KSR Today: Kentucky Football players report for camp, Basketball Recruiting updates

It may not feel like it, as a brutal heat wave continues to blanket the Bluegrass, but football is right around the corner. Today, the football team reports for fall camp, which kicks off with the first practice on Wednesday. Friday is Media Day, and on Saturday, Kentucky fans will get their first look at the 2025 Wildcats at Fan Day, which includes an open practice.

After Mark Stoops’ Monday press conference and the Lexington Kickoff Luncheon, it already feels like fall camp is underway. Stoops, Bush Hamdan, and Brad White said A LOT on Monday, so while we wait for the real action to get underway, let’s run through a quick recap.

Football players report to camp

Mark Stoops is having a minor procedure to remove something on his face today (wear your sunscreen, folks!), so instead of facing the cameras with a big bandage at Media Day on Friday, he invited reporters to Kroger Field on Monday to preview fall camp. In turn, we got an extended conversation with Stoops, who spoke for almost 45 minutes about his roster, sharing thoughts on almost every player on the two-deep. A few hours later, he, Hamdan, and White also spoke for 20 minutes at the kickoff luncheon. We’ve already rolled out a lot of content, and will continue to all week, but here are the highlights:

• Bush Hamdan says the Big Blue Wall is back. The biggest quote of the day came from Bush Hamdan, who gave some very, very high praise to Kentucky’s offensive line, telling Tom Leach, “This offensive line is going to remind us of the great offensive lines we’ve had here.”
• Stoops believes Kentucky football will be “competitive” with revenue-sharing. A week ago, Matt Norlander reported that Kentucky Basketball is getting 45% of the school’s $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap for 2025-26, which means that football will be getting considerably less than its SEC counterparts. On Monday, Stoops was directly asked if football is getting enough, and he said yes, that he’s excited that the football team has enough to be competitive in the SEC, which theoretically has a more level playing field in the revenue-sharing era.
• Maturity and discipline have been highlights this summer. Last year’s team had a lot of problems, maybe chief among them discipline. Stoops repeatedly said that so far, this year’s team is doing all the right things, with 100% participation in summer workouts. He seemed particularly pleased to share that when a freshman was late to workouts a few times, his position group straightened him out immediately. Separately, he praised Jamarion Wilcox for keeping his head down and working hard even after Kentucky added more competition to the running back room with transfers Seth McGown and Dante Dowdell. “He hasn’t flinched,” Stoops said of Wilcox.
• The schedule is “awkward,” but “Bring it on.” Even the best Kentucky football team would struggle with this schedule, which isn’t helped by the fact that the Cats’ two bye weekends come in the first half of the season, setting up a brutal backend. Regardless, Stoops repeated what appears to be his new mantra for 2025: “Bring it on.”

That’s a lot of words. If you would rather digest this content in video form, we’ve got it all on the KSR YouTube Channel. Nick Roush and Adam Luckett shared their thoughts in the first Rapid Reaction of the 2025 season. You can also see Stoops, Hamdan, and White’s comments in their entirety.

While you’re there, don’t miss the latest episode of KSR Happy Hour, in which we talked football, Country Boy’s new bar in PKL Lex, Lexington SC’s loss to Louisville City in the Commonwealth Cup, and much, much more. We got really random there at the end, which is just how we like it.

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Will Levis is getting his shoulder fixed

Will Levis will also go under the knife today, albeit for a procedure much more serious than Mark Stoops’. The former Cat and Tennessee Titans quarterback is undergoing surgery to repair the AC joint he injured while diving for a first down against the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 30, 2024. The surgery will keep him out the entire 2025 season, but after seeing the picture he shared last night on Instagram, I think we can all agree it’s the right decision. Yikes.

Kentucky Basketball Recruiting updates

It wasn’t all football on Monday. We got some basketball recruiting news, too, in the form of two new offers and an official visit from an intriguing international prospect.

• Kentucky offers 2027 top 10 small forward Marcus Spears Jr.: Mark Pope’s staff extended its fourth offer in the 2027 class on Monday afternoon to Marcus Spears Jr., a 6’7″, 170 lbs. four-star small forward from Plano, TX. As the territory might suggest, Alvin Brooks III has been the point man on this recruitment.
• Kentucky also offers 2026 4-star center Josh Irving: This morning, four-star center Josh Irving announced he has an offer from Kentucky as well. The 6’11”, 200 lbs. big man from Pasadena, CA, plays on the Puma AAU circuit and has also recently added offers from Texas A&M and Louisville. Kentucky has now offered 18 players in the 2026 class. Still waiting on the first commitment.
• Sayon Keita will visit Kentucky tomorrow: Top international big man Sayon Keita is in America this week for official visits. He’ll come to Lexington tomorrow, July 30, before checking out Duke, North Carolina, and UConn. Yesterday, he visited Kansas, and today, Indiana. Keita is currently in the 2027 class but is considering reclassifying to 2026. Jacob Polacheck has more on his commitment timeline on KSR+.

If you need more to scratch that basketball itch, the Kentucky MBB Twitter account uploaded some pictures of the Cats hitting the weights.

Building our foundation 💪 pic.twitter.com/HjA0AMFmtu

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) July 28, 2025

Throwback Tuesday to ESPN visiting Tim Couch in 1995

Shoutout to The Gameplan with Dave Shore YouTube channel, which uploaded this old profile of Tim Couch from ESPN Scholastic Sports America on Monday. ESPN visited little Hyden, Kentucky, and its one stoplight in 1995. Pretty cool stuff.

John Michael Montgomery to play final concert in Rupp

This morning, country music star John Michael Montgomery announced he will wrap up “The Road Home Tour” with the final concert of his career at Rupp Arena on Friday, Dec. 12. The central Kentucky native will share the stage with his brother Eddie Montgomery (Montgomery Gentry), his son Walker Montgomery, and his son-in-law Travis Denning. Montgomery will come on KSR tomorrow to talk about the show, tickets for which go on sale Friday.

“I stepped on a tour bus for the first time in 1992 and haven’t looked back since, but now it’s time to bring it all back home for my last concert and I can’t think of a better place than Rupp Arena,” Montgomery said in a press release. “I wanted to celebrate this occasion with my family so I invited some of them to perform with me. We are going to have a lot of fun and end this ride in a big way.”

Shannon the Dude throws the first pitch at a Lexington Legends game

If you’ve listened to KSR or the KSR Preshow, you’ve likely heard Shannon the Dude reminisce about his days playing baseball for the Bellarmine Knights. Tonight, Shannon gets to show off his skills when he throws the first pitch at the Lexington Legends’ game. If that’s not reason enough to come out, it’s $2 Tuesday, so you can get $2 tickets, snacks, and soda.

Here’s his first pitch at a Louisville Bats game in 2016. Will he top it tonight?

Throwing out the first pitch for @LouisvilleBats at Slugger Field… I didn't bounce it. pic.twitter.com/wBDqcM1LAa

— Shannon The Dude (@ShannonTheDude) August 5, 2016