KSR Today: Kentucky Football's Must-Win Week 7; Hello, Kentucky Basketball

Good morning and Happy Monday, Big Blue Nation. How are we feeling after the 24-hour cool-down period to process Saturday’s loss? Still not good? I get it. Same here. That loss was one of the worst we’ve seen out of Kentucky Football in a while and now the “don’t let one loss turn into two” conversation is a “don’t let two turn into three.” The dream season is suddenly in a spiral after back-to-back losing efforts and there’s a tough matchup ahead in Week 7 in the Pirate’s Mississippi State.

Let’s start the process of getting ready for that one while welcoming Kentucky Basketball back into our lives.

Mark Stoops will do more explaining at noon

Coming up at noon today, Mark Stoops will host his regular Monday press conference to further explain what happened against South Carolina on Saturday. Stoops has now seen the tape and experienced his own 24-hour cool-down and soon we will hear more about what went wrong against the Gamecocks and how to get back in the win column this coming Saturday versus Mississippi State.

KSR is no longer allowed to live stream press conferences, which is stupid, but we will still cover Stoops’ comments from all angles. The high-definition video of the conversation will be available across all of KSR’s platforms moments after it ends, so check back here around 12:30 to watch.

The new depth chart may reveal injury updates (but probably not)

Before Stoops takes questions at noon, a new depth chart will be released to reveal the updated two-deep rotation at each position heading into Week 7 of the season. Players to watch include Will Levis, obviously, as well as the latest on Jeremy Flax, Jacquez Jones, and Kavosiey Smoke, who were all absent versus South Carolina, plus anything to report from the banged-up wide receiver room, namely Tayvion Robinson, Dane Key, and Barion Brown.

Regarding Levis and his playing status, on Saturday, Stoops replied, “I’m not sure. I mean, I really don’t — It’s day-to-day. It’s been day-to-day and it’s day-to-day. So I can’t tell you how that’s gonna respond.”

Stoops didn’t have much to say about any other injuries as we get closer and closer to “haven’t seen him” injury reports out of the football program.

The Cats dropped to No. 22 in both polls

Despite the back-to-back losses, Kentucky remained a top-25 team in the eyes of the Associated Press and the coaches. Both polls were updated on Sunday to show Kentucky at No. 22, a nine-spot slide from No. 13 in the AP one week prior.

Mississippi State moved up to No. 16 in the AP and No. 17 in the AFCA Coaches Poll.

Kentucky is a home ‘dog versus the Bulldogs

What a difference a couple of games make. Not even 10 days ago, Kentucky was the seventh-ranked team in America and staring down a stretch of three winnable SEC games in Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Mississippi State. Now two of those games are in the past—both of them losses—and Mississippi State is currently a 6.5-point road favorite ahead of its trip to Lexington.

According to our friends at VegasInsider.com, the line was briefly available Sunday afternoon at 1.5 points on FanDuel, but now it is 6.5 at most gambling sites and sportsbooks.

The total is 47.5.

Watch the KSR Football Podcast tonight on YouTube

While you and your family gather around the dinner table tonight, politely tell them you want to watch the new taping of the KSR Football Podcast as a family. It starts at 7 PM on KSR’s YouTube channel and we will spend about an hour venting about all that went wrong Saturday and what it means for the rest of the season.

Nick Roush, Freddie Maggard, Adam Luckett, and I will take your questions in real-time, too. It’ll be like group therapy.

Kentucky Basketball held a private Pro Day

On Sunday, Kentucky Basketball held its annual Pro Day for the players to measure and audition in front of NBA personnel. This year, however, Pro Day was a private, invitation-only event for scouts and media, not the traditional ESPN production that fans have seen for the last several years.

Luckily, KSR’s own Jack Pilgrim was allowed in the building to witness the Pro Day festivities and he has a thorough recap of everything he saw at the Joe Craft Center. If you’re interested, read KSR’s Takeaways from Kentucky MBB Pro Day to get a grasp of how it all went down behind closed doors; although, it would’ve been a lot cooler if everyone else got to see it, too.

The social media highlights are nice but not enough.

Here’s the chart of measurements.

Big Blue Madness is this Friday

Later this week, Kentucky Basketball really ramps up with Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena on Friday night. Tickets are no longer available but you can still tune into SEC Network at 7 PM to watch The Greatest Spectacle In College Basketball Practice and the unofficial start to a new season for the Wildcats.

Until then, we have football struggles to address and a must-win game to preview.