KSR Today: Halloween is a day for Coach Speak

Good morning, folks! And Happy Halloween to everyone! Today is easily one of my favorite holidays. My girlfriend appropriately spooky-fied our apartment over a month ago and we carved our pumpkins earlier this week. Since I live near campus, we won’t see many small children begging for a handful of candy this afternoon (it looks like the rain might hold off), but we’ve got our own Halloween costumes (sorry, no spoilers) locked and loaded for a weekend party. Also, it’s supposed to be over 75 degrees today in Lexington. I’ll take it 10 times out of 10 for the final day of October.

Now, back to the sports stuff. We’ve actually got quite a busy Thursday ahead of us. Why? Because we’ll be hearing from a trio of Kentucky head coaches throughout the day. Both Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks on the basketball side will meet with reporters, while Mark Stoops on the football side will do the same thing later in the day. There’s plenty of buzz around all three programs right now — some of it good, some of it bad.

With Pope and Brooks, we’ll be asking about next week’s season openers. The nationally-ranked men’s and women’s teams both begin the regular season on Monday, Nov. 4 at home against Wright State (7:00 p.m. EST on ESPNU) and USC Upstate (5:00 p.m. EST on SEC Network+), respectively. With Stoops, we’ll be feeling him out ahead of Saturday’s road showdown against No. 7 Tennessee. Kentucky needs a win over the Volunteers in the worst way. The ‘Cats remain a two-touchdown underdog.

Stay tuned to the website for immediate coverage of everything they say throughout the day. While you wait, dive into the rest of this morning’s news and notes.

First Injury Report of the week

The first of four Availability Reports for this week was released last night. Notably, RB Chip Trayanum is listed as out while RB Demie Sumo-Karngbaye starts out as probable. Starters Maxwell Hairston, Jordan Dingle, Gerald Mincey, D’Eryk Jackson, and J.J. Weaver will also miss the game. We’ll receive another update tonight.

• Maxwell Hairston | DB | Out
• Jantzen Dunn | DB | Out
• Darrion Henry-Young | DL | Out
• Gerald Mincey | OL | Out
• Josaih Hayes | DL | Out
• Chip Trayanum | RB | Out
• Steven Soles Jr. | OLB | Out
• Jordan Dingle | TE | Out
• D’Eryk Jackson | LB | Out
• J.J. Weaver | OLB | Out
• Quay’sheed Scott | DB | Doubtful
• DJ Waller Jr. | DB | Questionable
• Jayvant Brown | LB | Questionable
• Deone Walker | DT | Probable
• Tavion Gadson | DL | Probable
• Demie Sumo-Karngbaye | RB | Probable

Podcasts! Come and get your podcasts!

Need something to get you through to the weekend? How about nearly three hours’ worth of KSR podcast content that we dropped yesterday?

For starters, KSR’s Jack Pilgrim was joined by Shawn Smith for a fresh episode of Sources Say to break down Kentucky’s final exhibition win from Tuesday, a 98-67 victory over Minnesota State. They also touch on Amari Williams‘ injury and whether or not their opinions of this team have changed through two preseason games.

Next up, you can add 11 Personnel to your queue. KSR’s Nick Roush and Adam Luckett had plenty to talk about, most notably the quarterback battle brewing between Brock Vandagriff and Gavin Wimsatt. They also dove into Vince Marrow‘s press conference from Monday and Kentucky’s not-so-good track record of playing Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.

Cap things off with Memorial Memo as KSR’s Phoenix Stevens and Katie Hutchison gear us up for the start of the Kenny Brooks era of Kentucky women’s basketball. Our insightful college interns provide some recruiting updates, discuss the Wildcats’ secret scrimmage against Ohio State, and preview the season opener next week against USC Upstate.

That’s a lot of podcasts… You can find them all over on the KSR YouTube channel or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Lexington pitcher, Louisville catcher win World Series

I won’t sit here and pretend like I followed even a second of the World Series while it was going on, but I did see how Game 5 ended: with Lexington pitcher Walker Buehler embracing Louisville catcher Will Smith right after the Los Angeles Dodgers won the championship last night. Buehler came in for the save, pitching two strikeouts in the ninth inning. It was his first relief appearance since he was a rookie in 2018.

The Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 4-1 to win the franchise’s eighth World Series title.

WALKER. BUEHLER. #WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/6BrQWnSVRE

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 31, 2024

Jaxson Robinson preseason love

Yesterday, Kentucky guard Jaxson Robinson was one of 50 players named to the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Men’s College Basketball Player of the Year watch list and one of 20 players named to the Naismith Julius Erving Award watch list for the nation’s top small forward. Robinson, a preseason All-SEC Third Team member, averaged 21.5 points per outing on 13-21 outside shooting across UK’s two exhibitions.

During Kentucky’s first exhibition win against Kentucky Wesleyan (123-52) last week, Robinson finished with a game-high 19 points and three rebounds on 7-12 shooting, including a 5-9 clip from deep, in 23 minutes. He was even better Tuesday night in a 98-67 win over Minnesota State, once again leading all scorers with 24 points (8-12 3PT) in addition to six rebounds, three assists, and two steals in 24 minutes. His eight made triples would have tied a career-high had it been a regular-season game.

New QB prospect to monitor?

Yesterday, four-star quarterback Carter Smith announced his decommitment from Michigan after originally choosing the Wolverines last November. Michigan is in hot pursuit of Bryce Underwood, the nation’s top-ranked quarterback and overall prospect from the 2025 class. Smith saw the writing on the wall and put himself back on the market. Why is this notable? Because Kentucky is going to be one of the schools after Smith.

Smith is ranked No. 199 overall in the 2025 class by the On3 Industry Ranking and is considered a Top 20 quarterback in the class. The Wildcats have a pair of three-star QBs locked in already for this cycle in Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward, but the staff would surely like to kick the tires on Smith and see if he would be willing to join the fold. Wisconsin, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville, and Kentucky are the schools already involved.

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