KSR Today: Texas prep, Todd Golden on Denzel Aberdeen, and a new football commit

Good morning, folks! A busy weekend in Lexington is almost here. We’ve got the Blue-White Game to get the ball rolling on Friday, followed by Kentucky football hosting No. 21 Texas for the first time ever on Saturday night — all of this happening on a Keeneland weekend. My sister, who is about to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania (yes, I’m bragging), is also coming to visit. That doesn’t matter to you, but it has me excited.

But before we look too far ahead, we have plenty to talk about on this fine Thursday morning. We’ll start with the SEC’s first Availability Report of the week, which dropped last night. Kentucky will be down seven players against Texas, but there is some good news in this update. We’ll have another one drop tonight.

• RB Jamarion Wilcox: Out
• OLB Jacob Smith: Out
• CB Nasir Addison: Out
• LB Devin Smith: Out
• DL Nic Smith: Out
• WR David Washington Jr.: Out
• TE Elijah Brown: Out
• WR Troy Stellato: Questionable
• OL Aba Selm: Questionable
• DB Jaden Smith: Probable

All signs point to starting cornerback DJ Waller Jr. returning to the lineup for the first time since Week 1 on Saturday. Kentucky should also get nickel Jaden Smith back this weekend after he missed the Georgia game. The ‘Cats will have all hands on deck Saturday. Meanwhile, the biggest loss for Texas will occur on the offensive line. The Longhorns will be without starting center Cole Hutson for the first time this season. 

Also on Wednesday, we heard from Brad White and members of the Kentucky defense. Among the main talking points? Tackling, which has not been a strength of this year’s group, but something White is putting an even larger emphasis on ahead of Saturday against Texas. Before diving into the rest of this morning’s news and notes, listen to everything White and Co. had to say below.

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Todd Golden talked about Denzel Aberdeen

After winning a national championship back in the spring, Denzel Aberdeen and Florida couldn’t see eye to eye. That led to Aberdeen transferring to Kentucky. Negotiations “went south a little bit”, according to Aberdeen’s father. Florida head coach Todd Golden was asked about Aberdeen and that decision at SEC Media Days on Wednesday.

“We love Denzel,” Golden told KSR. “Incredibly grateful for the contributions he made to our program. He was a huge part of our national championship team. He was a guy that came with us right when we got the job. The reality is, we would have loved to have Denzel back, and there were other things that were more important to him than what we had to offer at this point.”

The “other things” that Golden is likely referring to would be money — you know, the same thing he took a bunch of so he could leave his job at San Francisco for one in Florida in 2022. But I digress. While you’re here, dive into KSR’s Rapid Reaction from what we saw at SEC Media Days on Wednesday before we made the trek back to Kentucky.

Kentucky FB added a commitment

Justyn Hartley is the third Alabama native to join Kentucky’s recruiting haul. The class of 2026 Hoover (AL) prospect immediately committed to the Wildcats on Wednesday after receiving a scholarship offer this week. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound EDGE chose UK over offers from mostly FCS schools such as Illinois State and SEMO.

Kentucky is now back up to 15 commits this cycle after losing three-star OL Tyreek Jemison earlier this month.

