Stoops thanks fans again, calls on them to bring it vs. South Carolina: "We need this place electric"

The Big Blue Nation did not let Mother Nature ruin Kentucky’s season-opener vs. Southern Miss. Despite lightning postponing the start of the game by two hours and ending it five minutes into the third quarter, fans turned Kroger Field into party central, earning a sincere postgame thank you from Mark Stoops. Today, Stoops thanked fans once again and called upon them to bring that energy and more to Saturday’s game vs. South Carolina.

“Once again, I have to acknowledge the fans,” Stoops said at his weekly press conference. “It was incredible. What a great atmosphere to hang around and wait for us for two hours plus, and then give us a lot of inspiration coming out. I understand the Cat Walk out here, which we weren’t able to do, was completely jammed, and so hopefully we’ll get to do that here this week. So I call them to to show up again.”

The Gamecocks are also 1-0 but struggled in their season opener, only beating Old Dominion 23-19. Old Dominion actually led 19-16 with less than ten minutes to go but fumbled the ball inside its own 10-yard line with 6:48 to go, setting South Carolina up for the game-winning touchdown. Kentucky is a 10-point favorite in Saturday’s game, but Stoops knows Shane Beamer’s squad, which has won the last two in the series, will bring its best to Lexington.

“South Carolina is the team that we always seem to have good games with through my many years here. Always a very good game, always evenly matched. We’re looking forward to that challenge and call on that home crowd to once again, show up like they did last week and make a difference. We greatly appreciate them.”

Saturday’s game has huge stakes for the rest of the season. South Carolina is one of the weaker SEC teams on the schedule; drop a third straight to the Gamecocks and the Cats don’t have much margin for error the rest of the way. Take care of business and you keep the season on track and build momentum for a huge game vs. No. 1 Georgia. Fans can play a part in that, which is why Stoops circled back to BBN at the end of today’s press conference.

“Again, thanks for the support last week. I thought it was incredible. Our facilities people who worked so many hours all day, just to thank them and the fans for sticking it out and staying with us. It was truly amazing. Great atmosphere, a great situation, and we need it again.

“I call on them this week. We start league play, and we need this place electric and I promise you, our team is going to work hard, and we’ll be prepared and ready to tee it off.”

SEC Nation coming to Lexington

It will be a busy weekend in Lexington. SEC Nation is coming to town for the Cats vs. the Gamecocks, which means three SEC Network shows will be live from Lexington over Friday and Saturday. The Paul Finebaum Show kicks things off on Friday from 3-7 p.m.ET. Marty & McGee will be live Saturday morning from 9-10 a.m. followed by SEC Nation with Laura Rutledge, Finebaum, Roman Harper, Jordan Rogers, and Tim Tebow from 10 a.m. to noon. All three shows will be set up in the Orange Lot near E.S. Good Barn.

On Friday, the Orange Lot will be off parking pass patrol starting at 1 p.m. ET to allow fans to park without a valid permit. On Saturday, fans are encouraged to park in their permit lot before coming to the show. Those without a gameday parking permit can use one of the lots listed here.

Saturday’s game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC, the first of back-to-back weekends the Cats will be featured on the network. Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy, and Molly McGrath will be on the call.