KSR Today, powered by Lextran: One. More. Day. Until Kentucky Football

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One more day of work. One more restless night of sleep.

Because in less than 24 hours, we get up with the sun for the first Kentucky Football Saturday of 2021 and the first full-speed game day experience in almost two years. Tailgating is back and so is most of last year’s roster for the season opener against ULM, and kickoff is a day away.

Wan’Dale, hit the countdown clock…

1️⃣

— Wan’Dale Robinson (@wanda1erobinson) September 3, 2021

Let’s talk football on this Friday morning.

Mark Stoops’ Post-Walkthrough Q&A

Mark Stoops invited the Josh Moores and the Jon Hales and the Jeff Drummonds through the gates of Kentucky Football’s Practice Facility to take one last round of questions before Saturday’s game. Speaking after Kentucky’s final walkthrough Thursday evening, a relaxed Stoops spoke confidently about the road ahead for his experience Cats.

When asked about ULM head coach Terry Bowden downplaying the Warhawks’ chances, Stoops replied, “It doesn’t matter to me. We’re going to be prepared. It doesn’t mean we’re going to be perfect. I’m sure we’ll make mistakes in this game, but we’re going to make them going fast.”

Hear all of Stoops’ Thursday comments:

Kentucky Football named eight captains

Congratulations to returning captains Josh Paschal, Josh Ali, Yusuf Corker, DeAndre Square, and first-time captains Luke Fortner, Marquan McCall, Will Levis, and Chris Rodriguez.

Paschal is a captain for a third straight season. Stoops said, “He truly empties his tank every day. If there’s any one thing it’s that there’s time where it’s rehab and he needs to slow down.

“I better keep my eye on him between now and Saturday to make sure he doesn’t get some extra workouts in. That’s just how he is. He’s an amazing human being. He really is.”

Let’s check on that Kentucky-ULM spread

Kentucky -31.0
Over/Under: 54 points

Gamble responsibly, friends. (But define responsibly however you’d like.)

Thursday College Football was fun

Tennessee 38, Bowling Green 6: Don’t let the score fool you. Tennessee looked bad. A 35-point home favorite in Knoxville, the Vols jumped out on Bowling Green (ranked 130th of 130 college football teams) early but if you looked closely Tennessee didn’t look like a team to worry about in 2020. It was a one-possession game at halftime and the cover was fumbled away in the fourth quarter.

(4) Ohio State 45, Minnesota 31: The Buckeyes got a scare against Kentucky native Tanner Morgan and the Minnesota Gophers. A product of Hazard, KY, Morgan threw for 200 yards and a touchdown against our nation’s fourth-ranked team. He was helped out by Mohamed Ibrahim in the run game, but Ohio State was still too much in the end.

New Mexico 27, Houston Baptist 17: Former starting UK quarterback Terry Wilson (second on UK’s all-time wins list, I’ll add) made his New Mexico debut with three touchdown passes in the first half. Watch Wilson sling it in his new uniform.

UCF 36, Boise State 31: Joey Gatewood’s new team needed a second-half comeback to beat Boise State after a rain delay pushed the game on into the night. Eventually, new head coach Gus Malzahn from Auburn coached UCF back to victory against the program Auburn raided to replace him with Bryan Harsin. Harsin was replaced by longtime Boise assistant Andy Avalos, who is now 0-1.

I thought Gatewood might get a shot after this throw:

Put in Gatewood pic.twitter.com/tJuaAjy9lX

— Drew Franklin (@DrewFranklinKSR) September 3, 2021

What games are on tonight?

Great question. These are the two big ones on the Friday night ESPN doubleheader.

(10) North Carolina @ Virginia Tech | ESPN | 6:00 p.m.
Michigan State @ Northwestern | ESPN | 9:00 p.m.

(Probably going to take UNC to cover the 5.5 points. My season-long picks will be on the Action app.)

Rate Mitch Barnhart’s interview with KSR, 1-10.

I’ll go first. I give it a 1.7.

UK’s athletic director came off as defensive and out of touch with his school’s fan base in the 30-minute interview with Matt Jones on yesterday’s KSR radio show. There was a lot of talking with very little answers in the rare Barnhart public interview. Months to prepare for questions everyone knew was coming, and he bombed.

— Barnhart says Kansas trip threw off UK’s non-conference schedule
— How and when Kentucky will improve indoor football facility
— Mitch Barnhart says UK wasn’t ready to address public alcohol sales
— Mitch Barnhart says Kentucky has over 200 NIL deals currently in place

Vince Marrow is back on the recruiting trail

The Big Dog is excited to get his tight ends involved in Kentucky’s new offense tomorrow, but first he has some ‘crootin to do. Marrow tweeted Friday morning that he is back on the road for the first time in a long time as the September calendar opens up for the evaluation period for college coaches.

Good morning BBN it’s the Big Dog first day out on the road it’s been a year since I been out because of Covid restriction. It’s time to go hunt and find some future Cat’s. Go Big Blue.

@vincemarrow

Also back out on the road today for the first time since COVID…

KSR is at Kentucky Branded today.

Live remotes are back! Today the Kentucky Sports Radio radio show is at Kentucky Branded in Lexington after almost 18 months without a live remote broadcast, going back to the SEC Tournament send-off show in March 2020.

Matt Jones, Ryan Lemond, Shannon The Dude, and I are at the Kentucky Branded location by Fayette Mall (3801 Mall Rd) for Big Blue Friday with Buy One, Get One t-shirts; 20% off your entire purchase; and giveaways every 30 minutes during the show.

We hope to see you there; if not, tune in via the radio wherever you are from 10 a.m. to noon.

Go Cats.