KSR Today: It's Game Week In The Bluegrass

IT’S GAME WEEK IN THE BLUEGRASS!

In a short five days and three hours, Carl Nathe’s voice will ring throughout Kroger Field as the Cats kick off the 2021 football season as a 29.5-point home favorite against Louisiana Monroe. We’ll see the debuts of Will Levis, Wandale Robinson, and Kentucky’s new offense under Liam Coen, and a defense with several returning players and top-25 potential. Full crowds will be back. Tailgating too.

But first, we have early-week game prep on this Week 1 Monday…

Mondays with Mark Stoops are back.

Game week means the return of game week traditions, like Mark Stoops’ weekly press conference luncheon on campus. Back for the first time since the 2019 season, Stoops will invite the media to Kroger Field each Monday for a lengthy conversation about the game preparation ahead. We will have several boots on the ground and will report back with the video, quotes, and analysis later this afternoon.

If you don’t get enough Stoops talk from the press conference, tune in to his call-in show later tonight. UK’s head football coach returns to the radio airwaves from 6-7 p.m. EST on the UK Sports Network. Tune in.

Kentucky will release its Week 1 depth chart

Coming up in the 11 o’clock hour, Kentucky Football will release its official depth chart for the home opener against Louisiana Monroe. We’ll see who is available and who won out at each position for the first game. Positions to watch include linebacker (Jones good to go?) and the two-deep offensive and defensive lines.

Adam Luckett took a stab at predicting the depth chart last week: Offense | Defense

WATCH: “Greatest moments of the Stoops era”

Yesterday Kentucky Football’s video team blessed the timeline with a recap of the highlights of Mark Stoops’ career to date. Look back on the wins and busted ceiling tiles in this two-and-a-half-minute celebration of the Stoops era.

The KSR Football Podcast returns.

With all of this football excitement, we are getting the KSR Football Podcast band back together for a new episode to preview the season. Nick Roush, Freddie Maggard, Charles Walker, and I will share our thoughts on the new depth chart, Stoops’ new comments, and the schedule ahead, plus any other topics that intervene.

Today’s new episode will also be our first in the same place after more than a year on Zoom. It will make for a much better show and you can hear it tonight around dinner time however you get your KSR podcasts.

Joey Gatewood was granted immediate eligibility at UCF.

Good luck to him.

Railbird Festival (Sunday edition) was a great time

I can’t speak to Saturday at Railbird (it did not go well, by all accounts) but I had to go see what all of the fuss was about on Sunday—and to hear good music. The music festival’s organizers did a great job fixing the many problems from Day 1 (hour-long waits, a water shortage, an everything shortage) overnight and Sunday went much, much better.

My top five moments:

— Band of Horses covering Neon Moon

— Jason Isbell — “Cover Me Up”

— Corndogs

— Peeing twice without waiting

— Dave Matthews Band

Can’t wait to run it back next year.

UK Basketball news to come.

From the world of UK Basketball, expect a big announcement today regarding the upcoming season. There is a special event coming and we should hear the official news today now that it has been finalized. Stay tuned for that throughout all of the football coverage coming your way today.

Go Cats.