KSR Today: Week 2 of camp, ducking smoke, blurring faces, and more

Hello there, friends. We’re getting closer and closer to football season. Matter of fact, Kentucky hosts Toledo in the 2025 opener at Kroger Field in only 26 days. Can you believe it? Talking season is nearly over, but not quite yet.

KSR also has a few basketball updates for you on this new Monday morning rundown, plus more news from the weekend and what’s ahead this week. Let’s get to the things you need to know, shall we?

Preseason camp continues in Lexington

After a successful Media Day and Fan Day under perfect weather last Friday and Saturday, Kentucky Football goes back to work today behind closed doors at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility. Monday begins the second week of preseason camp as the Wildcats prepare for the 2025 season opener against Toledo later this month. As they do, you can get caught up on the first week of fall camp with links to KSR’s new football stories. There will be more of those to come as players and coaches are interviewed after practice in the days and weeks to come.

Tennessee blurring QBs in camp highlights

Meanwhile, in Knoxville, Josh Heupel is secretive about his quarterback situation since losing Nico Iamaleava to a higher bidder. UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar is reportedly the favorite to land the job; however, the Vols blurred out the quarterback in a highlight from fall camp. If you look closely at a clip of an interception, Tennessee went to great lengths to keep the thrower of the interception a secret.

Blurring out a QB in the middle of training camp is next level of Tennessee's media team https://t.co/qXT7XdwJCP pic.twitter.com/7yVM6aCjc7

— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) August 3, 2025

SEC Football: Any Given Sunday premieres on Netflix tomorrow

The wait is almost over for Netflix’s docuseries on the Southeastern Conference. Tomorrow, SEC Football: Any Given Saturday will be available on the streaming platform, with a behind-the-scenes look at the best conference in college football. Netflix followed each of the SEC’s sixteen teams in 2024, which, for Kentucky’s purposes, included two of the worst Saturdays of the season, the losses to South Carolina and Louisville in Lexington.

Still, the new show premieres on Tuesday, and it looks awesome.

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Tyran Stokes doesn’t duck smoke

Tyran Stokes is narrowing down his college decision. One thing he’s looking for in college basketball? Competition. The No. 1 overall player in the 2026 class recently said he wants to attend a school that doesn’t duck the smoke.

“That’s it. I don’t like ducking smoke, so I want everybody on the schedule. If I could get North Carolina, Duke, anybody on the schedule, that’s all I want.”

Last month, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey said Louisville doesn’t duck the smoke, so speculators are connecting Stokes’ comments to Louisville and Kelsey. However, Mark Pope said a similar comment about smoke-ducking back in March, so both schools in contention for Stokes have publicly declared that they do not duck smoke. UNC is on both schedules in 2026-27, too. Stokes could also play Duke at either school if Kentucky were to draw Duke in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

Stokes’ mother told KSR+ in July that her son will likely wrap up his recruitment before his senior year of high school begins.

The Aftershocks (Wichita State) won The Basketball Tournament

Though no one cared, TBT moved on without La Familia or The Ville after the two most popular teams in the field lost before the quarterfinals. On Sunday, a team of Wichita State alums called the Aftershocks won the $1 million prize, beating Eberlein Drive in the championship game, 82-67. Marcus Keene scored a game-high 22 points to lead the Aftershocks to victory over the team that knocked out the Kentucky alums on July 22. Keene hit the Elam Ending winner at the foul line.

MARCUS KEENE FOR $1MILLION!!!!!!

THE @AfterShocksTBT ARE YOUR TBT 2025 CHAMPION!!!!!

THE @GoShockersMBB ALUMNI HAVE DONE IT!!!! pic.twitter.com/uLdStV23iY

— TBT (@thetournament) August 3, 2025

Otega Oweh was in Las Vegas

If you saw the highlights Kentucky Basketball put out from its summer practices, Otega Oweh was noticeably absent from the action. Don’t fret, though. Oweh was one of the many high school and college basketball stars participating in the Chris Paul & Jayson Tatum Elite Camp in Las Vegas on July 30-31. Josh Hubbard (Mississippi State), Labaron Philon (Alabama), Anthony Robinson II (Missouri), Meleek Thomas (Arkansas), Billy Richmond (Arkansas), Thomas Haugh (Florida), Karter Knox (Arkansas), and Derrion Reid (Oklahoma) also attended the camp from the SEC.

The Speedway Classic was a disaster

Major League Baseball’s first game at Bristol Motor Speedway was a big deal around KSR headquarters, as the game divided our house of Reds and Braves fans. So, you can imagine the disappointment when Saturday’s game was delayed for two hours and eventually rained out, postponing the Speedway Classic until Sunday afternoon. However, no one was more disappointed than the fans who sat through Saturday night’s rain, when Bristol served hot dogs without buns and trays of plain tortilla chips as nachos.

Once the game was finally played the next day, the excitement had already worn off from the pregame festivities and the build-up. Still, the game set an attendance record (91,302), with the Braves holding off a Reds’ comeback in the bottom of the ninth to win 4-2.

We have NFL Preseason games this week

It’s Week 1 of the NFL Preseason. Later this week, you can watch sixteen preseason games, beginning with three on Thursday through a couple on Sunday. Here’s the full Week 1 schedule, if you’re interested:

Thursday, August 7
Indianapolis at Baltimore, 7:00 (NFL Network)
Cincinnati at Philadelphia, 7:30
Las Vegas at Seattle, 10:00 (NFL Network)

Friday, August 8
Detroit at Atlanta, 7:00
Cleveland at Carolina, 7:00 (NFL Network)
Washington at New England, 7:30

Saturday, August 9
N.Y. Giants at Buffalo, 1:00 (NFL Network)
Houston at Minnesota, 4:00 (NFL Network)
Pittsburgh at Jacksonville, 7:00
Dallas at L.A. Rams, 7:00
Tennessee at Tampa Bay, 7:30
Kansas City at Arizona, 8:00
N.Y. Jets at Green Bay, 8:00 (NFL Network)
Denver at San Francisco, 8:30

Sunday, August 10
Miami at Chicago, 1:00 (NFL Network)
New Orleans at L.A. Chargers, 4:05 (NFL Network)

Spend your Happy Hour with KSR

Later today, a new KSR Happy Hour presented by Country Boy Brewing will stream live on KSR’s YouTube channel. Tune in at 4 p.m., wherever you are, for a live rundown of the latest news around Big Blue Nation, including everything newsy from football camp and more.

Tune in for KSR at 10 a.m.

A new week with KSR’s morning radio program begins at 10 a.m. Tune in for two hours with Matt, Ryan, Shannon, and me. Talk to you then.