KSR Today: Jasper Johnson's decision and NFL season kickoff

Good morning, folks! We’ve got a fun day ahead of us…

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Five-star shooting guard Jasper Johnson will announce his college decision this afternoon. Ranked No. 11 in the 2025 cycle by the On3 Industry Ranking, Johnson will choose between Kentucky, Alabama, and North Carolina. The announcement ceremony will be held at Woodford Couty High School in Versailles, KY. The actual event will begin around 2:15 p.m. EST with Johnson’s commitment to be made at approximately 2:32 p.m. EST. It is NOT open to the public.

And barring something crazy between now and this afternoon, the expectation is that Johnson will choose the Wildcats. Alabama was his first-ever Division I offer and he grew up a North Carolina fan, but family ties to the University of Kentucky and the opportunity to play for the school he grew up down the road from will be tough to ultimately turn down (NIL money helps, too).

This has been an up-and-down recruitment over the last several months with all three of Johnson’s favorites jostling for the lead in the public eye. But head coach Mark Pope has the Wildcats in a terrific position to land his commitment. Doing so would create a two-man recruiting class that also features four-star center Malachi Moreno, who is ranked No. 25 overall.

KSR will be live on the scene at Woodford County to bring you all the action as it happens.

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Big recruiting week for Pope and staff

Put aside the Jasper Johnson situation for a second and this week is still a significant recruiting stretch for the new Kentucky staff. Since Monday, college coaches have traveled all over the country to make in-home/in-school visits with their top recruiting targets. Pope and company included.

Kentucky coaches have already made pitstops this week to check out four-star SG Braylon Mullins, five-star PF Caleb Wilson, and 2026 five-star SG Caleb Holt. And yes, they did go see Johnson at Overtime Elite, along with four-star 2026 PG Tay Kinney. They’ll go visit even more prospects today and Friday, including the likes of five-star PG Mikel Brown, five-star PF Chris Cenac (who just scheduled an official visit to Kentucky), four-star SG Brayden Burries, and others.

Stoops’ final thoughts on South Carolina

Let’s switch to football now. We’re only two more sleeps away from Kentucky hosting South Carolina this Saturday afternoon on ABC. The Wildcats continue to trend as a roughly double-digit favorite to beat the Gamecocks, which narrowly escaped a Week 1 win over Old Dominion. A victory for the Wildcats sets up a possible College Gameday showdown next weekend when top-ranked Georgia comes to town.

But South Carolina must be dealt with first. We’ve been hearing from the players and coaches all week as they prepare for a massively important early-season game. Yesterday, we heard from defensive coordinator Brad White and members of the Kentucky defense. Later today, we’ll hear from head coach Mark Stoops as he provides his final pregame thoughts. As always, we’ll have his comments up on the KSR YouTube channel as soon as possible.

While you wait, listen to everything that Coach White, Zion Childress, Tre’vonn Rybka, and JQ Hardaway had to say about this week of practice and what to expect from the Gamecocks.

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First-ever SEC injury report is out

The Southeastern Conference recently instituted a new injury report “availability reports” system that should provide some transparency about who is available and who is not around the league. The first-ever official report was released last night and Kentucky has a few members on the list — fewer than South Carolina, too.

Kentucky:

• Chip Trayanum | RB | Out
• Darrion Henry-Young | DL | Out
• Courtland Ford | OL | Out
• Hardley Gilmore IV | WR | Out
• Josaih Hayes | DL | Out
• Tavion Gadson | DL | Out
• Brandon White | WR | Doubtful
• Devin Smith | LB | Doubtful
• DJ Waller Jr. | CB | Questionable
• Keeshawn Silver | DL | Probable
• Jamarion Wilcox | RB | Probable
• Grant Godfrey | LB | Probable
• Josh Kattus | TE | Probable

South Carolina:

• Jakai Moore | OL | Out
• Emory Floyd | DB | Doubtful
• Bangally Kamara | LB | Questionable
• David Spaulding | DB | Questionable
• Gilber Edmond | EDGE | Questionable
• Bryan Thomas Jr. | EDGE | Probably

KSR Game of the Week heading to NKY

The KSR Game of the Week is headed to northern Kentucky for the third primetime showdown of the 2024 high school football season. After making stops in Bowling Green and Lexington for the first two weeks, respectively, we’re headed just shy of the southern Ohio border to check out a Top 15 matchup.

This Friday, we’ll get a taste of the No. 8 Cooper Jaguars (2-0) and the No. 13 Ryle Raiders (2-0). Cooper will serve as the host with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST. Both schools have dominated through the opening two weeks of the season — Cooper winning by a combined total of 83-6 and Ryle by a combined total of 76-22.

We should be in for a good one under the lights tomorrow night. Even the Massey Ratings can’t decide on an obvious favorite. The computerized system predicts a close 28-27 win for Cooper. KSR will make the trip to Cooper to check out the likes of Austin Alexander, Cam O’Hara, Jacob Savage, Dillon Smith, and more.

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Show Me Your Tents is BACK

And the first episode of 2024 was hilarious. Shoutout to our friends at Country Boy for helping make it happen, too.

KSR’s Drew Franklin traveled around the outskirts of Kroger Field ahead of the season-opening win against Southern Miss to hear from fans and let them show off their tailgating setups. There were plenty of impressive tailgates (my favorite is the one that makes noises as people go by as if they’re in a TV show) and even more drunk college kids screaming into a microphone (or megaphone, apparently?).

2024 NFL season begins TONIGHT

I hope you’ve got your Fantasy teams drafted and ready to rock — NFL football returns tonight. The Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs will kick off the 2024 season at 8:20 p.m. EST on NBC/Peacock. The only former Wildcat involved is quarterback Devin Leary, who was drafted by the Ravens earlier this year but is not listed on the team’s depth chart.

We’ll then see one more NFL game take place on Friday night (Packers @ Eagles) before a full slate of games officially gets the season rolling on Sunday. There are eight Sunday games with a 1:00 p.m. EST kickoff time. Football is fully here.

Women’s Soccer looks to stay undefeated

For the first time since 2012, Kentucky women’s soccer is 5-0-0 to start the season. They’ll look to keep the winning streak going tonight when Murray State (3-2-1) comes to the Bell Soccer Complex. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. EST on the SEC Network+. Kentucky is coming off its first road win of the season, a 2-1 victory last weekend over Illinois.

Beating Murray State would push the Wildcats to 6-0-0, which hasn’t been done since the 2011 season. Current head coach Troy Fabiano has yet to win six straight games with Kentucky. UK ranks Top 10 in the entire country in shots per game at 22. Something special could be brewing with this group.