Player	Position	High School	Ranking
Matt Ponatoski	QB (6-2, 190)	Cincinnati (Ohio) Moeller	4-star (No. 238 overall)
Messiah Tilson	S (6-2, 165)	Rockford (Ill.) Guilford	4-star (No. 322 overall)
Jordan Crutchfield	CB (6-2, 195)	Vero Beach (Fla.) High	High 3-star (No. 426 overall)
Denairius Gray	WR (6-1, 170)	Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna	High 3-star (No. 442 overall)
Dallas Dickerson	WR (6-1, 180)	Bogart (Ga.) North Oconee	High 3-star (No. 547 overall)
Ben Duncum	DL (6-5, 250)	Austin (Texas) Lake Travis	3-star (No. 621 overall)
Lincoln Watkins	TE (6-4, 225)	Port Huron (Mich.) Northern	3-star (No. 627 overall)
Garrett Witherington	DL (6-4, 290)	Birmingham (Ala.) Briarwood Christian	3-star (No. 846 overall)
Isaiah McMillian	CB (6-0, 170)	Katy (Texas) High	3-star (No. 888 overall)
Prince Jean	WR (6-0, 170)	Valdosta (Ga) High	3-star (No. 995 overall)
Cameron Miller	T (6-5, 310)	Hammond (Ind.) Morton	3-star (No. 1,022) overall)
Max Mohring	LB (6-3, 215)	Malvern (Pa.) Prep	3-star (No. 1,108 overall)
Davis McCray	WR (6-2, 190)	San Antonio (Texas) Cornerstone Christian	3-star (No. 1,232 overall)
Delvecchio “Deuce” Alston II	RB (6-0, 200)	Trussville (Ala.) Hewitt-Trussville	3-star (No. 1,344 overall)
Justyn Hartley	EDGE (6-2, 215)	Hoover (Ala.) High	Unranked

*Another* win for Kentucky volleyball

You really don’t even need to check the scores after a Kentucky volleyball match at this point — you know it’s gonna be a W. The No. 3-ranked Wildcats took down Auburn at home last night 3-1 (25-20, 18-25, 25-22, 25-16), moving to 13-2 on the season and a perfect 6-0 at home. Senior outside hitter Eva Hudson finished with 25 kills. UK held Auburn’s offense to .146 hitting while freshman setter Kassie O’Brien continued her dominance with 48 assists, her fourth-straight 40-kill match.

A big one awaits this Sunday against Florida, the first team ranked outside of the Top 25 in the latest AVCA poll. The ‘Cats will host the Gators inside Memorial Coliseum at 3:00 p.m. ET. This one is getting the ESPN treatment, too.

UK a finalist for 4-star center

2026 four-star center Josh Irving is down to three schools. After taking his official visit to Kentucky from Oct. 10-12, Irving has canceled his USC visit and is going into decision-making mode. The 6-foot-11, 200-pound center from California is down to a final three of Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Louisville. Irving is looking to make his college decision next week. 

“The communication has been very friendly,” Irving told Jacob Polacheck of KSR+. “They’re constantly telling me that I’m the one and that they think I could play SEC ball. [Kentucky] wouldn’t have thrown me the offer if they didn’t think I could do it. They think I have the potential to be one of the next big Kentucky stars, and they’d love to get me over there.”

Could Irving end up being Mark Pope‘s first 2026 commit?

Steven Pearl already lost a game as Auburn head coach

Literally hours after making his debut at SEC Media Days as the new head coach of Auburn men’s basketball, Steven Pearl, son of the recently retired Bruce Pearl, has already taken an L. The Tigers hosted Oklahoma State in Birmingham last night, ultimately losing in overtime 97-95. Auburn shot just 36 percent from the field, while the Cowboys lit it up with a 48 percent mark. Pearl’s squad rallied late to force overtime, but couldn’t come up with the win against Brandon Garrison‘s former school.

Keyshawn Hall looked good, though, adding 26 points and eight rebounds for Auburn. Tahaad Pettiford chipped in 17 points, but Anthony Roy and Isaiah Coleman had 28 points apiece for Oklahoma State.

“We talked about in the scouting report that their guards are the one group that can beat us. We as coaches did a really bad job off taking the ball out of their hands,” Pearl said. “That’s 100 percent on me. That’s 100 percent on our staff. We had a really bad game plan.”

That’s not exactly what you want to hear from a brand-new head coach who took over for his dad a few weeks out from the start of the season.

Join us for Happy Hour today at 4!

It’s that time of the week once again! Around 4:00 p.m. ET this afternoon, the KSR crew will go live for another edition of Happy Hour. Head on over to the KSR YouTube channel to hear Drew Franklin, Tyler Thompson, Nick Roush, and me talk about anything and everything.

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