.	No. 17 Alabama at No. 5 Georgia Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Holly Rowe, Laura Rutledge	ABC
	7:30 p.m.	Massachusetts at No. 20 Missouri Courtney Lyle, Rene Ingoglia	ESPNU
	7:45 p.m.	Kentucky at South Carolina Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers, Cole Cubelic	SEC Network
	10:15 p.m.	No. 25 BYU at Colorado Mark Jones, Roddy Jones, Quint Kessenich	ESPN

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Kentucky at South Carolina: How to Watch, Listen

• Kickoff: 7:45 p.m. ET
• TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers, Cole Cubelic)
• Local Radio: UK Sports Network (Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro, Dick Gabriel)
• AM: 840 WHAS, 630 WLAP
• FM: 98.1 WBUL
• Online: iHeart Radio
• Sirius XM: 374 (UK); 106 or 190 (SC)