KSR Today: Mark Stoops speaks, fresh availability report, and Jaxson Robinson keeping receipts
Good morning, folks! We’re two more sleeps away from Kentucky football hosting the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs in Kroger Field under the lights. This obviously isn’t the situation we were hoping for this time last week, but there’s no point in dwelling on the past any longer. It’s time to regroup, recover, and attack the next opponent.
Yesterday, a handful of Wildcats gave us their thoughts on the Georgia matchup. Defensive coordinator Brad White was joined by LB Jamon Dumas-Johnson, LB D’Eryk Jackson, and QB Brock Vandagriff to talk about this week of practice, what they expect from the Bulldogs, and much more. This afternoon, we’ll hear from the head coach himself as Mark Stoops speaks to the media publicly for the final time before kickoff on Saturday.
Kentucky-Georgia will start at 7:30 p.m. EST on ABC. The Bulldogs remain an overwhelming favorite, with FanDuel tabbing Georgia as a 24.5-point favorite as of this morning. Jump into yesterday’s press conference videos below before we dive into the rest of this morning’s news and notes.
Updated availability report
Our first “availability report” of the week came out on Wednesday night. We’ll see another update released tonight. Kentucky has 13 players on the most recent report, including OL Jager Burton and RB Jason Patterson as new additions. They’re listed as doubtful. OL Gerald Mincey, OL Keeshawn Silver, and DB Maxwell Hairston — all starters — are listed as probable, but are on track to play against Georgia.
- 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
- Devin Smith | LB | Out
- Jager Burton | LG | Doubtful
- Jason Patterson | RB | Doubtful
- Brandon White | WR | Questionable
- Keeshawn Silver | DL | Probable
- Gerald Mincey | OT | Probable
- Maxwell Hairston | CB | Probable
Speaking of the Bulldogs, head coach Kirby Smart only listed six players on his team’s report, although two are starters on the defensive line.
- Roderick Robinson II | RB | Out
- Mykel Williams | DL | Doubtful
- Jordan Hall | DL | Questionable
- Xzavier McLeod | DL | Questionable
- Warren Brinson | DL | Questionable
Fresh episode of 11 Personnel in your feed
Top-ranked Georgia is coming to town whether we like it or not. You might as well be as prepared as possible for what might go down at Kroger Field in a couple of days. The best way to do that? Listening to KSR’s Nick Roush and Adam Luckett dissect this matchup from top to bottom in the latest episode of 11 Personnel.
The guys talk about the state of Kentucky’s offense, where the offensive line goes from here, third down defense, how to slow down the Bulldogs, and plenty more. You can watch the full episode below on YouTube, or find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Pope offers Trevor Ariza’s son
I don’t consider myself “old” by any means, but seeing Kentucky offer the son of Trevor Ariza, Tajh, on Wednesday was definitely a “woah” moment for me. I have vivid memories of Trevor playing next to Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers and then next to James Harden on the Houston Rockets. He was a true blue 3-and-D wing — not just the idea of one like we try to label a lot of players, he actually was one.
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Will his son follow in those footsteps? Tajh Ariza is certainly on his way. At 6-foot-7, he’s ranked as the No. 6 overall prospect from the 2026 recruiting class. Playing high school ball out in California, he’s being recruited primarily by assistant coach Jason Hart, who has strong West Coast ties.
Ariza joins the likes of Brandon McCoy, Tyran Stokes, Caleb Holt, Jason Crowe Jr., Miikka Muurinen, and Tay Kinney to receive early offers from Kentucky in the 2026 class.
5-star PF Caleb Wilson OVs this weekend
6-foot-9 five-star power forward Caleb Wilson will take his official visit to Kentucky beginning on Friday and continuing through Sunday. The Wildcats will undoubtedly roll out the red carpet for the nation’s No. 4 overall 2025 recruit. He’ll likely pop into Kroger Field for a bit to check out the gameday environment too (maybe only bring him for the first half though, Pope).
Wilson is down to a group of 12 finalists: Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon, Tennessee, Central Florida, and Southern California. He’s already taken a pair of official visits to Auburn and North Carolina with upcoming trips to Central Florida and Alabama. He previously visited UK under the old coaching staff, so he’s not unfamiliar with Lexington, but the vibes with the men’s basketball program now compared to then will certainly be different.
Jaxson Robinson is keeping receipts
Graduate student Jaxson Robinson was the prize commitment of the offseason for Kentucky and Pope. After playing the last two seasons at BYU (where he won Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year in 2023-24) and turning down the NBA for a chance to play under Pope again, he’s going into 2024-25 with high expectations.
Over at NCAA.com, analyst Andy Katz ranked his top 16 “wing” players with Robinson coming in at No. 10. Robinson apparently took exception with that spot, going on social media to call out the disrespect, saying that he’s “keeping receipts”. The 6-foot-7 wing averaged 14.2 points per game on shooting splits of 42.6/35.4/90.8 last season.
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