Mark Stoops previews Saturday's Spring Showcase with Randall Cobb

by:Drew Franklin•about 22 hours•

DrewFranklinKSR

stoops-spring-showcase — (Photo by Dr. Michael Huang/KSR)

Kentucky Football‘s Spring Showcase will open Kroger Field to the Big Blue Nation on Saturday morning for a behind-the-scenes look at the end of spring ball. Kroger Field’s gates open at 9 a.m. to anyone interested in watching the Wildcats’ last practice of the spring session. It’s not the traditional spring game of years past, but Mark Stoops still extended a practice invite to the public for a look at his 2025 team.

Stoops sat down to preview the Spring Showcase with Randall Cobb, part of an interview series with Cobb over at UK’s training facility. Stoops told the former Wildcat great, “I’m just excited. I wanted to open the doors and let our great fan base come watch us, let the media come watch, see what the things we’ve been talking about throughout the spring, and really just showcase our players.”

Stoops called Saturday’s event an abbreviated practice with a scrimmage. “Just a practice,” Stoops said. “We’ll do some things. We’ll segment it to make sure we get a little bit of work one more time, because we need the work. But then we’ll put the ball down, and we’ll scrimmage.”

Staying healthy

The injury bug bit Kentucky last season, which led to a format change from the annual Blue-White Game. Kentucky was down eight defensive linemen at this time last year, so Stoops is cautious with the roster in the 2025 spring finale.

“We’ll probably do some thud,” he explained. “You know, we’ve been doing good with injuries this year-knock on wood. Last spring. you know, I felt like, you know, with the injuries that we came out of spring practice, it set us back for the year.

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“Fortunately, this year, to this point, we’ve been successful at keeping guys healthy. But I wanted to open it up and show the fans, show the media, you know, what we have, and just go have some fun, play some football, and use that opportunity to get better.”

With so many new faces on the roster, many coming from high school and a lower level of college football, Stoops hopes the Saturday Showcase will give the newcomers some early experience in front of a crowd in Lexington.

“There’s some players that need to get out there in front of some fans, and have that feeling of what it’s like to play in an SEC stadium, and just to get a little little feel of that. And, you know, so we’ll go out there and have some fun and try to get some work done and hopefully stay healthy for that last practice.”