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KSR Today: Training Camp, UK Athletics Hall of Fame class, and injury updates

Zack Geogheganby: Zack Geoghegan07/31/25ZGeogheganKSR

Good morning, folks! Wednesday marked the official start of training camp for the Kentucky football team as the program enters its 13th year under Mark Stoops‘ leadership. The Wildcats will get back at it again today with just 31 days separating us from the season opener against Toledo (featuring a point spread that is surprisingly dropping) on August 30th.

After posting a 4-8 record last season, what’s in store for Kentucky’s 2025 campaign? With 50 new additions via the transfer portal and high school ranks, there has been plenty of roster turnover, but that might just end up being exactly what the ‘Cats needed. Can the offensive line get back to being the Big Blue Wall of old? There’s tepid optimism that it will. That’s hardly the only storyline to monitor between now and the start of the season, though. KSR’s Nick Roush has you covered on that front.

[The Defining Storylines of 2025 Kentucky Football Fall Camp]

Before we get into the rest of this morning’s news and notes, check out this throw by Zach Calzada to Josh Kattus for the one-handed snag from yesterday’s training camp.

UK Athletics reveals 2025 Hall of Fame class

The UK Athletics Hall of Fame, which started in 2005, unveiled its 20th anniversary class on Wednesday — and it’s a pretty talented group of ‘Cats. Below are this year’s inductees. Hall of Fame Weekend is set for September 12-13.

  • Abbey Cheek-Ramsey (softball)
  • Makayla Epps (women’s basketball)
  • Doug Flynn (baseball/men’s basketball)
  • Sonia Hahn (women’s tennis)
  • Josh Hines-Allen (football)
  • Karl-Anthony Towns (men’s basketball)

Collin Chandler is healthy and back on the floor

After missing some time earlier in the summer due to a minor injury, KSR’s Jack Pilgrim reports that rising sophomore Collin Chandler is healthy and back on the floor with the rest of his teammates.

“Collin Chandler has been out dealing with a little bit of a minor, minor, minor injury,” Pilgrim said on Tuesday night’s episode of Sources Say. “I’m told he is back, actually returned back to practice today. So that’s definitely a big positive. But wasn’t a part of that scrimmage with La Familia and some of the practices leading up and the 5-on-5s in the days since, but is officially back. That’s a great update.”

Chandler was impressive during the month of March as a freshman. Expectations are high for him going into 2025-26. Thankfully, it doesn’t sound like he missed more than a few weeks of offseason practices.

It’s Watch List SZN!!!

18 of the Southeastern Conference’s best linebackers were named to the preseason watch list for the 2025 Butkus Award. Kentucky’s Alex Afari, who has played meaningful minutes since his true freshman season, was among them ahead of his senior season in Lexington as he takes on an even bigger role on defense.

Afari has already played in 38 career games with 21 starts, tallying 132 tackles in three years, with 19.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, four quarterback hurries, and two pass breakups. Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops said earlier this week he expects Afari to “take another step” in 2025. That would be great news for the ‘Cats if it happens.

A top-ranked basketball recruit was in Lexington yesterday

And his name is Sayon Keita, considered by many as the top international prospect at the high school level. Keita is in the midst of visiting six schools in six days, a tour that started on Monday with a trip to Kansas and continued on Tuesday with a stop at Indiana. The seven-foot native of Mali was in Lexington to check out Kentucky on Wednesday. KSR’s Phoenix Stevens even saw him hanging out with Mark Pope in the Joe Craft Center lobby.

Keita, who currently plays for FC Barcelona in Spain, is a member of the 2027 recruiting class right now, but a possible move up to the 2026 cycle is on the table. Today, he’ll visit Duke before rounding out his visit tour with stops at North Carolina and UConn this weekend.

Max Hairston avoids major injury

Thank goodness, too, because the initial injury did not look good. Buffalo Bills first-round draft pick Maxwell Hairston went down with a no-contact knee issue during Tuesday’s practice, but reports came out yesterday with good news: no ACL tear, just an LCL sprain that could keep him off the field for as little as three weeks.

New Here Comes the Boom in your feed

With Keita visiting Lexington on Wednesday and Deron Rippey Jr. set to begin his official visit with UK this weekend, the Kentucky men’s basketball staff is entering an important recruiting stretch. Jacob Polacheck of KSR+ dropped a fresh episode of Here Comes the Boom yesterday to give you the latest on all of the Wildcats’ upcoming visitors. Below is UK’s official visit schedule:

Want more Kentucky Basketball intel? Join KSR Plus for access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.

Get to know the 2025-26 Kentucky WBB team

Wednesday was Kentucky women’s basketball Media Day for the players, where we got to chat it up with nearly all of the 2025-26 roster. Only 6-foot-5 freshman center Elsa Vadfors, who recently arrived on campus from her home country of Sweden, was unavailable to talk, but we had conversations with 10 other Wildcats. Headlined by Teonni Key and Clara Strack as the key returning pieces for year two under head coach Kenny Brooks, Kentucky also added important newcomers such as Tonie Morgan and Kaelyn Carroll.

Hear everything they had to say in the videos below.

Key, Hassett, Obi, Strack, Blue, and Paurová

Boone, Morgan, Carroll, and Gilvin

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2025-12-02