KSR Today: Eastern Michigan Eve, UK Athletics Hall of Fame, 7-footer on campus

Good morning, KSBoard, and happy Friday. It’s gameday eve around here as we prepare for Kentucky’s game vs. Eastern Michigan, which could mark the start of the Cutter Boley era. There’s also some basketball news to touch on, and six Wildcats are headed to the Hall of Fame. Let’s get to it.

Eastern Michigan eve

Kentucky needs to get right after last week’s disappointing loss to Ole Miss, and you could argue there’s no better team to do it against than Eastern Michigan. The Eagles are 0-2 this season, losing to Texas State 52-27 and Long Island, an FCS squad that lost to Florida 55-0, 28-23. Eastern Michigan is No. 132 in The Athletic’s latest ranking of all 136 teams in the FBS. Kentucky is a 24.5-point favorite on BetMGM.

Cutter Boley is expected to start at quarterback following Zach Calzada’s shoulder injury vs. Ole Miss. This will be his second career start, the first coming in the season finale vs. Louisville last year. He’ll go up against an Eastern Michigan defense that is allowing an average of 8.04 yards per play, which ranks second-to-last in the FBS. As Adam Luckett detailed in his Scouting Report, the Eagles’ secondary shows promise, but the front is not great, which could allow Boley to find a rhythm heading into the bye week.

Zach Geoghegan helped break the news that Cutter will start vs. Eastern Michigan. He shared what he’s hearing from his Boley connections on the latest episode of KSR Happy Hour. Check it out as we get ready for tomorrow’s game, a 7:30 p.m. ET kick on ESPNU.

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Arafan Diane starts his official visit

There’s a very important visitor on campus this weekend. Seven-footer Arafan Diane, the No. 1 center in the 2026 class, begins his official visit to Kentucky today. Last week, Mark Pope visited Diane, whose high school coach is Pope’s brother-in-law, Damon Archibald; shortly after, Diane narrowed his list of schools to five: Kentucky, Arkansas, Virginia, Indiana, and Houston. The Cats get the first official visit. Diane is expected to announce his decision on his birthday, Nov. 9.

There’s some more recruiting news. Last night, Joe Tipton reported that four-star guard Tay Kinney will announce his decision on Sunday, Sept. 28. The Newport, KY native is down to eight schools: Kentucky, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisville, Miami (FL), Oregon, and Texas. Kansas is considered the favorite after Kinney’s official visit to Lawrence last month, but Pope isn’t giving up, visiting Kinney at midnight when the recruiting period began last week. We’ll know for sure soon enough.

ICYMI, Big Blue Madness is moving to Saturday

One more piece of basketball news before we move on. Big Blue Madness will take place on Saturday, October 11, at Rupp Arena. The preseason event has almost always happened on a Friday, but with the football team on a bye, the basketball team is moving it back a day. We’ll get more details, including a starting time, soon, but for now, adjust your calendars.

UK Athletics Hall of Fame dinner

It seems like only yesterday that the 2025 UK Athletics Hall of Fame class was unveiled, headlined by Josh Hines-Allen and Karl-Anthony Towns. Just like that, Hall of Fame weekend is here. Tonight, Hines-Allen (football), Towns (men’s basketball), Abbey Cheek-Ramsey (softball), Makayla Epps (women’s basketball), Doug Flynn (baseball/men’s basketball), and Sonia Hahn (women’s tennis) will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a dinner at Central Bank Center. They’ll also be recognized during halftime of tomorrow’s game vs. Eastern Michigan.

KSR will be on hand for both, including interviews with all six tonight. We’ll bring you the highlights. It will be Hines-Allen’s second trip to Kroger Field in the past three weeks. He also attended the season opener vs. Toledo.

KSR Game of the Week goes to Danville

Titletown is hosting a Top 15 showdown tonight and, in turn, the KSR crew too. No. 11 Boyle County will host No. 5 Highlands tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET at Rebel Stadium. The Bluebirds are undefeated, while the Rebels are 2-1, taking a surprising loss to Lexington Catholic last week, which snapped their 22-game regular-season winning streak.

I’m sure Boyle County would love to bounce back with a win over Highlands, another perennial power made famous by Jared Lorenzen. Jared’s son Tayden is now a junior at Highlands and plays running back, receiver, and even quarterback and defense on occasion. You may recall that he scored the two-point conversion in double overtime to give Highlands its first win of the season vs. Frederick Douglass. This proud Danville alum sure wouldn’t mind if he pulled off some more heroics against our rival Boyle County.

FINAL | HS 🏈 (2 OT)

Highlands 21, Frederick Douglass 20

TAYDEN LORENZEN! OH MY GOODNESS! HE WINS IT! pic.twitter.com/O8BCc0vvxb

— Josh Kalb (@joshua_kalb) August 23, 2025

Women’s Soccer hosts No. 20 Oklahoma

SEC play starts tonight for the Kentucky Women’s Soccer team, which hosts No. 20 Oklahoma at 7:30 p.m. ET at The Bell. This is just the second all-time meeting between the Cats and the Sooners, who also happen to be the top two scoring offenses in the SEC through non-conference play. Oklahoma leads the league in goals with 26, followed by Kentucky with 25. Sooners star Naomi Clark leads the SEC in individual goals, with seven, followed by Kentucky’s Alexis Tylendal with six.

It’s also Salute to Service Night, so come on down to The Bell to support the ladies if you can. Admission is free to all fans. You can also watch on SEC Network+.

Bourbon and Beyond Day 2

Last night, The Lumineers, Benson Boone, and Alabama Shakes brought down the house at Bourbon and Beyond. Today, legendary jam band Phish takes the stage, along with Guster, Trampled by Turtles, Mary Chapin Carpenter, 10,000 Maniacs, and Colbie Callat. Those are just a few of the acts ready to entertain fans at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center. The crowd last night was massive.

One day down, a whole weekend to go. Let’s keep pouring it on. 🥃🙌 pic.twitter.com/RtbgNtgR3A

— Bourbon & Beyond (@BourbonNBeyond) September 12, 2025

First show without Matt

Matt Jones is off to South Africa, so Ryan Lemond, Drew Franklin, and Shannon the Dude are in charge until he’s back. Today’s show will be live from Clark’s Pump-N-Shop in Nicholasville. Come join the gang to preview the Eastern Michigan game, talk Madness on a Saturday, and much more.