KSR Today: Moving on from a tough loss…

Good morning, folks! Unfortunately, we have to start our day talking about what happened at Kroger Field yesterday. Just two games into the 2024 schedule, Kentucky’s season came to a screeching halt. The Wildcats were essentially in a must-win situation with South Carolina coming to town — a South Carolina team that had just struggled with Old Dominion the week prior.

But it was a slaughtering from start to finish. The Gamecocks embarrassed the Wildcats on national TV, dominating in all facets of the game to come away with a 31-6 win. The boobirds were raining down by the third quarter and plenty of fans made an early exit. The stats tell the entire story. I won’t go through all of them, but I will highlight some that stand out.

Like how Brock Vandagriff finished just 3-10 throwing the ball for 30 yards, including a pick-6 to start the fourth quarter. Like how Barion Brown failed to record a catch for the first time in his college career (27 games played). Like how Kentucky totaled just 183 yards on offense (Old Dominion ran up 305 last week). Or like how a 25-point loss was the worst ever against South Carolina.

Nothing went right for the Wildcats. Fans were depressed, not angry. The offensive line was whipped, limiting Vandagriff’s ability to make plays. The defense did a lot of breaking. There were some signs of positivity in the run game ( Demie Sumo-Karngbaye is legitimately good), but that’s about all we can pull from this one. No. 1 Georgia comes to town next weekend. The schedule was already a daunting task — it feels nearly impossible now.

Let’s all spend the rest of the day grieving before officially moving on by Monday. Let’s just hope that your favorite NFL team doesn’t see a similar fate today. If you’re up for it, we’ve got plenty of postgame content from last night’s ugly loss that you can read/watch below.

• Kentucky Offense Lays Egg in 31-6 Loss to South Carolina
• Kentucky’s 31-6 loss was one of the biggest letdowns of the Mark Stoops era
• Stoops: Kentucky Failed to Respond in “Ridiculously Embarrassing” Performance
• Bush Hamdan, Stoops Weigh In On What Went Wrong with the Offense
• Kentucky offensive line must improve ‘detail and focus’ to win SEC football games
• Brock Vandagriff vows to improve following performance vs. South Carolina
• South Carolina beats Kentucky soundly in all phases to record stunning blowout win
• Numbers and stats from Kentucky’s ugly loss to South Carolina

KSR Rapid Reaction

Mark Stoops: postgame press conference

More postgame press conferences

The NFL is BACK!

And it couldn’t be better timing for the Big Blue Nation. We can drown our sorrows by sitting on the couch all day and watching the first Sunday of the 2024 NFL regular season. A total of 18 former Kentucky players made the final rosters going into Week 1 — 16 of them will suit up today or for Monday Night Football (the other two already played this week).

Mark Pope joined the SEC Nation set

And he was rocking a very appropriate shirt.

During SEC Nation on Saturday morning, Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope joined the set to chat with Marty McGee while wearing a shirt that said: “KY ’til I die” . Now where did we hear that recently?

“We had a fun week. It’s the Kentucky way,” Pope told McGee. “We’re really fortunate. Right now we’re recruiting guys who understand Kentucky and want to wear this jersey and know what KY ’til I die means and it’s pretty cool man. I love it.”

Save us, Pope.

MASSIVE match on deck for Kentucky women’s soccer

How about some good news in the UK Athletics world? The Kentucky women’s soccer team is off to a 6-0-0 start for the first time since 2011 and just the third time in program history. Up next? A home matchup against No. 9 UCLA (5-1-1) this afternoon at the Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington.

Kentucky has an excellent opportunity to steal a Top 10 win and capitalize even further on a great start to the season. It should help the Wildcats’ chances that UCLA is missing four players due to the ongoing FIFA U-20 World Cup. Fans are encouraged to wear white for the match and students can get in free with a UK ID.

Kickoff is set for noon EST and will be televised on ESPNU.

Kentucky volleyball also in action

The Volleyball ‘Cats got off to a rough start this weekend after giving up a 2-0 set lead to No. 7 Penn State on Friday at home before ultimately losing 3-2. No. 9 Kentucky (4-2) bounced back on Saturday though, sweeping James Madison 3-0. They’ll be back in action again this afternoon to host Ball State for the third and final day of the 2024 Kentucky Invitational.

Today’s match against Ball State will begin at 2:00 p.m. EST inside Memorial Coliseum. It will be broadcast on the SEC Network+.

Jamal Murray got PAID

Jamal Murray , a 2023 NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets, has agreed to a four-year, $208 million contract extension to stay in Denver alongside three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. The extension keeps him with the Nuggets through the 2028-29 season. His current contract length is now a total of five years for $244 million.

The 27-year-old Murray didn’t exactly have the season fans expected in 2023-24 with Denver, and that continued into the Paris Olympics as a member of Team Canada. That being said, he still averaged 21.2 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.1 rebounds in 31.5 minutes per game for the Nuggets. He’s about to enter the prime of his basketball career and has established incredible chemistry with the best player in the world.

It was always a matter of when this extension was coming for Murray, not if.

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