KSR Today: The last weekend before football season

Good morning, Big Blue Nation. Are you ready for some football? You better be because it’s coming around the bend.

This past Thursday was the last one without football all the way into January/February. Get locked in for another football season.

In 28 short days, the college football season will begin with Farmageddon (Kansas State-Iowa State) opening the season in Ireland. In 35 days, Kentucky will start another season when Toledo rolls into Kroger Field. The long offseason is almost over.

Mark Stoops, Bush Hamdan, Brad White, and Kentucky players will open the year up with media day next week. KSR has not waited to get into preseason mode. That content train has left the station as we are previewing every position on the team and taking a deep dive look at the opponents on the schedule over at KSR+.

• Position Preview: Quarterback
• Position Preview: Running Back
• Position Preview: Wide Receiver
• Early Scouting Report: Toledo Rockets
• Early Scouting Report: Ole Miss Rebels

A jam-packed week awaits as training camp begins on Kentucky’s campus next week.

100 days until college basketball season

The college football countdown clock is not the only one on at the KSR office. We shifted into another countdown on Saturday.

Only 100 days until the 2025-26 college basketball season officially begins…..#countdown

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) July 26, 2025

Kentucky will return to the hardwood soon. The Big Blue Nation will not have to wait that long to see Mark Pope‘s second team in action. Exhibition season will begin with a matchup with Purdue on Oct. 24 before the season officially begins in November.

College basketball is also right around the corner.

Catching up with Malachi Moreno

Throughout the summer, Kentucky basketball has hosted media opportunities where each player of the team holds a press conference. True freshman Malachi Moreno was the latest to field questions from reporters.

Miss the press conference? We’ve got you covered.

• Having Mark Pope at Team USA training camp helped a ton
• Malachi Moreno has one big goal
• Malachi Moreno shares his favorite moments as a Kentucky fan

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

Jon Sumrall was asked about future interest in Kentucky — again

Talking season unofficially ended on Friday with media days finally wrapping up. The American Conference was the last league to hold their up as the conference followed the ACC in Charlotte. Former Kentucky linebacker and assistant Jon Sumrall is entering his second year at Tulane after making the conference championship game in year one.

In his press conference, Sumrall was asked about expectations for his program in year two and what is going on at quarterback after the Green Wave added multiple transfers at the position in the offseason. But the 43-year-old could not get out of there without receiving a question about the coaching carousel and potential future interest from Kentucky.

This was his response.

Jon Sumrall was asked about balancing being at Tulane while also listening to potential job opportunities. This is what he said.

The Kentucky alum loves where he’s at.

(He also wants to win more games.)

MORE HERE: https://t.co/ahM38Py0mP pic.twitter.com/vZfFJAEg0H

— Adam Luckett (@AdamLuckettKSR) July 25, 2025

Sumrall loves Tulane. That’s understandable after the Green Wave inked the head coach to an extension following the interest from Chapel Hill during the search that ultimately ended with Bill Belichick wearing Carolina Blue. However, we know how this works. Good American Conference coaches get hired away to lead power conference programs. The former Troy head coach will depart New Orleans for a big opportunity when the timing is right.

The Cincinnati Reds are one-game back in the wild card race

The Cincinnati Reds have not participated in the MLB playoffs since 2020. This NL Central franchise has not won a playoff game since 2012 and has not won a playoff series since advancing to the NLCS in 1995.

We are not sure if the series losing streak will be snapped this year but the playoff drought certainly has a great chance to end. After a 7-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Reds moved within one game of the San Diego Padres for the final National League wild card spot.

Team	Record	Playoff Path	Overall Seed
Milwaukee Brewers	61-42	NL Central	1
Los Angeles Dodgers	61-43	NL West	2
New York Mets	60-44	NL East	3
Chicago Cubs	60-43	Wild Card	4
Philadelphia Phillies	59-44	Wild Card	5
San Diego Padres	55-49	Wild Card	6

The Reds (54-50) are now just one game back of the Padres for the final wild card spot. The San Francisco Giants (54-50), St. Louis Cardinals (54-51), and Arizona Diamondbacks (51-53) are also still involved in this race. There are some heated division battles occurring in the NL East and NL Central.

Cincinnati is very much in the postseason conversation in year one under Terry Francona. Now we wait to see if the front office makes any moves at the upcoming trade deadline to beef up the roster for a playoff run.